Twenty-two years ago, a collection of lipsticks, neatly packaged in matte black rubber bearing the letters N-A-R-S, arrived on the beauty counter at Barneys New York on Madison Avenue. The brainchild of makeup artist François Nars, the highly pigmented line debuted 12 shades, including current industry standbys such as Jungle Red and Scarlet Empress. It became an instant sensation, catapulting Nars’ already flourishing career to the next level.

Indeed, in the decade prior to his collection launch, the soft-spoken Frenchman (he hails from Tarbes in the South of France) had solidified his status as a fashion industry darling (Vogue editor Polly Mellen was one of his earliest champions), a backstage fixture adored by the supers (Cindy, Christy, Linda, Kate, Naomi), and the creator of Madonna’s beauty looks for her 1992 book, Sex. Nars the man has since achieved legend status, and so have his namesake cosmetics—to date, no beauty counter is complete without the ingenious one-shade-beautifies-all blush, Orgasm (two are sold every minute).

Recently, the press-shy artist temporarily relocated to Los Angeles from his private island in Tahiti to work on his seventh yet-to-be-titled book. (His sixth tome, a photo-biographical coffee-table volume, releases this fall.) While in Tinseltown, the makeup artist and photographer took a few minutes to share his musings on the subject that lured him westward—Hollywood.