Top 55 Francois Nars Quotes

Transparency is more sexy than a full, pancake finish.

We love those under-eye circles. It’s real life.

True icons are larger than life, unforgettable with an elegance that’s mesmerizingly timeless.

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.

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.

It was never in my mind to be famous.

I love the dramatic idea of having nothing on.

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 think it’s important that you know every detail when you open a store, that you pay attention to everything.

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.

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.

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!

Women are very unpredictable.

A fresh face with a red lip is timeless. It’s supermodern and relaxed but very chic.

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.

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.

It’s very hard for me to photograph someone when I’m not attracted by who they are.

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 wanted to be a make up artist. I did it, and the road that I took was quite good.

Women don’t want to feel like they’re wearing makeup. I hope I was partly responsible for that.

I’m always looking to the lightweight superproduct that you apply and almost don’t see. That’s the ultimate, at least for me.

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.

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.

Go with what you’re attracted to.

Sometimes I’m attracted to more odd girls with stronger faces and features or a softer beauty with a lot of character.

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 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.

Wearing colourful eyeliner in a graphic shape is the epitome of make-up as an accessory.

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.

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.

We are not afraid to be a bit different, to make shades that are bold.

I can’t remember the first time, but I’ve worked with supermodels almost from day one.

I thought make-up was a very sensual thing.

I think if you take good care of your skin, you can achieve better make-up.

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.

It’s one thing to read about how makeup is applied. It’s another thing altogether to watch it being put on.

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 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 launched NARS with 12 shades of lipsticks, and many, many launches later, I’m still most proud of our lipsticks.

I’m not an easily depressed person.

I think everyone deserves to look better and to look good.

Women have to find their own personality, their own style, and what suits them the best.

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.

I don’t think there’s a major change between runway and real life anymore.

I photographed Alek Wek. She was amazing, and nobody knew about her then. It was a really strong photograph of her.

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!

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.

Kate Moss makes you dream. She has such a passion for art and the creative process.

Find your own way, have an open spirit, and believe in your own beauty.

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.

My vision was to create makeup that was more transparent but with formulas that last. I follow my instincts – it’s all very spontaneous!

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.

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 loved working with Avedon.