NARS Cosmetics is revisiting its OG 90s lipstick shades

Beauty brands have started looking to their roots for inspiration – and it’s no wonder, with interest in archive and 90s shades at an all-time high. Earlier this month, MAC Cosmetics brought back eight discontinued lipstick shades, including the highly requested ‘Fleshpot’ and ‘Bubbles’, while Urban Decay just announced it’s bringing back the original Naked palette after it was discontinued in 2018. And now, NARS Cosmetics have revisited their own archives to mark 30 years since the brand first launched.

NARS started life as a collection of 12 lipstick shades launched in Barney’s department store by make-up artist François Nars in 1994. It quickly expanded, spawning now-iconic products like ‘Orgasm’ blush (reportedly one is sold every 20 seconds) and becoming a favourite among Hollywood and the fashion industry. In a 1999 article sharing signature shades of various actresses, models and singers, cited NARS fans include Michelle Pfeiffer (‘Roman Holiday’), Liv Tyler (‘Harlow’), Karen Elson (‘Heat Wave’) and Sharon Stone (‘Red Lizard’).

Now, for its 30th anniversary, NARS is releasing a range of 36 lipsticks paying homage to the brand’s first launch. Named the Explicit lipstick collection, the lipsticks have a creamy, satin finish with medium to full coverage and refillable packaging. Alongside the shades, NARS announced three new global ambassadors: Ciara, Pom Klementieff and Camila Morrone. “For me, it’s always been lipstick,” François Nars says. “I started with 12 uncompromising colours to give women confidence, and we’re still rewriting all the beauty rules today. Here’s to 30 years and the Explicit content that’s still to come.”

The new collection does not aim to recreate the original shades exactly, like the MAC launch did – in fact, NARS already did that in 2019 when it released the Original 12 Lipstick Collection to mark 25 years in the business. What it does do is honour its early days by revisiting the colour stories from the original collection. “Women love great reds, but also pale and neutral pinks. They were the colours I used in the pages of Vogue on girls of the time like Linda [Evangelista],” François Nars said of how he decided on those first 12 shades, in a 2019 interview with Vogue.

Available from August 12, this new collection ranges from bold reds and warm roses to classic 90s browns. Some stand-outs include a tan rose shade called ‘Liaison’ – “Liaison is easy to misread as another pretty pink, but its sultry undertones are very good at keeping secrets” – and a tea brown shade called ‘Body Heat.’ “There are two sides to me: the shocker and the traditionalist. Body Heat is a lipstick that will surprise you, but in an understated, unexpected way,” he says.