Francois Nars

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

“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.”

“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 have always been attracted to faces that are different.”

“It's not that I'm easily shocked. It takes a lot to shock me. And wildness I like. But vulgarity shocks me.”

“I love the dramatic idea of having nothing on.”

“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.”

“Women are being more experimental with eye color.”

“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 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.”

“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.”

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

“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 looking to the lightweight superproduct that you apply and almost don't see. That's the ultimate, at least for me.”

“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.”

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

“Women are very unpredictable.”

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

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

“When I was a kid, I loved photography, and I loved makeup.”