True story: Madonna has launched a new skincare line called MDNA Skin. These are photos from one of the launch events at Barneys in New York. Just know that I feel like a complete bitch as I write this, but OMG HER FACE. I respect Madonna. I respect the work that she’s done in this world and I respect her as an artist. I just wish she would respect herself, because this is the face of a woman with a massive amount of insecurity about aging. It’s not even about aging though, is it? It’s about something else entirely – she’s 59 years old and this is how she WANTS to look. So no, I’m not really interested in buying skincare stuff from Madonna. But in case you are into it, here are some highlights from an interview she did with People Mag to promote the line:
Her style evolution: “There were many years where I wasn’t interested in having eyebrows. There were many years where I wasn’t interested in wearing bows. But my skin was always exposed so even in my sex book, I didn’t have a real tan — I had François Nars painting on a tan everywhere.”
She always cared about skincare, even when she was broke: “I remember when I lived on the Lower East Side and I really didn’t have much cash and there was a salon on 7th street between first and second avenue and there was a girl in the back — and I know this is weird — but she was a heroin addict, and she gave amazing facials and I would go to her and we would somehow do trades. Skin was very important to me, and I always took care of my skin even at a young age.”
Why she started this line: “I got really tired and fed up of years and years of performing, being onstage, being filmed, being photographed and always having to grab one product and then another one, and then another one. And as soon as I liked a product it was discontinued. It always happens to me. When I liked a product they stopped making it. So that was really the germ of what started this whole process of why I wanted to create skin care.”
You can use the mask on your butt: “I have used the clay mask on my butt. Don’t you want soft skin on your butt? I mean don’t a lot of people look at your butt? Your butt has an audience. At least one! Maybe you can ask your significant other to remove it for you. What do you think?”
Sure, Madge. I always wonder about these celebrity skincare/beauty lines… do you really think the celebrities use their own lines? I think Rihanna uses Fenty Beauty. I don’t think Gwyneth uses her Goop makeup line. I don’t think Victoria Beckham uses her skincare line either. And no, I don’t believe Madonna uses MDNA Skin. I think she pays people thousands of dollars a month to have craziness injected into her face and onto her skin.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid.
With her dress, she looks like a refined Courtney Love mixed with Gillian Anderson.
All of the above mixed with a cocktail waitress and a cheesy dive.
Waitress, yes.
I thought she was going for French maid.
same.
But with far less talent than either of them.
I was never into Madonna. For me, she will always be a product, female MJ. Whitney and Mariah and Lauper and Bonnie Tyler are the real deal. Loved Paula Abdul dancing and Janet had several amazing songs.
I had the pleasure of seeing Paula, Janet and Madonna in concert the same year. Madonna puts on a show and it’s worth the bucks. The music arrangements as well as the choreography change every tour. Love me some Janet but the dancing hasn’t been the same since “The Velvet Rope Tour”
Is it my imagination or has she put on a bit of weight? She looks better for it!
nope…cheek implants
Yeah, I noticed that too. Her arms. She’s let them look normals-time. As opposed to the cray cray gnarly-ville she’s been sporting the last few years.
And yes, I too feel horrible for typing this. But god. Her face *averts eyes*
Her arms are not what I expected.she looks normal( apart from the mad cheek and lip thing)
I noticed her arms too, mainly because they looked like my arms and I’m almost 70. Not really a good look. Sleeves on dress hit her arms at bad angle. Really surprised at those pictures because they are not flattering and I believe she looks a lot better than that.
I will not be using her skin line :).
It’s all the filler in her face, she’s puffy and you can see how the filler is giving her a ‘caved in’ look under her eyes. You have to be really careful with filler, it can’t change the structure underneath and if you overdo it you can end up with an ‘allergic’ reaction that leads to permanent puffiness/droopiness-check out Lara Flynn Boyle–puffy, stroke victim face/anorexic body.
When I was young I thought she was such a badass. Why is she so terrified of growing old? Where are her real friends, her siblings? She seems desperately lonely and to be clinging to her children for emotional support. Is she completely unable to have a vision of herself that isn’t ‘young sexpot?’ Who is this woman?
I loved her when I was young too, and would never have guessed someone who seemed that strong and confident would be so scared of aging naturally.
Bad relationships can *F* with people’s sense of themselves. That’s my first thought when I ask myself that question. // Cue to an image of Ritchie with his second wife.
She has and she probably hates it. In some of her interviews she flat out said (about aging) that she doesn’t want to stop (performing) and she abhors the thought of sitting on a couch resting on her laurels ‘getting fat’. It’s hilarious and sad at the same time.
Even Cher who is much taller and naturally slimmer is struggling to maintain a slim frame. Madonna is tinier and she’s losing her muscle tone (her arms and thighs are significantly thicker and less toned than they used to be) despite still training over 3 hours per day.
She likes muscle, she wouldn’t have had so much muscle for most of her life if she didn’t.
For all her plastic surgery and fillers, I do feel sad for her because she trains and eats like an athlete at their peak. She loves it but aging will make it hard for her to have that serious muscle tone like she still had during the MDNA tour. The difference is jarring and it’s only 4 years ago!
Her face is another story, her videos on Insta are always blurry and when she speaks it’s obvious her facial work prevents her from speaking properly. I sometimes think she’s wearing a grill but nope, her speech is a bit impaired now due to all the pulling. I would not buy beauty products from her for that reason alone, you have to be a bit honest with yourself and your audience to sell something successfully.
She definitely has and that’s generally what happens to us as we age.
My arms are genetically “ripped”, and I only work out moderately. But as I’ve aged, I now have the dimples and loose biceps area skin. But for me, that’s not my source of self-esteem and I can observe and let it go. Madge needs to let it go- I imagine this is a huge challenge.
WTF with the gloves?!? I know she’s been wearing them for years, but it looks weird.
Her hands look 59 even if her face doesn’t. That’s why she wears gloves.
It’s to cover her aging hands. Dead give away. You can pull your face like a drum, but ands don’t lie. Even with fat pumped in, them never look really “young” again.
You can’t inject collagen into hands, nor can you have plastic surgery on them to “refresh” them. They’re an obvious indicator of aging (Nicole Kidman was complaining about this last week) which cannot be denied – hence, the gloves. Madge actually thinks this fools everyone.
2017 Madonna pretty much looks like a caricature of 1980 Madonna.
YES EXACTLY
Ditto.
I like her style, and honestly, her face seems to settle nicely in-between procedures. This is unfortunate timing w the launch of “skin care” :0
I’ve been using products that I didn’t like for my face on my buttcheeks for years now. She’s right.
I use them on my hands, elbows, knees and feet. Use baby oil and coconut oil on my butt.
Redonkulous.
EXPECTO PATRONUM
Snort.
Hah !
@word WORD!
Does this bit:
“…but she was a heroin addict, and she gave amazing facials and I would go to her and we would somehow do trades.”
mean what I think it means (drugs for facials?) or am I in need of some more coffee and re-read later?
Yeah, i was stumped by that one too… what was the trade exactly, Madge?
So so so tired of how Madonna trots out tales about when she was young and down and out on the gritty mean streets of the big apple…
Really? Those stories, from her and the crew she was buddies with, are awesome. RIP Basquiat.
I’m so glad that I wasn’t the only one who was a bit taken aback by that.
I’m guessing best case scenario is she traded her spa services for anything that she could sell/trade for heroin.
Maybe M thinks that sharing this story makes her seem more relatable to everyday women..?
Yeah I wondered that too, in the way she said it, it sounds like she gave this woman drugs in exchange for her salon services.
I was scrolling to see if anyone mentioned this! To me that reads she traded heroin for facials.
That’s what it sounded like to me, too. But would she admit something like that? There must have been some reason she mentioned the woman was a heroin addict. But maybe it’s more innocent and she just meant the woman was willing to trade for items she could sell.
Nothing, probably. She just wants to sound “edgy” and show that she had street creds.
I hope so. It sounds like the try hard thing she’d say lately.
I don’t know. When I think of celebrities with great skin, I’d never think of Madonna.
Exactly! There’s a dissonance about her image and the product she wants to sell. If this was Sandra Bullock, Hale Berry or Julianne Moore I would totally see it differently. Yeah, they probably do stuff, but they do it so well it doesn’t show. Madonna’s face is the opposite of that.
This is what I don’t understand. She’s drowning in money. Wouldn’t she be able to afford the best? Or is the technology/skill level too primitive still for such procedures?
Yeaaaah this is not the face I’d trust my skin with.
She looks hardcore like a Real Housewife of New Jersey.
or Staten Island
Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but it doesn’t go with the line she is pushing
her face is not the best spokesmodel for a skincare line. she is scary looking
Yikes! Hoping I age gracefully if I’m lucky enough to make it to my 60s…I get getting slight tweaks but to jack up your face so horribly?? She does look like a caricature of herself…a cartoon gone wrong
Probably best to focus on eating and exercising in ways that will help keep your skin healthy and as elastic as possible, and learn not to fear wrinkles. Really, they don’t look awful. Look around you at people who have never gone in for such things. The kindly ones at least really are not unpleasant to look at!
Also be careful what you put on on your skin. I find it hard to believe that coating your skin routinely with cosmetics is the best thing for it. But I’ve never used them, so consider the source.
Anyone else want to know more about what she meant when she said she did “trades” with the heroin addicted aesthetician?! Tell me she didn’t give her drugs for facials. WTF is she talking about here?
I think that is exactly what she meant. And who knows what she traded in kind to *procure* the H?
beckham may use her own skincare. i’d more easily believe she uses her own makeup though, it’s amazing quality and packaged expensively.
“.. and I always took care of my skin even at a young age.”
Wait, what?
Wasn’t / Isn’t she a long time smoker?
No.
I remember her flipping out (according to gossip mags) when they published a picture of 16-year-old Lourdes puffing on a cigarette outside her school. She’s very much against smoking.
I was wondering the same thing. She has the skin of a smoker so I find it odd that she’s so against it.
She was never a smoker. She smoked for the cameras on a few occasions.
Hubs and I were just talking about her. She was such an icon and an inspiration to me for SO long. It’s sad to me that one of the few women in the entertainment industry with the power to do whatever the F she wants has this massive insecurity about aging. This is MADONNA FFS. Her whole image has always been about giving no fucks. And great, she shouldn’t give a fuck about me and what I think, but how amazing and inspirational would it have been for her to just age normally (I’m not saying completely naturally – just within reason!) and show that women can be glam and sexy and powerful at any age? I want her to launch beauty lines targeted towards 59 year old women who’ve still got it. I want her to show the world that being 59 is not a crime and is still attractive. Instead, she’s made a joke of herself.
This. She could have been a great force for women, and instead bought into every cliche.
Luckily we have always had Cyndi Lauper to pick up the slack. She might not be as popular as Madonna, but she’s the force we need. She stands for true originality and doing things her way and supporting women. I still love her!
Would her face look better with a more natural hair color, I wonder? Blonde has never looked good on her, IMO.
Yes she would look better honey brown with dark golden buttery tones
While it pains me to write this-no one wants to look like Madonna at this point. Her face is so jacked up it’s uncomfortable to look at and who would want their skin mixed up with that??!!??
She has so much filler in her cheeks that she has troughs under her eyes! Not someone I would take skin care advice from. She looks so harsh.
The side view pics where her cheeks jut out and then it sinks in under her eyes are especially harsh. Yikes.
Her exercise and low-fat diet probably makes her face look too thin while she’s gaining weight due to aging mostly around her arms and thighs. She’s trying so hard with her face it’s pretty obvious as the rest of her body looks good albeit a bit heavier but she’s still lean and healthy! If only she left her face alone or do non-invasive methods, I’m pretty sure she would still look great in the face too.
She wears gloves to hide her hands because they reveal her age. I just find it such a dissapointment that she cares so deeply about not aging and what other people might think. Where is the power in that?
Thank you! The moment I saw the gloves I knew why she had them on. She always finds a way to cover her hands, because they do tell your age. Fingerless gloves, full-on gloves, whatever she can do to cover them.
It’s a dead give-away.
It’s so comical because does she think we don’t know how old she is? They make every outfit look like a costume. This legit looks like a high end French Maid’s outfit. Something a rich person would wear to a fancy Halloween party.
And if she actually knew anything about skincare she would have been using sunscreen on her hands already which is yet another reason why I’m not taking skincare advice from her.
It’s not sun damage she’s hiding. Years ago there was a photo of her at some gala/event and because of her low body fat at the time, her hands were very veiny. Big veins. People made a lot of fun of her saying her hands looked old and gross. Since then she’s always worn some type of glove.
I’m surprised she hasn’t had her hands plumped with filler to hide the veins. Or maybe she has and they look as bad as her face. 😉
Some woman’s hands age a lot worse than others and are also a lot more veiny than others as they age. If hers are really bad and she wants to throw those on for an event, I really don’t care. She is a pop star so can get away with it.
The press loves to make fun of her hands, lots of zeroed-in shots. No wonder she puts on the fingerless gloves
She is doing whatever she can to keep the dough rolling in.
What a shame she has done this to herself. I was a huge Madonna fan back in the day. Huge. Only the other day Youtube “recommended” Who’s That Girl 1987 (!) songs and I watched Lucky Star. She was less than 30 holding a stadium in Italy. I saw that show in London. Pains me to see her face like this now. What a shame.
Take a look. Great show. I mean, 30 years ago!
She was stunning in her show around 11 years ago, the Confessions Tour. And, yes, her skin was great and so was her bone structure. What bone structure now? Just an overstuffed chipmunk face. Madonna has good skin. That’s not her problem. It’s all the things she does to her face that’s the problem, like all the filler added over the cheek implants.
Madonna singing Substitute for Love and talking to the audience beforehand, and this before all the fillers and cheek implants. Her skin was great,. But, sadly, a few years laters is when she hit 50 and divorced and started going overboard in messing with her face from then on.
Madonna Confessions Tour – Madonna talking to audience before Substitute for Love
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kJGhKEMtjU
I watched it! how on earth can you mess with your face that badly in just over 10 years? what a total shame. She looked lovely.
She really does look gorgeous in that vid but to be fair to her, I’ve heard from so many women that the ten years between 50 and 60 is pretty harsh in terms of aging.
@Kitten, I’m sure, but the point is, is to try to keep looking fresh, tweaking to look your best as you age, not completely changing your face like Madonna did and for the worse. For example, Julianne Moore is 56. What she is doing is minimal and not completely destroying the face she once had. Can you imagine if she showed up with cheek implants and tons of filler and looking like a big pillow face, which then would be pushing in and make her eyes look smaller? The same with Laura Linney in her 50s now. Andie MacDowell is 60. The same. They all look great and look like themselves, whatever they are doing.. Susan Sarandon is like 70. She looks amazing and looks like Susan Sarandon and looks younger than 70. The work is great on her. It’s a natural look.
And Madonna started with the cheek implants (unneccesary) and overuse of filler only a few years after that video I posted. Why? She and Guy divorced as she was turning 50. She dropped down bone thin from stress and put in cheek implants that she didn’t need. Then they were so prominent, they started with some filler to offset it. Her face was immovable. But she was in a Britney Spears doc interviewing her after all that surgery and it was like Madonna couldn’t move her face, like something hard was in it. Even Brit looked uncomfortable In fact, that next tour, in the Sticky & Sweet Tour DVD, they did no closeups of Madonna, compared to just several years before, The Confessions DVD, where there was tons of closeups of Madonna. The reason being her face was off from the surgery Her eyes were weird also. It made me so sad she had done this to herself.
It’s been up and down since then with Madonna overdoing the filler, or tweaking it, and then overdoing it again, but she’s never ever looked like the old Madonna face as far as bone structure. And because of it she also lost her great smile She had a great laugh. But when your face is filled with stuff you laugh differently because your face moves differently.
I have no problem with women and plastic surgery or anything that makes them feel good and look good. But the ones like Madonna who actually look worse with the overuse of plastic surgery and injectibles make no sense to me.
@Jayna — Aww, great clip!
I think she looks great. Excited to try her line.
Those three inch roots are awful. I know she rocked that look for a long time, but it doesn’t look good.
You know she prob dyes those roots brown so she looks younger. She’s got to have grey hair by now
she looks like the Madam puppet
Saw the print ad for this line- she is photo-shopped to h#*l and back in her spokesperson photo.
It is hard enough as a regular person to deal with the outward signs of aging. Yes, I get the “beats the alternative,etc” angle, but you really have those “what is happening???” moments. And for her- fab body, bold and out there performing,etc for so long- aging must be incredibly hard to deal with. But she needs to leave the dermatologist or whoever behind. The gloves on the hands are to me the saddest of all.
Ugh yeah. When you say it like that I have nothing but sympathy for her. Getting older really does suck but for celebs it must be a special kind of misery.
can we stop ragging on her. I’m 36 and see changes every day in my body & it sucks. she is a super rich star but human. I miss her old face as well but I get it, she just trying to slow down the clock. the shame lies in society having conditioned us to be afraid of ageing and the rejection, and invisibility that it brings.
+1
38 here and I’m with you. Getting older really blows.
Let’s have some empathy.
There comes a point when getting older doesn’t “blow”. I turn 65 in a couple of weeks and am quite comfortable in my own skin. I don’t dye my hair, I don’t botox or have injectables. My weight is the same as it’s been for decades, maybe an extra 5 lbs. I exercise, don’t tan, use inexpensive skin care products and look damn good for my age. I’d rather enjoy the heck out of life than spend all my time and money stressing out in an effort to look 30 years younger and ridiculous. And never forget, with age comes a hell of a lot of experience and wisdom. Oh, and I fell in love a couple of years ago with someone I fell in love with when I was 26 but things didn’t work out then. They sure worked out now.
I loved everything you said and it’s especially awesome that you reunited with your long lost love.
Comments like yours are one of many reasons why I keep coming back this site.
Thank you for this comment, and how cool that you fell in love again!
I remember Cher saying at one point, that 40’s were the best and 50’s were the worst….at the time I was about mid 30’s and I felt so sad that Bad*ss Cher, of all people, said that….now that I am in my 50’s, all I can say is Damn, Cher is right! I hope, like Jaded, that soon, I too can say that getting older doesn’t blow! Why not? Cher is once again carrying herself like the Bad*ss she is!
Did she elaborate on why 50s suck so bad? I remember my mom hating her 50s but I think that was due to menopause…
I think she looks fine. She is Madonna, she still looks like Madonna to me. I don’t find anything sad about how she looks. She is 59 so let go of expectations that she will look like she did in the 1980s and 1990s. And she was never the type that was going to be aging without cosmetic intervention, there’s nothing wrong with it or particularly virtuous about going without it.
That’s not an attractive picture above.
It is just bad surgery and overdone. I have nothing against good work but this isn’t. That is the sad part.
I have all sorts of empathy for the aging female – I think the negative reaction to her makeup line you’re seeing is because this doesn’t seem like a good fit. If this many women are turned off by her and her line, it means she just doesn’t organically connect to women on the skincare/makeup front and it probably isn’t the best idea.
…no way 59…69 more like…
Yeah – there was always a persistent rumor that Madge shaved 5 years off her age, but a high school friend outed her. Don’t know if it’s true, but she sure is working overtime to attempt to stop the clock. Not really working, though – she just looks delusional. And how hypocritical is it for her to have a skincare line? As if she doesn’t have a platoon of dermatologists & surgeons working on her face 24/7.
i think a lot of celebs don’t use their own lines, or the lines they promote in ads and those that do use them in combo with all manner of “medical spa” treatments that cost a zillion dollars and render the use of their products pretty much pointless.
sort of related: i saw a mascara ad recently that included in the fine print that the model was wearing false lashes. which, i mean, they obviously always are, but that’s the first time i’ve seen it admitted. new regs?
The comments are harsh. She’s 59! She has always taken good care of her skin. We’re all subject to gravity and after menopause the loss of our hormones.
I loved her so much, back in the day. Rolling around onstage at the MTV VMAs in the bridal veil and the Boy Toy belt – there was no one else like her. It’s sad to see her now.
I wish you had included a photo of her strange new bum.
Something nice…her butt comment was hilarious and she certainly seems like a funny person to be around.
Do you guys know Eveline Hall? She is a 70 year old former dancer who is now mostly known as a model. I recently saw her on TV and she looks amazing, especially with her longer silver-grey hair. That’s how you age gracefully, IMO.
Yaaasssss! She’s amazing.
omg, yes! I knew her face but not her name. Love her!
I think Linda Rodin is the paragon of “aging gracefully.” She has this wild mane of silver hair, is so stylish and elegant – but more importantly, she’s utterly comfortable in her skin. She’s a huge fashion icon because of this. She makes Madonna look sad in comparison.
Love her. Ride or die.
What in the “Molly the Maid” hell????
Alek Keshishian said he was glad to shoot Truth or Dare in black & white because Madonna ate a ton of candy in the studio and her skin was crap because of it. And the products she uses are probably always being discontinued because she goes for the latest most expensive treatment from a high end brand, who are always putting out reformulated product at $300 a pop.
I just can’t with any celebrity lately.
Some people love to call women out for doing what THEY CHOOSE to do with their faces. Where is the feminist attitude in that? if Madonna wants to look like Jocelyn wildenstein that’s her business.
Funny how the same people attacking her are the ones telling us not to fat shame Kanye west. Very quick to judge a woman’s body but don’t you dare come for a mans.
I’m not sure some of us are on board with shaming women for choices. I do know I personally am totally on board with calling rich women out for appealing to other women’s insecurity regarding their own appearance by trying to sell them crap that they have never used.
Oh that’s lame and like saying women don’t have minds of their own. All of us are going to want cat faces because madonna? We are individuals .
I want face creams because I want them not because Madge says I should have them. I still haven’t dound one i like, btw
Oh they can choose what they wants as I can ,but exactly as I know is gonna be commented ,they should know the same being in the pubblic eye and scrutinized the way they are.And then they can give a fuck and go on.
Madonna’s brand doesn’t really seem like it would align with skin care. Sex toys, yes. Body modification, yes. Even alternative modalities of fitness.
But skincare- nah. I’m really curious to know who is her target demo.
I wonder how Madonna’s Hard Candy workout centers are going That seemed like an idea past its time also. I imagine her perfume is doing good.
Wow I gave a look to the video and what the hell!her face is swollen and seems She ate the old Madonna .She must be on something to ruin herself like that and not be able to see the drastical dramatical change.And everyone Who thinks She actually looks ok must be on something either and not good!
She actually looks like 80s/90s madonna here… in the right light. Yeah, there’s insecurity about aging with her. But one thing I noticed is that it looks like she kept her original nose, which I love. There’s nothing at all wrong with it, but I’m used to seeing celebs all with the same nose.
If she was aging gracefully I would MAYBE trust her opinion on skincare. But all she has done to attempt to look younger is ruin her face with fillers . She hasn’t looked like herself in well over a decade. She is just so try hard now. Everything she does is an attempt to still appear younger and “down” with the younger generation and it reeks of desperation. She comes across as an incredibly insecure woman which is sad.