Emmanuel Macron spent €26,000 on personal makeup artist in first three months as President

Elysée Palace says costs should be 'significantly reduced'

French President Emmanuel Macron received bills €10,000 and €16,000 from his personal makeup artists for the first three months of his presidency. (AFP/Getty / Thomas Samson)

Emmanuel Macron has spent €26,000 (£24,000) on makeup bills in the first three months of his presidency, it has been revealed.

Two bills worth €10,000 (£9,200) and €16,000 (£14,700) from the French leader's personal makeup artist, named only as 40-year-old Natacha M, were obtained by Le Point newspaper.

The 39-year-old who became France's youngest president since Napoleon, is known to take great pride in his looks and Ms M was reportedly on hand to touch up his mascara during his leadership campaign.

The Secretary General of Mr Macron's official home in Paris' Elysée Palace, Alexis Kohler, is expected to pay the bills which are not pleasing everyone inside the Palace. Le Point reported.

A spokesperson for the palace told BFMT TV: "We called a contractor as a matter of urgency" but added the bill would be "significantly reduced".

The pampering of French Presidents have previously come at high costs for taxpayers.

Mr Macron predecessor, Francois Hollande, was paying his makeup artist and hairdresser respectively €6,000 (£5,500) and €10,000 (£9,200) a month.

According to Vanity Fair, Mr Hollande's own predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy, paid about €8,000 (£7,360) a month to get his hair done.

Mr Hollande's hairdresser bills sparked outrage as the socialist candidate had promised to be a "normal president" and move away from Mr Sarkozy's "bling" presidency, during his own leadership campaign.

The revelations are not likely to do any good to Mr Macron's plummeting popularity.

In the first 100 days of his time in office, it has fallen faster than any previous French President and his favourability rating recently sat at just 36 per cent, according to a recent poll.

This will be a blow to his flagship campaign pledge to "moralise public life" which has already stirred controversy following his bid to give his wife Brigitte an official "first lady" status.

The makeup bills also come a month after Mr Macron announced the government was going to cut a type of housing benefit by five euros a month which will affect millions of people in France including students, the jobless and people living below the poverty line.

The measure has sparked fury from parts of civil society who accused the President of "hitting on the poor".