Francois Nars

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.

My mother and my two grandmothers, I was lucky to have three women around me growing up that were very special, very elegant women, very beautiful women. They were my first step into the beauty world, let's say, and then the fashion world, of course.

Women are very unpredictable.

You can look glamorous even if you're a housewife, any job you have.

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

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.

My goal was always to make the girl look real and look beautiful. It didn't matter how much makeup. Sometimes it was none at all.

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

We are not afraid to be a bit different, to make shades that are bold.

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.

I have always been attracted to faces that are different.

Women have to find their own personality, their own style, and what suits them the best.