Ever played the game, ‘If you could eat just one cuisine for the rest of your life what would it be?’ It's a favourite question in our household. And my answer is usually Thai, with all the fresh zingy flavours it satiates my love of spice, but Italian always comes in a close second with my love of melted cheese. Recently I also asked myself the same question about makeup. ‘If I had to use one brand for the rest of time what would it be?’ This is no easy question for someone who tests beauty products for a living.
As a process of deduction, I recounted some of my favourite products, from trending hits (so many varieties of lip oil and liquid blush) to exciting breakthrough-to-mainstay brands such as Rare, Merit and Rhode. Also, some of my all time product favourites from Benefit's Hoola Bronzer to MAC's Macximal Lipsticks and Charlotte Tilbury's Airbrush Flawless Setting Spray that have been in and out of my makeup bag for years.
But what about brands with multiple favourites that I have gone back to and used over and over? If they are going to be my sole makeup bag friend forever more, they need to excel across categories, from great skin cover and good glow to interesting eye and lip colours with textures, shades and scents that make me happy when I use them.
I started to run down through the categories and with blush, Nars makeup immediately came to mind. The mighty shimmery and warming shade of the cheekily named Orgasm Blush. This was my first Nars product and how I discovered the brand started by legendary artist François Nars, which he launched with a collection of 12 lipsticks back in 1994. With a name that demanded to be tried and a shade that added good glow and a hint of healthy flushed colour, it has been a staple when I wanted to feel good. Recently, I've graduated to a slightly deeper shade, Behave. Not quite so cheekily named, but maybe a sign of the times.
'So what's in a name?' I was lucky enough to be able to ask the man himself, when we caught up in Paris, at the brand's 30th anniversary celebration this year. “From day one, Nars has been about the names. I always feel like the name has to be punchy, so when women see the name, they won't forget it. And it gives an identity to the product too, it makes it feel more special and memorable. You want it to become iconic!" revealed François.
So does he remember the moment Orgasm was coined? “It came such a long time ago that I forget if I created the name before or the shade after. My thought was, 'Let's make a universal shade that will look good on everybody - blonde, brunettes, anybody.' Because if you come up with a name like that, it's got to be for everyone. It became a really magical name, a magical product and without really thinking it was going to be.”
With the decades-long success of Orgasm, came a spin-off range from liquid blush to lip balm and here I found a new favourite too, Orgasm Afterglow Lip Balm. It’s a ‘clean girl’ balm that adds a hydrating hint of peachy colour and gloss to lips and it's my go-to on off-duty days.
My blush discovery was shortly followed by a love for The Multiple, arguably one of the original highlighters and in a stick format no less! It felt revolutionary at the time, chic in the matt black packaging that still looks as good today, with a shimmery texture you could glide across highlight zones on face and body. It's no underestimate to say it has been copied multiple times by multiple brands in the years since.
The Nars Laguna Bronzing Powder led me to my most covted Nars product - an Orgasm and Laguna compact duo. Sadly no longer available despite my Googling searches, but one that I and many MUA's often request to make a comeback from the archive. Now I have to settle for the single format, but the technique is the same, contouring with Laguna under cheekbones, jaw and around the hairline and a hit of shimmery blush high on cheekbones.
So far so many hits, and as I continued to run through the makeup categories, Nars products kept appearing. For skin the Radiant Creamy Concealer, a perennial winner in Glamour's Beauty Power List Beauty Awards, with easy-to -blend coverage is a titan of the concealing world and another regular I often fall back on to blend out shadows and occasional pimples.
Next up, lips, and so many of the bold Nars shades with legendary names have lured me in over the years from Jungle Red to Shanghai Express and it's no different with the newly launched Explicit Lipsticks, current shades on rotation include Devious and Mischievous. “Lipstick should be really love at first sight. You can't really explain why you are attracted to a certain colour, you just know it's going to look good on you,” says François.
So with 30 years of inspiring desire what does he hope is his greatest legacy? “If I made women happy all over the world, who bought one tube of product, then I can go to sleep and be very happy at night. And you know, I think we achieved it!"
I'm clearly in this camp. The product list has stacked up and the evidence is undeniable, if I had to use one brand forever more it would have to be Nars. So now the question to you, 'If you had to use one makeup brand forever what would it be?
Camilla Kay is Acting Executive Editor at Glamour UK and has been a beauty editor for over 25 years. For more from Camilla, follow her at IG camilla.kay
