96 posts tagged "NARS Cosmetics"
Shoe In: Pierre Hardy On His New NARS Collaboration
Even before his well-loved collaboration with Nicolas Ghesquière at Balenciaga and his capsule shoe collection for Gap, Pierre Hardy was a bona fide design legend. He was tapped by Christian Dior to helm its women’s shoe collection in the late eighties, and then by Hermès, where he was named creative director of men’s and women’s footwear and ultimately fine jewelry as well. Much to the delight of beauty fiends across the globe, Hardy dipped his toes into the beauty sphere last year with a series of objets d’art for Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle’s lineup of travel sprays; next month, he will take a legitimate plunge into the medium with a debut makeup partnership with NARS Cosmetics. “It didn’t take a lot,” Hardy admits of the process by which François Nars’ namesake brand convinced him to turn his attention to the business of pigments and powders—two, richly hued blushes embossed with his signature cubic print, and six nail polish duos housed in mini shoe boxes that come with their own dust bags, similarly to how a pair of the heel master’s architectural stilettos might be packaged, to be exact. Style.com sat down with Hardy to discuss his first foray into cosmetics, his low-maintenance grooming habits—he cuts his own hair!—and why, as far as he’s concerned, he is “working on beauty every day.”
Collaborations are a dime a dozen these days. Why do a color collection now? Why NARS?
“Because they came to me. And I said, ‘Yes, why not?’ There were some aesthetic links with how NARS does beauty and how I’m doing shoes and fashion. It was something we could do together that could be fun, interesting, and consistent. I went to the meeting room with all the products and they were all so beautiful, seductive. It looked like a painting box—a shop for artists with paintings, colors, crayons, like a super sci-fi painting box. It was very attractive. It would be nice to be a part of it. I was convinced.”
Did you draw inspiration from your own line when conceiving your color palette?
“All of the colors were from the [Spring] shoe collection that was just finished. I took some leather—a real sample—to make the color of the nails. We started from the real material of the actual shoe!”
It’s almost a tease to give the public only blushes and polishes! Why no shadows or glosses?
“I couldn’t pretend to do everything!”
Not to put you on the spot, but what does beauty mean to you?
“It’s a big question, a marvelous question. I think that I’m working on beauty every day. It’s a different approach, a different way with different tools, with what I’m doing with the shoes, but I try to express the same feeling through the color palette. It’s a game with your appearance, with how you want to be one day and different another day. The beauty of fashion is we’re always reaching for something new, strong, different, and consistent, but we play with it. It’s a big challenge to do something real, interesting—something new with which you can recognize.”
How do you “work on” your own beauty. Do you have a regimen that you stick to?
“I don’t drink and I don’t smoke. I’m a little bit lazy. I use a facial wash, body wash, and body cream. My body lotion is La Roche-Posay. For my face, I use Crème de La Mer because it’s not too sticky. I used to wear the same [fragrance] all the time, but now I have three to four scents. One is Laurel by Commes des Garçons. I don’t like green citrus. I like heavy amber musks. I don’t like fresh—clean, but not fresh. [But] I’m not too picky. I hate men that are too metrosexual. It is not sexy or even charming.”
Pierre Hardy for NARS Cosmetics, available May 1 at www.narscosmetics.com.
The Fab Five: Satin-Finish Lipsticks
In today’s world of lipstick domination, the myriad product options can be dizzying. Between stains, lip tars, lipsticks, and lip balms—not to mention finishes that include shiny, matte, shimmering, and glossy—the options are literally endless. Satin finishes have caught our eye recently, though, boasting a semimatte texture that offers a best-of-all-worlds solution to the long-standing lip-color debate. “Satin-finish lipsticks do not have a lot of shine to them, which makes them different from a creamy or glossy texture,” explains NARS national makeup artist Francelle Daly. “They have a bit of moisture in the formula to help glide on the lip, but it’s not 100 percent matte, either. This makes it easier to apply, and they tend to stay put without drying out.” If this sounds like the kind of compromise you’ve been looking for, we’ve rounded up five of our favorite satin-finish ’sticks to help spread the lip love.
Peaches and Cream
Jouer Hydrating Lipstick in Meg
The beauty of a satin lipstick is that it feels so good. This hydrating formula contains Cupuaçu butter from Brazil to keep lips supersoft, and has a thicker formula than other satin lipsticks.
Think Pink
Lipstick Queen Saint in Bright Rose
Lipstick Queen creator Poppy King is known for her obsession with lipsticks, and her unique, cult-loved formulas. Her sheer, silky Saint line contains the same colors as her Sinner collection, but with 90 percent less pigment. Don’t let that fool you, though; one application is enough to provide full coverage to lips.
Vine Time
NARS Satin Finish Lip Pencil in Majella
There’s nothing better than a multitasking beauty product, and this lipstick-in-a-pencil means you can skip the liner and still achieve a perfect pout. The formula is incredibly silky and easy to apply, and can be patted off for a stain effect if full-on color isn’t your thing.
The Okay Coral
Dior Addict Lipstick in Exotique, available in May
With spring (hopefully!) right around the corner, this new tulip-pink hue is the ideal addition to your makeup bag. The super-sheer formula delivers an almost dewy texture to lips, and is so light that you almost forget you’re wearing it!
Berry Best
Chanel Rouge Allure in Envoutant
Chanel’s latest offering delivers their most moisturizing formula to date. The rich plummy hue goes on sheer yet is heavily pigmented, so two coats will give you full coverage.
François Nars: Frisco Kid
NARS is on the move. The renowned New York makeup brand that was born from editorial superstar François Nars’ aesthetic vision (and Fabien Baron’s iconic packaging) opened its Bleecker Street flagship in Manhattan back in 2011, which was quickly followed by a Melrose Avenue location in L.A.—not to mention a series of high-profile backstage cameos in London and Paris during the shows (Erdem, Christopher Kane, Roland Mouret, et al.). Now, the brand appears to be turning its attention to the City by the Bay and setting up shop on San Francisco’s famous Fillmore Street. Its new 700-square-foot space features a similar design to its SoCal sister store, with white walls accented with flashes of black and high-gloss, lacquered red—the same shade as the brand’s iconic Jungle Red Lipstick. Four makeup stations will host the same number of François Nars-trained face-painters, who will be armed and ready for demos and makeovers using the line’s complete collection of products—including its 314 BLKR range, which is exclusive to its independent flagships, and includes the newly released sheer garnet Multiple (a Beauty Counter favorite). It will make a nice addition to the neighborhood, which is already home to Marc by Marc Jacobs, much like the small piece of West Village real estate both brands occupy in New York. One-stop shopping, at its bicoastal best.
NARS Cosmetics, 2050 Fillmore St., San Francisco, CA; www.narscosmetics.com.
Terms Of Concealment
One of the best parts about reporting backstage at the shows is getting a sneak peek at the wealth of new products that brands like to break out for their artists to test-drive during the collections. It’s actually a bittersweet privilege, because often we’ll see something we want in real time, only to learn that distribution is still a good six months away. So it went last season when we discovered NARS Radiant Creamy Concealers. Makeup artists like James Boehmer, Francelle Daly, and monsieur François Nars himself used these imperfection-blurring magic wands for shows ranging from 3.1 Phillip Lim to Marc Jacobs, leaving dark circles and blemishes camouflaged in their wake—and leaving us wanting much, much more. But now, after what has seemed like an eternity, the wait is finally over. Today, the brand launched nine shades of the new product—and just in time, too, as we reach the midway point in the Fall show cycle and our fatigue starts (reads: continues) to show. Here’s why we’re so excited about it: We actually carry two concealers in our jam-packed Proenza Schouler makeup bag, a light-diffusing product for under our eyes, and a thicker, better coverage formula for the rogue unsightly spot. But the latest from NARS is actually capable of pulling double duty, which is a godsend on those days when space in said makeup bag is at a premium. Wear alone, or mix with your favorite foundation for an extra-flawless finish.
“A Touch of Wednesday Addams,” Backstage at Erdem
The Erdem girl has always been on something of an emotional journey. Two seasons ago, she was looking for love; last season, she had found it and lost it. This season, however, she gave up on the prospect of love altogether—and took a turn toward the dark side instead. “There’s a touch of Wednesday Addams about her,” makeup artist Hannah Murray confirmed backstage of the “spooky” beauty look. “The collection is quite dark, so the girl we’re creating is a little ghostly.”
Crafting “moonlit,” luminescent skin, using NARS Multiple in Luxor for a dramatic highlight, Murray blended its forthcoming Single Eye Shadow in Namibia, a dove-gray matte pigment, from the lash line right up to the brows to give a halo effect around the eyes. But the real focus was a set of magnificently groomed arches, which Murray crafted using NARS’ as-yet-unreleased Brow Perfector. “The brows are really important to this look, but they need to look real and not drawn on,” Murray explained, sketching individual hairs, rather than taking long sweeps with the pencil, to make the line look as natural as possible.
Rather than duplicate Wednesday Addams’ signature center part, hairstylist Luke Hersheson carved out severe side parts and poker-straight polished hair. “The positioning of the parting is critical with this look—it needs to be on the left-hand side and begin two-thirds of the way down the brows,” he pointed out, using L’Oréal Professionnel Tecni Art Pli and Liss Control to give strands a super-glossy mirror-like finish.