Cult classics: Nars’ radiant foundation and concealer speak to a vision of ‘real beauty’

Nars’ Radiant Longwear Foundation, Radiant Creamy Concealer and Radiant Pure Radiant Tinted Moisturiser are the make-up equivalent of the holy trinity when it comes to creating skin that – if you’ll pardon the beauty cliché – still ‘looks like skin’.

Of course, the raison d’être of the brand, founded by virtuoso François Nars in 1994 with black rubberised packaging designed by Fabien Baron, is to traverse the line between ‘no make-up make-up’ and outré glamour. Though arguably Nars, who remains the creative director for his namesake product line 30 years on, considers these two aesthetics as one and the same.

Nars radiant foundation and concealer are cult classics

Born and raised in the South of France, Nars grew up during the 1960s and 1970s, watching the matriarchs of his family titivating and preening themselves in the signature manner of French women.

Later, he would paint the faces of his mother and grandmothers to practice his make-up skills, before leaving home for Paris to hone his craft at the prestigious Carita Institute. ‘What I learnt from my mother is that character and personality are the most important beauty traits in a person. She was never into heavy make-up, but she always looked amazing, which taught me that less is more,’ Nars once said. In 2021, he even produced a range of products called The Claudette Collection, in tribute to her.

But it was the legendary fashion editor Polly Mellen who gave François Nars his ‘big break’ during the 1980s. Mellen, who passed away in December 2024 at the age of 100, was drawn to his work precisely because it had a ‘lighter’ touch than the make-up by some of his contemporaries. ‘She loved the transparency of the make-up, compared to what was being done at that time,’ Nars told WWD in 2011. ‘I sought out girls with freckles, raw beauty. It was a new concept. I wanted to show that they were human,’ he explained.

A seminal moment in Nars’ career was keying the make-up for Marc Jacobs’ S/S 1993 show for Perry Ellis, which tore up the rulebook of American style in tribute to the grunge movement. (The collection led to Jacobs’ immediate dismissal from the brand and simultaneously catapulted the fashion designer to stardom).

Grunge was defined by a lived-in nonchalance, epitomised in the styles of Kate Moss and Kristen McMenamy, who closed the Perry Ellis show hand-in-hand. Here, the make-up – semi-mattified skin with a flush of colour on the cheeks, a touch of mascara and eyeliner and balmy lips in the same shade as the model’s skin tones – aided in capturing this mood. ‘Make-up is very important for a show. It’s really an accessory on the runway. You have to be sure that it fits the clothes,’ Nars, who collaborates with Jacobs to this day, once said.

Coinciding with London Fashion Week A/W 2025 (20 – 24 February 2025), and speaking to the brand’s longstanding relationship with the city’s runway shows, Nars has popped up in Covent Garden with an installation called The Players Lounge, celebrating its hero make-up base products. This includes the Natural Radiant Longwear Foundation – a budge-proof, featherlight formula providing medium to full coverage – and the hydrating, long-wearing and multifunctional Radiant Creamy Concealer.

Ten years ago, at Christopher Kane A/W 2015, key make-up artist Lucia Pieroni used Nars on the models, including the sheer yet buildable Pure Radiant Tinted Moisturiser producing looks that featured ‘nude skin with a strong handsome eyebrow.’

More recently, for Erdem’s A/W 2023 show, Nars’ global artistry director Jane Richardson led the backstage beauty team, with its Radiant Creamy Concealer subtly evening out complexions, only in the areas requiring it. Slept-in, black eyeliner, creased with a slick of gloss, and The Multiple highlighter stick, daubed onto cheekbones and cupids bows, gave faces an almost perspiratory sheen.

In a shoot for the Wallpaper* March 2025 issue, shot by Grace Difford and styled by our creative and fashion director Jason Hughes, make-up artist Claire Urquhart used Nars to transform model Maaike Klaasen into six visual interpretations of intoxicating perfumes, including seamless finishes to her skin.

Nars is known for its collaborative product collections, teaming up with the likes of Kane and Erdem – the latter brand showing its A/W 2025 collection tomorrow (23 February 2025) – on two limited-edition product edits released in 2015 and 2018 respectively.

For now, we will wait patiently in the hope that a project with a third London designer could soon be in the works.

The Nars Players Lounge is open from 22 – 23 February 2025 between 11am and 6pm at The Stables Unit X, 40 Earlham Street, WC2H 9LH.

nars.co.uk