Beauty Quote of the Day from Yves Saint Laurent:
Maria Falconetti in "La passion de Jeanne d'Arc" by Dreyer (1928)
“The most beautiful makeup for a woman is passion. But cosmetics are easier to buy.”
You can read more about the French worldview in a funny article in the New York Times, A Guide to the French. Handle with Care from which this quote by YSL is excerpted.
Image: Cinema High and Low
Regarding the article on the sellers in France, I think the author had never discover the Russian ones.
Maybe this is going to be her next assignment, the Moscow bureau.
It certainly is a picturesque, folkloric vision of the French she offers. There is a voluminous literature in the US about American or Anglo perceptions of the French. They love them! And then they hate them! And then they love them again! It's a never ending love-hate relationship.