I thought make-up was a very sensual thing.
— Francois Nars
Makeup is very important for a show. It's really an accessory on the runway. You have to be sure that it fits the clothes.
I love strong looks, so to me, no makeup is strong. As long as it makes a statement, that's what I like. The girls look very real, and I'm probably the only makeup artist who will say that I love a woman without makeup.
Women are very unpredictable.
I had no connections, and the fashion world was a closed elite. So my mother made appointments for herself with three top Parisian makeup artists and spoke highly about me... she was my first publicist!
When I was a kid, I loved photography, and I loved makeup.
It's not that I'm easily shocked. It takes a lot to shock me. And wildness I like. But vulgarity shocks me.
My mother hated foundation; she hated having a mask on her face - and she pushed me to build my own vision and concept of beauty for women.
In America, when I first came here, they were used to wearing more make-up - thicker foundation, more Max Factor, that sort of thing. But you have to know who you are and what you look like: if you know yourself a little bit, you don't need to follow trends.
I fell in love with New York. I moved here 25 years ago in 1984 after I lived in Paris for six years. In the 1980s, it was the place to be. Here I was able to create NARS, which I would not have been able to create if I stayed in France.
Even with - the best make-up in the world won't look good if you don't cleanse and exfoliate and have a good basic regime. This is why one of my goals has always been to create a skincare line.
I'm always scared of trends. The runways are always so trend-oriented, but I always feel for the women. The real women that buy cosmetics want to see the trends, but they don't necessarily go for them. And I always encourage women to find what looks best on them.
I think it's important that you know every detail when you open a store, that you pay attention to everything.
I was a very lucky child because at the age of 16, 17 years old, my parents would buy me clothes from Yves Saint Laurent, which was an incredible luxury at the time, but I was attracted to that whole world. I had a pretty nice little wardrobe by the age of 17.
I think everyone deserves to look better and to look good.
I loved working with Avedon.
Wearing colourful eyeliner in a graphic shape is the epitome of make-up as an accessory.
In a lot of cases, makeup is a fantastic help, and that's why women love makeup in general. It's a fantastic way to help somebody look great. It's not the only way, of course, but it's a major accessory, along with hair, clothes, lighting, all those things.
I think Edie Sedgwick comes back, too. Every five or six years, there is always something about Edie, because she was so modern and stylish and elegant and hippie-ish, all at the same time. So I think that people will always love her.
I love the dramatic idea of having nothing on.
You create the color first, and then the name that fits. It depends - there are no rules. You watch a fabulous old movie, and you suddenly get inspired by it to create a lipstick shade, or you walk through a gorgeous garden and find the most beautiful flower shade for an eye shadow, and then you name it.
When you photograph someone, you have to make them feel good, and you know that they want to look good. It's the same relationship that you have when you apply makeup on somebody. We're almost like shrinks.
I never stop thinking about names of products. It's a process that happens 24 hours a day.
There was a time when you would dream about, say, movie stars. Now, you virtually follow them into their bathroom when they're going to the loo.
My mother never wore much make-up, and she was a kind of natural beauty; she knew just how to enhance what she had.
I would find myself in these photo shoots with models and makeup, and I got swept up in it all.
I think less is more when it comes to make-up; this really helps achieve a lighter complexion. Heavy make-up creates a canvas and can dull the skin.
I think if you take good care of your skin, you can achieve better make-up.
Was I a businessman to start with? I'm not sure. I mean, that comes slowly, when you start having the products out. But at the same time, I was very determined. I knew that I had to make it work. I had no choice.
My goal was always to make the girl look real and look beautiful. It didn't matter how much makeup. Sometimes it was none at all.
My mother and my two grandmothers, I was lucky to have three women around me growing up that were very special, very elegant women, very beautiful women. They were my first step into the beauty world, let's say, and then the fashion world, of course.
Sometimes people are very not sure of themselves, so you really have to give them that confidence. Even models - they need to warm up sometimes on photo shoots.
I love the architecture magazines and all of the French magazines for decoration or whatever. I end up enjoying them more sometimes than the fashion magazines.
A woman who hides behind a mask of makeup is still going to have to take it off at some point... and deal with reality.
I've seen makeup destroy people and make them look bad if it's badly done.
I remember this time I worked with Linda Evangelista on a shoot for Richard Avedon. I just put grease on her face, and it was beautiful.
We love those under-eye circles. It's real life.
It's more fun to have a name rather than a number. I think this gives our products a personality. I get the names from literature, movies, opera, traveling, nature, poetry, sometimes even the street. I keep a small book that I write in. I wake up in the middle of the night and jot down a name for a lipstick or an eyeshadow.
I chose makeup over photography because there was something very sensual about makeup that I loved. But photography was always in the back of my mind. That was always something that I was very connected with: looking at magazines, enjoying photography, and then taking pictures myself when I was a kid.
I never thought make-up was like brain surgery.
I'm not an easily depressed person.
It really has stayed practically the same. It wasn't like I used to do wild punk make-up: no, I always had the same vision.
You are born with this love; fashion and beauty are a part of who I am.
As a make-up artist, you always want to be in a good light, whether you're walking down the street or in a restaurant. It is a very key element to me; you can't apply good make-up in a bad light.
Women have to find their own personality, their own style, and what suits them the best.
I always had a vision about beauty in general, so probably that's what really drove me into that direction of creating a makeup brand.
I really wanted to have a different approach of beauty because when I came to America, they were still heavily, heavily plastic. The ads were so heavily retouched.
My interpretation of the word 'ugly'... I like ugly beauty. That can happen. In France, we have phrase 'jolie laide.' We like certain women who are not pretty or cute - it's the opposite in France of pretty. It's more strange and interesting.
I like shocking, but I don't like to shock as an automatic process. Sometimes it happens, but it's not my main drive.
I'm very nostalgic - and I don't care.
