Nars attacks

Ever wonder how a trend starts, how something you saw or experienced influences your personal style forever?

In the ‘70s, I grew up knowing Brooke Shields’ “natural” eyebrows. In the New Wave ‘80s, we made them bolder, thicker.

And then in the ‘90s, I was a fashion design student at Parsons New York, when I distinctly remember one of the Asian girls walking into class with skinny, almost shaved eyebrows.

I recognized the same Jean Harlow look on Madonna in her “Bedtime Stories” album. Soon, tweezed eyebrows became a trend and then the norm.

But who was the person behind Madonna’s skinny eyebrows? It turned out to be makeup artist, photographer and makeup mogul Francois Nars.

During the ‘90s, Nars was a rising star in the world of beauty and fashion, having collaborated with design heavies like Dolce & Gabbana, Marc Jacobs, Karl Lagerfeld, Anna Sui, Versace, Valentino, and photographers such as Richard Avedon, Patrick Demarchelier, Steven Meisel, Helmut Newton, Irving Penn and Bruce Weber.

In 1994 he launched his first line of 12 lipsticks at Barneys New York. Its minimalist modern packaging was design by no less than Fabien Baron. Two years later, Nars began to photograph the ad campaigns himself.

As makeup artist and photographer, he authored two coffee table books: X-Ray in 1999 and Makeup Your Mind in 2001.

A third book, Makeup Your Mind: Express Yourself, is due for release in April 2011.

Ten years ago, Japanese beauty giant Shiseido acquired and incorporated Nars Cosmetics, where Nars remains its creative director.

Nars’ Fall and Holiday 2010 ad campaign features heiress, fashion icon, journalist and collector of haute couture, Daphne Guinness.

This spring, he will be opening his first standalone store on 413 Bleecker Street, New York.

Since the late ‘90s, Nars has been dividing his time between New York and his own private island in Polynesia called Motu Tané. He made a quick stop to Hong Kong recently where On The Radar spoke to him about eyebrows and sexy pencils.

On the radar: Is it true you were the one who shaved Madonna’s eyebrows in the ‘90s and started a trend?

Francois 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.

And now Daphne Guinness is the new face of Nars Cosmetics.

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.

Makeup artist and cosmetics mogul Francois Nars stands in front of a Daphne Guinness portrait that was also photographed by him.

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.

* * *

In the Philippines, Nars is exclusively available at Rustan’s.