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She may be a Material Girl, but Madonna loves her budget buys, too. In fact, the singer told PEOPLE that when she’s hanging out at home, she wears basic Victoria’s Secret sweatpants.

However, Madonna does have some bigger beauty buys; she said she can’t live without Yves Saint Laurent mascara in aubergine (it highlights her favorite feature, her eyes) and often has to hide her makeup bag from her daughters. According to the star, “Lourdes steals my tweezers, and Mercy [takes] my pink lip gloss.”

Though Madonna herself is a style icon, she draws inspiration from a roster of famous women. “Wallis Simpson, fashion-wise,” she told PEOPLE at her recent fragrance launch in N.Y.C. “Sophia Loren, what a great beauty. I’m old school — I like a lot of the actresses from days gone by, like Marlene Dietrich, Rita Hayworth, Bette Davis. Women who are strong and opinionated and hardworking, productive, resourceful, working girls, working mothers, but they manage to look good, too.”

Perhaps that’s where her current mantra comes from; when asked what she’d tell her younger self about life, she replied simply, “Looks aren’t everything.”

–Pamela Edwards-Christiani

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