Francois Nars

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?

True icons are larger than life, unforgettable with an elegance that's mesmerizingly timeless.

I had no connections, and the fashion world was a closed elite. So my mother made appointments for herself with three top Parisian makeup artists and spoke highly about me... she was my first publicist!

Sometimes people are very not sure of themselves, so you really have to give them that confidence. Even models - they need to warm up sometimes on photo shoots.

I really wanted to have a different approach of beauty because when I came to America, they were still heavily, heavily plastic. The ads were so heavily retouched.

It's more fun to have a name rather than a number. I think this gives our products a personality. I get the names from literature, movies, opera, traveling, nature, poetry, sometimes even the street. I keep a small book that I write in. I wake up in the middle of the night and jot down a name for a lipstick or an eyeshadow.

I didn't want to create a makeup line for one ethnic group; it had to be multi-ethnic. To me, beauty is beauty. It doesn't matter to me what colour the skin is.

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

Find your own way, have an open spirit, and believe in your own beauty.

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

My mother never wore much make-up, and she was a kind of natural beauty; she knew just how to enhance what she had.

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.