Name it, she’s done it. The ultimate contemporary beauty high achiever, whose distinctive glow-y, alien and fetishistic handiwork has transformed and elevated the faces of so many stars, is of course Isamaya Ffrench. She’s an intelligent driven make-up artist whose creative vision thrives at Isamaya Beauty, the brand she founded in June 2022. She has equally made her mark on the runways of iconic brands like Thom Browne, Vivienne Westwood, Junya Watanabe and Mowalola.
Isamaya’s bold approach to beauty has exploded across catwalks, covers and campaigns over the past 10 years, erasing (and raising) eyebrows, adding prosthetics and memorably smacking lipstick kisses on faces like at Vivienne Westwood SS24 and Dazed Beauty’s Lipstick 2.0 video. Her sensual beauty imprint even extended into art this year with her work being exhibited at Frieze London in October too. Brutal and beautiful, her face is photographed stretched with metal hooks wearing neutral makeup, letting the shine be actual metal this time.
Yo-yoing between sex and art (think her Industrial campaign) into comfort and performance, Isamaya earlier this month announced a tantalising Nike collaboration that launched 20th December with new shades of the Air Max Dn inspired by beauty products in two nude shades of chocolate and tan. Pillar box red shoes have been made exclusively for gifting. The thread running through is that Isamaya creates products and images that are attractive and work. Her Skinlacq Serum is award-winning, lipsticks and glosses hyper-nourishing and eyeshadow modern. They all throw a punch of high shine impact.
Decisive strokes of metallic eyeshadow on Kate Moss and the word truth painted across Rhianna’s face, Isamaya’s work represents the era of clever play with the codes of beauty. She has edited i-D Magazine, contributed to The Business of Fashion and held key roles in beauty at YSL, Christian Louboutin, Tom Ford, Burberry and Byredo. It comes as little surprise that her skills have been compared to the greats that came before: from Bobbi Brown to Pat McGrath. Isamaya is the make-up artist who really matters in the 21st century. More than the endless list of names whose paths she has crossed or appears to be walking down, Isamaya Ffrench is multi-dimensional, down to earth and honest.
Styling and designing clothes in untraditional ways seems to be all the rage (see tops not quite on the body at Victoria Beckham AW24) — so is using lipstick as eyeshadow, as demonstrated in your own videos. When did the shift happen, and products start being used in ways that are unconventional?
I’ve always used makeup like art materials — a colour is a colour and doesn’t need to be defined by parts of the face! People have been using makeup in unconventional ways for decades — look at Leigh Bowery or the early John Galliano shows by Pat McGrath or even Alex Box’s fantastical face paints! I don’t think it’s anything new, it’s perhaps that now finally people are becoming braver to experiment with products and their own style.
Is innovation born out of necessity?
Sometimes, but it can also be born out of happy mistakes.
How did you make it work at the beginning of your career as a make-up artist? I’ve heard you cut your teeth painting faces kid’s parties to avoid a bar job, rising up the ranks and dropped out of CSM.
I dropped out of Product Design at CSM after a year because it wasn’t for me. Initially I wanted to be a dentist because I had been working as a dental nurse when I was at high school and sixth form but then I discovered I was quite good at face painting. I got a job as a body painter for an i-D Magazine shoot and it all snowballed from there. None of what followed was planned, and I had no formal makeup training so just did what felt exciting to me.
Did your early job as a makeup artist to spray paint a porn star’s penis gold influence the art-object penis shaped lipstick cases you created for Isamaya?
Not really, it was more of a why not situation. I couldn’t believe that no one had done it before! But I wanted to do it in an elevated, artistic way and refine the shape of the final product as opposed to doing something crass.
Your brand and work have a real emphasis on shine and gloss in all its forms. Glitter and the Christmas season come hand in hand, but how do you put an edge on your festive look?
I am truly obsessed with metallics and iridescent pigments so having these multi-dimensional reflections to me feels more modern and a bit more exciting than your regular glitters and shimmers.
If you were a seasonal canapé, what would you be and why?
Let’s just cut to the main course — when is it dinner time? I’m famished!
You’re embedded in music culture, whether that’s doing Rhianna’s makeup, singing on a Feel cover with Sega Bodega or releasing your own music. What’s on your Christmas holidays playlist?
Doom metal. Not very ho ho ho I know.
When it comes to beauty hacks, is self-massage (with your own hands) the most cheap and cheerful solution? What other accessible beauty tips can you share?
I’m a pro at accessible hacks. Coke can or an apple in the freezer to depuff your face in the morning and beer rinse in the shower for luscious hair should sort you out. Keep your money for a good SPF and polynucleotides.
On the flip side, are there any treatments that you feel like are a waste of time?
Most of them to be fair, if there’s no down time then I don’t think they’re worth it. That’s pretty much my rule of thumb.
Your spread in The Sunday Times Style Magazine in the 2010s introduced you to the nation as someone who was tearing up the beauty rule book, spray-painting faces with flowers and taking the skin as a canvas. Do you paint in your down time?
I used to a lot, but I think that when your job requires you to do something, I’d rather be doing something different in my own time. I’m big into hiking and outdoors sports, I love cooking, but I spend so much time being creative for my job sometimes it’s nice to do basic bitch shit like walking around a shopping mall and eating frozen yoghurt.
You are a keen horse rider and love visiting Mongolia. What’s your connection to the country?
Very simple, I was Mongolian in a past life. I’m 99% certain of it.
As a true icon of the fashion industry, how do you unwind from the pressure of it all?
You’re very sweet. Still working out how to do that to be honest! But travelling to remote parts of the world where there is no phone signal is definitely one of the ways I like to unwind. And remind myself that it’s all just a big game at the end of the day and I can always become a whale conservationist if I want to.
What predictions do you have for what we’ll be putting on our faces? How are we going to look in the future?
I guess we’re either going to keep it going and end up looking like our on-screen avatars or if there’s a digital apocalypse then perhaps, we will all get back to our senses and ditch the lip liner, I know what I’d prefer.
