Quotes from Francois Nars

Makeup is about balance. When the eye makes a statement, the lips should be quiet.

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.

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.

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.

I'm very nostalgic - and I don't care.

I love to collaborate with artists, like Guy Bourdin and Steven Klein, who don't have any boundaries.

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

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

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.

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!

Go with what you're attracted to.

I love the dramatic idea of having nothing on.

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.

I think there was a freedom in the 1920s and 1930s: a certain liberty and evolution of women.

Being a studio make-up artist and working on magazines was the only thing I wanted to do.

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

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.

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

Makeup can make a woman look more beautiful at every age.

The '80s and '90s were the greatest time to be a makeup artist.