I'll keep creating modern, deep, rich and adventurous colors and products that inspire creative expression every day.
— Francois Nars
True icons are larger than life, unforgettable with an elegance that's mesmerizingly timeless.
Go with what you're attracted to.
I think there was a freedom in the 1920s and 1930s: a certain liberty and evolution of women.
Makeup is about balance. When the eye makes a statement, the lips should be quiet.
People have to learn that everybody is the same. If you wake up in the morning, even if you're a movie star, you look like everybody else. The reality is that makeup is there to help. That's what it's for.
In this world, you do your job, a good job, and that's what counts.
I met Iman and Jerry Hall and all those girls in the late Seventies right when I started working at the fashion shows in Paris as an assistant.
I didn't want to create a makeup line for one ethnic group; it had to be multi-ethnic. To me, beauty is beauty. It doesn't matter to me what colour the skin is.
I like beauty to be a bit edgy, not typical. For me, the only rule is looking good.
Kate Moss makes you dream. She has such a passion for art and the creative process.
Working on fashion shows, you work with the designer and try to read his brain - what was in the creative process, what images did he have in his head?
I love so much the models from the '60s and the '70s. They were extremely professional, great models who knew how to work the camera so well and loved fashion and had a great sense of style.
Find your own way, have an open spirit, and believe in your own beauty.
It's one thing to read about how makeup is applied. It's another thing altogether to watch it being put on.
My vision was to create makeup that was more transparent but with formulas that last. I follow my instincts - it's all very spontaneous!
There is a tendency to feature more actresses on covers, but I'm a big model lover. I grew up watching these models, and they gave me the wish, the need, to work in the fashion industry. I loved watching them - their beauty, the way they worked in front of the camera and that power of transformation, especially in the Seventies.
We don't tell women how to look but give them the products and inspiration they need to feel and look beautiful.
A fresh face with a red lip is timeless. It's supermodern and relaxed but very chic.
I hate knowing where people go to the bathroom. You follow them going to pee, to eat - I hate everything when it comes to reality shows!
You can look glamorous even if you're a housewife, any job you have.
Women are being more experimental with eye color.
It was never in my mind to be famous.
Transparency is more sexy than a full, pancake finish.
I can't remember the first time, but I've worked with supermodels almost from day one.
From the start, I used a different kind of girl in Nars campaign images. My choice to use models of colour such as Alek Wek, Naomi Campbell and Karen Park Goude was absolutely a deliberate one. I felt that makeup was universal and should apply to everybody.
I love to collaborate with artists, like Guy Bourdin and Steven Klein, who don't have any boundaries.
Having worked with so many of the geniuses, I'd learned so much. It's the best sort of photography school, to work with people like Penn or Avedon or Meisel.
I'm not so interested in perfect, plastic beauty, and I think it translates in the girls I've shot over the years for Nars, from Guinevere to Iris to Mariacarla. I love those girls. I love the more interesting faces, with maybe a strange nose, not just the Texan blonde. By picking those girls, I think it's changed what I've seen in other campaigns.
Looking at flowers, simple things in life. I don't need to look at gold and a castle; sometimes its very simple things that are very beautiful. I am keeping my eyes fresh to find beauty in many places, and in gold, too, sometimes!
Makeup can make a woman look more beautiful at every age.
Women don't want to feel like they're wearing makeup. I hope I was partly responsible for that.
It was the early Seventies, and I discovered makeup by going through my mother's fashion magazines. I fell in love with the photos, the models, the fashion.
Being a studio make-up artist and working on magazines was the only thing I wanted to do.
We are not afraid to be a bit different, to make shades that are bold.
I've always loved the way movie stars in the Forties looked when they were off set. Shot poolside or at their home, they always wore a matte red lipstick with practically no foundation - it was how they wore makeup in real life.
I'm always looking to the lightweight superproduct that you apply and almost don't see. That's the ultimate, at least for me.
Makeup is an accessory to fashion. You buy a bag, you buy shoes, you put on eyeliner, you buy a lipstick, makeup compliments the clothes.
I launched NARS with 12 shades of lipsticks, and many, many launches later, I'm still most proud of our lipsticks.
Some people put a lot of fuss around them. I'm not an entertainer. Let's not get things confused.
I made contours and all that, but in real life, you have to be very careful with that because you can go out in the street and look terrible. All those girls who show how to do contour, they do it quite well, but they're like makeup artists. They're in artificial light.
It's very hard for me to photograph someone when I'm not attracted by who they are.
The '80s and '90s were the greatest time to be a makeup artist.
I was spoiled growing up in the 1970s because magazines were publishing the photographs of Helmut Newton and Guy Bourdin without compromise. You really felt that sense of freedom through their images.
It's very refreshing to go away and take a break, to clear your head, and just get into something else.
I photographed Alek Wek. She was amazing, and nobody knew about her then. It was a really strong photograph of her.
I wanted to be a make up artist. I did it, and the road that I took was quite good.
I have always been attracted to faces that are different.
I don't think there's a major change between runway and real life anymore.
Sometimes I'm attracted to more odd girls with stronger faces and features or a softer beauty with a lot of character.
