François Nars was born in the South of France and attended the Carita Makeup School in Paris. He moved to New York in 1984 and debuted his first line of lipsticks a decade later at Barneys New York. Nars is the current president and creative director of NARS Cosmetics.

From François Nars, one of the most respected and imitated cosmetics designers in fashion today, comes a totally new, revolutionary instruction manual on makeup for today’s woman. Established in 1994 by renowned cosmetics designer François Nars, NARS Cosmetics is one of the most recognizable and coveted cosmetics and skin-care brands, with a huge international following. Nars’s visionary approach to makeup and innovation within the industry has forever changed the face of beauty. Here Nars combines his expertise in makeup and photography to create a makeover manual that transforms the application of makeup into the ultimate form of self-expression. The book celebrates Nars’s unrivaled vision as a makeup artist, providing visual and textual narratives of his cosmetic process, inspiring readers to re-create his lessons on their own, and featuring examples of the newest, freshest looks and color palettes popular today. Employing Nars’s own before and after makeover photographs of a variety of models of all different ages, races, and skin tones—and combining these images with the designer’s instructional sketches on transparent overlays—this volume is the definitive do-it-yourself guide for anyone interested in the transformative power of cosmetics.