After 30 Years Of Nars, These Are Still The Best Products – Tried And Tested By Our Beauty Team

Take a peek into any Grazia beauty team member's make-up bag and there will be at least one Nars product in there at any given time (our beauty writer Sameeha Shaikh is a fan of the Light Reflecting Foundation whilst beauty editor Rachael Martin swears by the Radiant Creamy Concealer). Needless to say, we fan-girled hard during our interview with the man behind our (and the internet's) favourite blusher/concealer/foundation.

If Universal were to create the archetypal ‘make-up genius’ character he would inevitably have a French accent, he would probably wear onyx-framed glasses and he would definitely have his own private island in the middle of the South Pacific where beauty products (with suitably naughty names) would be pumped out in a ruse to take over the world.

François Nars will not be starring in the next Despicable Me movie, but chances are his products have featured in your make-up bags (as well as ours) with the Radiant Creamy Concealer being the number one selling prestige concealer in the UK. Our faces would also be a lot less orgasmic without a certain Nars blush. If his plan was to conquer continents he has succeeded, but in the most magnanimous way because, despite being a make-up magnate extraordinaire and laying claim to his own private island in French Polynesia, the real life Mr. Nars is charming, polite and warm with an irresistible glint of mischief.

To say the make-up superstar has more than one string to his bow is somewhat of an understatement. Not content with playing face painter to the fashion and Hollywood elite (one of his first jobs was with legendary photographer Richard Avedon), he is also a photographer, creative director, author and visionary – a.k.a the blueprint for the most fabulous over-achiever.

It’s hard to imagine a time before the iconic black rubberised packaging or a world where Laguna Bronzers didn’t exist and, on the eve of his brand’s 30th anniversary – the year when the Channel tunnel opened, Kurt Cobain died and double denim and bucket hats were in full force – Nars is just as relevant as ever.

The monumental rise of his empire began with just 12 lipsticks back in 1994; 'To me, lipsticks were an obvious starting point; you can have a bare face but you put on a lipstick and you instantly make a statement.'

And making a statement is something Mr Nars has also mastered with aplomb. Trailblazer is no longer a term that tends to be bandied about much in an age where innovation is often drowned out amidst the cacophony of social media and the sheer volume of output. But NARS was the OG disruptor brand with brilliant campaigns featuring silverscreen stalwarts such as Tilda Swinton and Charlotte Gainsbourg as well as leveraging idiosyncratic beauties such as Alek Wek and Karen Elson whilst simultaneously bucking the trend for the blonde, blue-eyed notions of conventional beauty.

Mr. Nars also attributes the success of his eponymous brand to a 50/50 mix of brilliant, pigment-rich formulas ('I gave my chemists a hard time to get the formula just-so') and covetable packaging. Indeed, if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery then Nars is due a hefty dollop of adulation.

The now iconic matte, monochrome packaging featuring clean, graphic type face designed by Fabien Baron (font fanatics with a flair for kerning will recognise them as Helvetica Neue Ultra Light Std which have been slimmed down and overlapped) has remained largely unchanged – testimony of a design classic. But the genius of Nars is also down to the names – a considered master stroke (cue maniacal mastermind laughter) designed to bestow products with their own identities and cement them in people’s minds; 'You can have the most beautiful pink or red but if you just call it "strawberry pink" or a regular, boring name it has no impact and I think you always have to make an impact.'  Surprisingly, (even to the self-confessed rebel himself), the names have never courted controversy; 'I like to surprise and shock but I was amazed that even names like "Orgasm" were picked up and loved by women of all ages – even grandmothers. I see a lot of brands trying to recreate that today but because we now have so many products we haven’t left them much choice!' Further evidence of world domination alongside the brand’s casual 9.7 million Instagram followers; not bad for a former social media refusnik.

Shop: The Editor-Approved NARS Superstars

Cassie Steer is acting health and beauty director at Grazia with over 25 years’ experience on women’s glossies.