NARS 15th Anniversary!

I can remember it as if it were yesterday, the first time that I laid eyes on a Nars compact. I had waited in anticipation for months after hearing that one of my favorite makeup artists was launching a makeup line. There were naysayers who suspected that the line would be full of unwearable shades that would only work for editorial purposes but not the general masses. So there I was in the mothership- uh..I mean midtown Barneys NY staring at the gorgeous 12 pan in the beautiful matte black packaging.

It had me at bon jour! Growing up I adored other makeup artists like Way Bandy, Kevyn Aucoin and Mary Greenwell but Nars was deliciously different, in his photos the skin glowed instead of looking totally covered up… and he tackled those crazy colors in a way that was both edgy and beautiful.

As a facialist/makeup artist I related to his aesthetic immediately, I always favored a more see-the skin look with makeup. Nars signature it seems was influenced greatly by his French mother whose skin was naturally gorgeous and hated the mask-like feeling of most foundations. At that time his signature style was most unheard of and eventually turned Francois into a star. After a decade and a half of painting the most famous faces in the industry like Linda Evangelista, Stephanie Seymour and Kate Moss along with superstars like Madonna and other diva’s, the makeup maestro turned his efforts into creating his line and learning photography.

The brand was simply all the rage and coveted by just about every artist I knew in NY, but upon returning the AZ I heartbreakingly found that no one except one other artist had even heard of the brand…today of course you would be hard pressed to stumble into any better department store and not find the sprawling displays of lipsticks, shadows, the most famous blush in the world not to mention “The Multiple” one of the first and still uber popular multi-tasking makeup products. Though FN sold the company to Shiseido in 2000 he has remained active as head creative and even shoots their ad campaigns. Within days Nars latest project Nars 15×15 hits shelves to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the brand. It’s a must have and best of all … All of the proceeds go to charity of the participants choice visit www.15x15project.com

And don’t miss the infinitely gorgeous Holiday collection which includes the beautiful brousse eye shadow duo, pop life matte lip pencil and skorpios creamy shadow pencil at www.narscosmetics.com You can also view more about my man Nars in this months Allure magazine.