Madonna Used to Get Facials from a Heroin Addict: 'I Really Didn't Have Much Cash'

The moment has finally arrived: Madonna’s MDNA Skin line is available stateside at Barneys. And on the afternoon of the U.S. launch, the icon herself introduced the collection to a group of editors in New York City. It went just as you’d expect: She talked about the line, the inspiration behind it, and everything in between… and then she spilled the bizarre place she applies her face masks, how her look has changed over the years, and the very unexpected location where she used to get facials before she became the Queen of Pop.

“There were many years where I wasn’t interested in having eyebrows,” Madonna jokes of her beauty and style evolution through the decades. “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.”

But through all of her phases, one aspect of her routine always remained the same: her focus on skincare, even in the days before she could afford fancy facials and treatments.

“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.”

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Fast forward to 2014, that passion for perfecting her complexion grew into something much bigger. Madonna launched MDNA Skin, which was only available in Japan until Tuesday, when it launched at Barneys.

“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,” she explains. “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.”

And the products are so great that she uses them for every issue on every part of her body — including her backside. “I have used the clay mask on my butt,” she says.

Why? It’s simple, according to the star. “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!”

She adds: “Maybe you can ask your significant other to remove it for you. What do you think? You have it put it on and you lay down and he can rub your feet or she while your mask is setting in for 7-10 minutes and then you can get some magnetic head on your behind.”

See for yourself by purchasing the $120 mask at Barneys And tell us: will you shop her products?

— With reporting by Gillian Telling