Top 100 Quotes & Sayings by Francois Nars - Page 2

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

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

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.

I thought make-up was a very sensual thing.

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

We don't tell women how to look but give them the products and inspiration they need to feel and look beautiful.

It was never in my mind to be famous.

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

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

I've seen makeup destroy people and make them look bad if it's badly done.

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 have always been attracted to faces that are different.

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

Go with what you're attracted to.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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!

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

Women are being more experimental with eye color.

I like beauty to be a bit edgy, not typical. For me, the only rule is looking good.

Some people put a lot of fuss around them. I'm not an entertainer. Let's not get things confused.

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

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

In this world, you do your job, a good job, and that's what counts.

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.

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.

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

Transparency is more sexy than a full, pancake finish.

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?

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.

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.

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.