“In the world of music, getting old is a sin. You’re going to be criticized, you’re going to be vilified, and you’re definitely not going to be played on the radio.”
Madonna said these words in a very emotional speech from the stage at the 2016 Billboard Women in Music ceremony. And then she was awarded the Woman of the Year prize.
Yes, her face had wrinkles and signs of age correction, but she was and remains herself. A woman who refuses to look 60 and act 60. A woman who pumps up her body, bounces around the stage, and considers underwear a great option for the red carpet.
From the video for Everybody (1983) until the mid-2000s, the world of fashion and beauty seemed to be obsessed with Madonna. She was the main trendsetter. She changed her image more often than all the stars combined. She was called and continues to be called the leading chameleon of show business. All of her images have “gone viral” and have been inspiring fashion designers, bright stars and starlets for thirty-five years.
Let’s have a quick look at some of her beauty finds.
The bangs, which were first mercilessly combed and then even more mercilessly varnished, were one of the main horrors of the 1980s. On most girls around the world, they looked terrible – but not on Madonna. Strangely, everything suited her. For many years, Madonna did whatever she wanted with her bangs: she grew them, cut them, curled them, straightened them, dyed them in all sorts of colors. Today, the star does not wear bangs – any kind, but who knows, it’s not over yet.
Young rebels didn’t wear red lipstick until Madonna did. In the early 1980s, she made it clear: red lips are not just for elegant ladies. And she continued to prove it until she became an elegant lady herself. In general, Madonna has been expanding the boundaries and possibilities of makeup all her life, for which the beauty industry should praise her. Today, the entire industry proves that red lips are for everything, but even the photos of thousands of current influencers do not confirm this truth as much as Madonna’s photos from thirty years ago. The combination of dark purple eyeshadow with red lipstick looks especially cool.
It all started with a simple short haircut. The image was complemented by a stage costume. In 1990, Madonna made a splash with her corset with cone-shaped cups by Jean-Paul Gaultier. Antics with a sexual subtext are the singer’s favorite trick. She kissed Britney Spears, Drake, Christina Aguilera – and dancers from her own ballet on stage. And everyone remembers the scandalous shot from Madonna’s Instagram, where she poses naked with a Louis Vuitton bag.
Before Cara Delevingne was born, there was Madonna. Actually, Brooke Shields brought thick boyish eyebrows into fashion, but Madonna went further: at the dawn of her career, her eyebrows looked unkempt – here and there, untidy hairs stuck out, which any self-respecting lady could not help but pluck (and the designer of any fashion magazine – Photoshop). Madonna – could. No wonder the youth loved her so much. No wonder the star herself loved Frida Kahlo so much. But everything gets boring at some point, especially for her. The fame of the famous makeup artist Francois Nars began when he persuaded Madonna to tidy up her eyebrows. But she would never have agreed if she herself did not want to. And for the video for Rain, she shaved them down to thin threads, like Marlene Dietrich. Since then, no one has seen her with overgrown eyebrows.
One can only guess how any dye of the 80s killed hair. But this never stopped Madonna. She had 50 shades of light, dark – probably a little less.
“I become a blonde when I want to attract attention, and a brunette – if I need anonymity.”
However, the star is being disingenuous – her images with dark hair also excite the imagination, especially in combination with emphasized pale skin and blood-red lips. And as soon as Madonna grew out dark roots on light hair, it became a trend. In 2015, Madonna played a little with pink – and she was immediately accused of being fashionably backward. And this was not the first drop in the barrel of honey.
The singer’s passion for beauty injections was discussed by everyone a few years ago. At some point, Madge got carried away and turned her face into a pillow. The resonance was serious: at the conference of the Association of Plastic Surgeons of Britain in 2011, her face was the main case. A fan of hyaluronic acid and collagen injections, Madonna was a client of Dr. Brandt, who turned injections into a full-fledged alternative to surgery, and in 2015 committed suicide.
In 2013, Madonna got grillz – jewelry appliques on her teeth. Rihanna and Lady Gaga joined her. The trend was picked up by Katy Perry, Beyoncé, Miley Cyrus and Kim Kardashian. Gold grills for teeth appeared in the late 1980s and until 2013 were the privilege of hip-hoppers.
“It’s important for me to express myself as an artist, as a woman… Or as a jerk, if that’s how I feel,” Madonna said in 1990. “Nobody has done what I’ve done, the way I’ve done it. I don’t know what people will say about me in 50 years, but I know what they’ll say about me.”
It seems that Madonna likes being an adult. Yes, she stopped with the transformations, but she stopped at the top. Now she is a trendsetter for those who are “over”. Long hair, until recently prohibited after forty. Not as bright as before, eye makeup with the use of eyeliners of different colors: dark contour on the upper eyelids, white or pink – on the lower. So her look looks less harsh, and the circles under the eyes are less noticeable.
And although this girl is a pop queen, her best friends were and remain not diamonds, but makeup artists. Madonna trusted them with her face, gave them her friendship, did not spare money and warm words. Makeup artists, in turn, have always idolized her.
In 2014, Madonna introduced her anti-aging skin care line MDNA Skin. Until recently, it was only available in Japan, South Korea and China. Now the brand is represented in the US, including on the Barneys website. The line includes a clay-based face mask with metal particles and an induction device with a magnet that attracts iron particles along with the remains of the mask. After the mask caused a boom in Asia, many brands launched a similar product, including Payot.
