Portrait of the Artist: NARS x Charlotte Gainsbourg collection launches

The Charlotte Gainsbourg for NARS Collection presents the iconic chanteuse’s signature style through François Nars’ vision of beauty.

The Holy Grail of beauty – looking natural, flawless, and, above all, effortless – just became more attainable, thanks to Nars Cosmetics’ latest collection with the ultimate Parisian hip girl, Charlotte Gainsbourg. Having long been admirers of each other’s work – “I’ve always loved the brand,” says Gainsbourg – she and the cosmetic giant’s founder, François Nars, met on a photo shoot in New York, and a creative partnership naturally blossomed.

For Nars, tapping the star for a collaboration was a no-brainer. The actress and singer is widely heralded for her innately chic style, as is her mother, fashion icon Jane Birkin, who Gainsbourg lists alongside Brigitte Bardot and Charlotte Rampling as her top beauty icons. As Nars says, “Her allure is all in the uncompromising power of her personal style … very cool and authentic, very French.” The result of the collection is just that.

A believer in the “less is more” beauty mantra, Gainsbourg developed the line after her own personal beauty routine and requirements. Favoring the enhancement of natural color over using heavier products, subtle tints were created for the lips and face, down to a set of essential makeup brushes. Two Velvet Duo Eye-shadow palettes and three smudgy Kohliners are also on offer in dusky hues of inky-blue, shimmering bronze, and army-green for a stronger look. The eye shadows are named after London’s Old Church Street and Paris’s Rue Allent, a nod to the their creator’s British-French heritage. Working alongside François and Nars art director Fabien Baron, Gainsbourg was given full artistic control over the collection and was involved in every step of the creative process, from the conception (the Hydrating Glow Tint was all her idea!) and naming of each product, right down to her vision of the sleek iconic Nars packaging, but in military green with thin gold lettering.

This beautiful, understated, and effortlessly chic collection (just like Gainsbourg herself) collection, which launched on April 13 in the US and will be global by May, is set to be a coveted success. (via Vanity Fair)