How to: Achieve your best look based on your skin type.

“Express yourself. Makeup should fit who you are,” says Founder & Creative Director François Nars.

The NARS approach to beauty has always been about enhancing your natural features, not masking them. That starts with understanding your skin type and learning how to work with it.

Whether dry, oily, combination, or normal, how you take care of your skin, and the kind of makeup you use, will help keep your complexion looking fresh and perfected.

The right kind of makeup for your skin type is key for targeting specific skin concerns. Different formulas are designed with unique coverages, finishes, and benefits.

Dry skin can make foundation look uneven, settle into fine lines, or emphasize texture. Choosing hydrating, smoothing formulas helps create a soft, supple base.

Prep: Hydrate the Skin

Start with a primer that keeps your face soft and hydrated, creating a clean canvas for long-lasting makeup wear.  Light Reflecting™ Hydrating Primer provides 12 hours of smooth and seamless makeup wear. Infused with 93% skin ingredients, this hydrating formula improves skin’s texture, reduces the appearance of fine lines, and boosts brightness over time.

Artistry Tip: Warm primer between your fingertips and press it into areas where dryness shows most—around the nose, cheeks, and under the eyes—for a smoother foundation application.

Foundation: Choose Comfortable, Buildable Coverage

For dry skin, look for a natural or radiant finish with a comfortable, hydrating texture.

Light Reflecting™ Foundation offers medium, buildable coverage with a natural, radiant finish. Its innovative blend of makeup and skincare instantly blurs imperfections with breathable, all-day wear.

Natural Radiant Longwear Foundation provides lightweight, medium-to-full coverage that's fade-resistant and natural-looking. It covers, smooths, and improves the appearance of skin texture with all-day hydration.

Discover the shade that matches your skin best with NARS virtual shade-matching tools. 

Concealer: Smooth, Creamy, and Crease‑Resistant

Dry skin benefits from a creamy formula that conceals without creasing.

 Radiant Creamy Concealer brightens, corrects, and perfects the complexion with 16-hour wear and 24-hour hydration. With a luxurious texture and luminous finish, its weightless, crease-resistant formula instantly brightens the undereyes and smooths the look of skin.

Artistry Tip: Apply concealer after foundation only where needed to avoid excess product that can cling to dry patches.

Set: Keep Skin Fresh

Finish with products that lock in makeup without adding dryness or dullness.

Lock in luminosity and keep makeup in place all day with Light Reflecting™ Setting Powder - Pressed. Pair with Light Reflecting™ Makeup Setting Mist to hydrate and protect your skin.

Oily skin tends to dissolve makeup, preventing it from properly sitting on skin throughout the day.

If you have combination skin—an oily T-zone with dry cheeks—you’ll need to address both challenges.

With oily or combination skin, it’s important to find makeup that will prevent your face from becoming too shiny by the end of the day. From primer to setting spray, your focus should be on mattifying the oily parts of your face and providing enough hydration to the drier ones.

Prep: Control Shine

Create a balanced base with a mattifying primer.

Soft Matte Primer helps control shine throughout the day and creates a smooth, even canvas for makeup application. This lightweight makeup primer gently glides over the skin with a water-gel texture that sets into a velvety soft matte finish. It fills uneven, textured skin and prepares it for smooth foundation application.

Artistry Tip: Focus the primer only on the areas that get shiny—typically the forehead, nose, and chin—to avoid over-mattifying drier areas.

Foundation: Longwear and Oil Control

Choose a matte or natural matte foundation that resists heat, humidity, and excess oil.

Natural Matte Longwear Foundation provides medium-to-full coverage with a soft-focus effect that instantly blurs the look of imperfections and controls shine for 24 hours*. Its serum-like formula is unexpectedly lightweight and breathable for optimal buildability with a natural, matte finish.

*Based on a clinical study of 36 subjects

Concealer: High Coverage with a Blurred Finish

A matte, high-coverage concealer helps smooth and blur the look of textured or acne-prone skin.

Soft Matte Complete Concealer offers high coverage with a soft-matte, blurred  finish. From dark spots to undereye circles to breakouts, its wide shade range provides buildable coverage for various skin tones.

Set: Maintain a Smooth Matte Finish

Lock makeup in place and minimize the appearance of pores.

Soft Matte Advanced Perfecting Powder extends makeup wear and controls shine with a matte effect that lasts. It blurs imperfections for 24 hours—without the dry, cakey feel. Over time, it minimizes the appearance of pores and skin texture.

Light Reflecting™ Makeup Setting Mist sets makeup in place all day so that color stays true without shifting. It leaves skin feeling supple, smooth, and revitalized.

Artistry Tip: For combination skin, set only the T-zone with powder and use mist over the cheeks to maintain balance.

Normal skin is well-balanced, neither too oily nor too dry, with just the right amount of hydration and natural oils. It has a smooth, even texture and small pores.

Prep: Energize and Smooth

Use a primer that boosts radiance and creates a clean base.

Radiance Primer SPF 35 energizes the complexion and helps makeup apply more evenly. It creates a clean canvas to prolong and enhance the look of your makeup.

Foundation: Natural, Breathable Coverage

Choose a foundation that feels comfortable and enhances your natural finish.

Natural Radiant Longwear Foundation offers breathable, fade-resistant coverage with a natural, radiant finish and helps smooth and improve the skin's texture over time.

Light Reflecting™ Foundation is another great option for normal skin, offering medium, buildable coverage with a skin-like, comfortable finish that helps blur imperfections while maintaining natural radiance.

Concealer: Brighten and Perfect

A lightweight, creamy formula helps maintain a natural look while adding brightness.

Radiant Creamy Concealer brightens the undereye area and smooths the look of skin. Infused with unique powders, it helps even out skin tone and blurs the appearance of imperfections.

Set: Keep Makeup Fresh All Day

Help your makeup stay photo-ready with soft-focus setting products.

Light Reflecting™ Setting Powder - Loose locks makeup in place all day with a weightless, luminous finish. It optimizes light reflection on the skin by optically fading fine lines, wrinkles, and pores.

Light Reflecting™ Makeup Setting Mist is a multitasking, skin-enhancing mist that sets, hydrates, and protects all in one step.

Artistry Tip: Lightly mist your brush before picking up powder for a softer, more seamless finish.