Nars Attacks

I had the pleasure of meeting makeup artist, photographer and makeup mogul François Nars in Hong Kong last month to interview him for the On The Radar.



Nars was just a name I used to hear when I was studying in New York in the '90s, hanging out with a fashion photographer and a friend who worked for Fabien Baron, who designed all the packaging for Nars Cosmetics.



I was in New York when a schoolmate at Parsons came in to class with shaved eyebrows. Having grown up during the Brooke Shields years and New Wave thickened eyebrows, I was very shocked to see it.
But since all the girls at Parsons started to shave their eyebrows, I did it too. We were all copying Madonna's newly shaved eyebrows at the launch of her Bedtime Stories album.
It turned out to be the work of François Nars, whose eye and know-how influenced looks worldwide years after.
In my head I wanted to ask him why some makeup artists think they're God (especially in the Philippines). But I bit my tongue and stuck to the essentials.



Me: Is it true you were the one who shaved Madonna’s eyebrows in the ‘90s and started a trend?
Nars: Yes, it’s true. It happened in a funny way. I used to work at that time with photographer Steven Meisel in Paris. Steven had met Madonna before many times. They came to see me. I was doing a show in Paris. They came to say hi backstage, to meet me. And Steven said to me: “Hey Francois, I hate her eyebrows. You have to do something about it.”
Yes, in front of me, in front of her. And she said, “Go ahead. Do something.” After that, we started working. That was the very first time I met her.
She had a very kind of weird shape of eyebrows. They were not thin. Well, they were heavy before, which was better, when she did Like a Virgin and all that. But then at the same time she started tweezing this weird shape. And so I said, “You know, you have to change completely the shape. It’s not working at all.” She always, like, trusted me. We always like really laughed about it.



Now Daphne Guinness is the new face of Nars.
Yes, she’s great. She’s eccentric. I love eccentric people.
I met her for the first with Steven Klein. We had dinner. We got along very well right away.
Steven said to me you have to meet this girl. She’s very funny. She’s always in McQueen shoes. She’s not very, very tall. She looks much taller than what she is in real life.



Tell us about your newest creation, the Bento Box*.
The Bento box is one the thing I have done, which is primarily from Japan because the idea is from Kabuki theatre.
It’s basically two cups you wet with water and brush. It’s basically for the lips but you could actually use it for cheeks if you want to. It’s a really strong pigment. It really doesn’t come off.
They only made 2,000 worldwide. They’re almost sold out in New York where it really got a lot of attention.
It’s a nice object to put in your bathroom or bedroom. It’s really cute.
Now there are only two colors but I think Nars has to do more colors, like maybe eggplant.



How is it different putting makeup on an Asian versus a Caucasian?
You know I don’t see much difference. I know that structure of the eyes is different. But I never really think too specifically when I do a certain ethnic background — you know, black, African-American, Irish or South American. To me it’s always about making a woman beautiful. It’s what inspires me.
Asian eyes have a different shape but it’s not tricky for me to do Asian makeup.
I love Asian faces and I almost treat it exactly the same way I would do a Caucasian.
Once you choose the perfect skin foundation after eye makeup, it’s practically the same to me.



In some Asian countries like Korea, there are men who look prettier than women. What do you think of men wearing makeup?
I don’t know (laughs). You know one thing I really hate are men with shaved eyebrows. I have seen it in Seoul, in Japan, and in America. They really tweeze their eyebrows a lot and I think this is the most awful thing men can do because men are better looking with eyebrows — and I love shaved eyebrows, believe me, but only on women.
They can clean, maybe in between the eyebrows, but I don’t like eyebrows that are tweezed into a perfect shape. If it’s really a perfect line, to me it looks very unsexy on a man.
If I were a woman I wouldn’t want my husband or boyfriend to have thin eyebrows. So that’s one thing I’m totally against. And I say it very loud in all the magazines. Tell the men to stop tweezing their eyebrows because it’s really awful. It’s really bad fashion, whoever started that.
But men with makeup, it’s okay as long as it’s done in a different way. I mean it’s not good if men start looking like women.
So the way I like makeup on men, if it’s done roughly, sometimes like black, kohl, greasy, a little bit dirty — you know more like a rocker or rock and roll star like Mick Jagger.
I think men have to approach makeup in a different way from women. I mean I don’t see colors. It needs to be more sexy and rougher, but I don’t think a lot of men worldwide will wear makeup.



What’s your advice to those who want to become makeup artists?
I think definitely the most important thing is to be passionate about it. Specifically when you do a job that’s really linked to art or fashion, you have to be really extra passionate to be able to be really good at it.
You have to be extremely focused and feel that it’s really what you want to do.
I’ve seen sometimes people doing makeup but I don’t see like they put all their heart into it.
You really need to have a relationship with the person you’re doing makeup on. There has to be a really strong connection between the two of you.
You have to be extremely sensitive so you can really feel the other person much more in front of you.
If there is no connection then it’s a failure right away.



What are your personal favorite products?
I could say the Multiple Sticks or the Orgasm Blush. But one of my favorite products is not the latest one. I love the Velvet Matte Lip Pencils. They’ve been around for a few years, but I love them. I love the texture; they’re just very velvety, very deep. They feel very comfortable to draw your lips, and I love the colors. And I’m actually doing more and more shades.
There are many great colors, many natural ones, and also the sheer ones are very, very good. Those are great gloss pencils and they’re actually very transparent; you can almost use them without a mirror and you cannot make a mistake.
I love those thick pencils; first of all I think they look good, they’re very unique.
You don’t see those thick ones anywhere, and the gloss of course. There’s something very sexy about those pencils. They look great as an object and they feel comfortable in your hands.



*Nars Bento Box will be available in very limited quantities at Rustan's, watch out for it.
Rustan's is the exlusive distributor of Nars in the Philippines.

http://www.narscosmetics.com/