Madonna Wants To Change The Way We Talk About Women & Ageing
Refinery29 sat down with Madonna to talk about skin care, reinvention, and that one phrase she can’t stand.
A sea of fans, with their phones held high in the air, filled the cosmetics floor of Barneys in Beverly Hills on Tuesday night, all waiting to catch a quick glimpse of the biggest icon in pop music history. Dressed in a sequinned, art deco-inspired black dress and hair set in old Hollywood waves, it took me a second to notice Madonna‘s diamond grill, black-tipped nude manicure, or the artfully-jumbled slew of chains dangling from her neck. Fifteen minutes, a few selfies, and the anointing of one fan with her Rose Mist spray later, and the queen was back in the elevator.
Refinery 29’s Lexy Lebsack was able to catch a few minutes with Madonna on her way out of the building promoting her MDNA skin-care line and she filled me in on the unexpected beauty treatment she swears by (besides masking her bum), the phrase she’s sick of hearing, and what reinvention means to her. Check it out:
On The Weirdest Beauty Treatment She Loves
I could tell you some weird stories, but they aren’t connected to beauty — and we don’t have that much time! [Laughs] I’d say honey — not Manuka honey, just regular honey. You put it on your face and let it get really sticky, then you do this thing with your fingertips to pull the skin up, which [temporarily] plumps the skin.
On Ageing — & The Term She Hates
We need to stop talking about ageing like it’s something negative and, actually, I don’t like the word ‘anti-ageing.’ Why can’t we just be the age that we are and look amazing all of the time? We can, if we take care of ourselves inside and out.
On Her Everyday Beauty Routine
Sometimes I can’t travel with all this stuff or I don’t have a lot of time, so the Reinvention Cream [launching in April] is my all-in-one; I use it on my legs, my arms, knees, stomach, and butt.
I use the Rose Mist in my hair if [it] feels too dry or frizzy. I use The Serum on my knees. I squeeze the extra moisture from The Eye Masks on my elbows. The Reinvention Cream all over my body, and the Chrome Clay Mask on my butt.
On Her Favorite Reinvention
My most meaningful reinvention was becoming a mother and all the work that I do in Africa. The important ingredient in this cream comes from the resurrection plant, which is primarily found in Sub-Saharan Africa. This plant reminds me of me: I can go forever and ever without getting any moisture, any water, and any love, and all of a sudden you sprinkle a few drops and it blossoms and opens up and flowers, and then if it doesn’t get moisture it kind of goes back inside itself and hibernates. It keeps coming back and reinventing itself, so we extracted the stem cells and put it in this cream.
On What Really Drives Her
To thy own self be true – sorry to quote Shakespeare, but if you look at the world and the people who’ve accomplished a lot of things in their life, who have broken the mould and changed history: It’s never the people who fit in, never the people who took the road everyone took. Resistance that you get from people, not fitting in, that builds your character. You should consider not fitting in a blessing!
