Nars-issism

Just as cooks follow recipes to replicate dishes by famous chefs, can women follow recipes to create the perfectly made-up face each morning?

If makeup artist Francois Nars has his way, now they’ll be able to. Nars, a "three-star" artist by any standard in the fashion and beauty realm, has joined the ranks of Bobbi Brown and the late Kevyn Aucoin in penning his own book, Makeup Your Mind.

"Think of it as a makeup cookbook–full of my recipes that will give you hundreds of ideas about makeup and beauty," writes the French artist. "You can use them as is, or like many cooks, take whatever inspiration you like and adapt it in your own unique and personal way."

Like Bobbi Brown, Nars has a full line of color cosmetics and brushes (in the Philippines it’s available exclusively at Rustan’s Essenses in Glorietta 4). Nars’ makeup has become known and loved by stylish women for its unusual, edgy yet beautiful colors; makeup artists like it for its rich pigment and professional quality.

A beauty veteran of 25 years, Nars first made a splash when Madonna bought Heaven, an eye shadow duo from his newly minted line, making its combination of soft pink and tangerine instantly hip. Then Nars innovated The Multiple, bronzing sticks for eyes, cheeks and lips named after famous jet-set getaways. With The Multiple, even if you’d never been abroad, you could legally claim your glow came from St. Barts or Copacabana. More recently, Nars created one of the best-selling blushes of all time, a shimmery gold-apricot called Orgasm, proving success may lie mainly in chutzpah and a great name, after all.

Nars says he has three approaches to makeup: low-key, wild and abstract, and he demonstrates every possible technique on 63 models in Makeup Your Mind. Many of the models are big names or instantly recognizable, like Naomi Campbell, Devon Aoki, Caroline Ribeiro, Eva Herzigova, Elsa Benitez and Sophie Dahl. Among the few Asians, Nars even uses a Filipino model, Valerie Celis.

Like most of his peers, Nars believes that modern makeup should enhance a woman’s natural beauty, not mask her personality. He insists that every woman has at least one beautiful feature she can play up. Also, like most of his counterparts exposed to supermodeldom on a daily basis, he likes makeup to be simple but not boring, and values character over perfection. Oddly enough for someone in his profession, he loves women with the confidence to wear zero makeup. "A woman who hides behind a mask of makeup is still going to have to take it off at some point... and deal with reality," he says.

An avid photographer who shot the book himself, Nars gives each model a two-page spread, consisting of a full-page Before and After shot. But here is where he diverges from other celebrity makeup artists: While other books feature models styled to the max or celebrities transformed to look like other celebrities, Nars proudly calls his book trick- and gimmick-free. Each model’s face was shot full-on, in exactly the same conditions before and after: In front of the same neutral backdrop, sitting on the same stool, bathed in the same lighting. There are no fancy hairstyles or fashionable tops to distract from the makeup and how it might make a model’s skin glow, or make her eye color pop.

Another groundbreaking feature Nars introduces is a transparent acetate cover sheet he places over each After shot, with drawings showing exactly where he puts what kind of makeup. In a move even more business-savvy than Bobbi Brown and Aucoin, Nars uses his book as the perfect vehicle to promote his makeup line – each "recipe" features the exact names of the products he uses – but for women who’ve already filled their own makeup bags, Nars helpfully puts shade descriptions like "sheer white eye shadow" so they can find something similar in their kits.

So, how do these pre-formulated makeup diagrams stack up in the boudoir? After trying to copy a look I liked from each of the book’s six sections – Eyes; Lips; Neutrals; Shimmer, Monochrome & Suntan; Pastels; and Color – I can say that most of the recipes are fairly easy to duplicate, as long as you have similar products and colors. You might even be pleasantly surprised at how a technique you’ve never tried before (like using one color for the whole face or gently contouring your eyes) makes you look so good it’ll lift you right out of a makeup rut.

However, I also found some techniques and colors harder to work with than others. Nars’ smoky-eye looks are tricky, especially without the right tools and guidance. Many makeup artists claim that smoky eyes are easy and sexy but in reality they’re hard to pull off, particularly when a novice tries to manipulate a mistakes-guaranteed eye shadow color like black. Instead of the beautifully blended, "controlled smudge" Nars is so deft at, you’re likely to end up looking as fierce as Daryl Hannah in Blade Runner or Gwyneth Paltrow in The Royal Tenenbaums – more schizo than sexy.

Asian women might also be intimidated at the large number of pale, freckled models in the book, thinking that these looks might not work for them. I say keep an open mind. Not only does Makeup Your Mind have something for everyone, Nars’ color choices are pretty and pretty universal. They’ll work on a wide range of skin tones; whether you prefer nude beige or acid green is up to you.

Nars already has Makeup Your Mind 2 in the works, this time using non-professional models (i.e., ordinary people) in a similar makeover setting. This is great news for us mere mortals who don’t wake up looking as long-lashed and poreless as Elsa Benitez does in the morning.

The bottom line is, if you’re at all curious about beauty and eager to try new things in the quest to look good, then Makeup Your Mind is for you. Nars is a talented, dedicated artist who deserves a place on the shelf next to Aucoin, Brown, et al. At the very least, his Fabien Baron-designed tome looks as fabulous adorning your coffee table as it does sitting next to your makeup table.

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Makeup Your Mind is available upon special order from Powerbooks or through Amazon.com.