I’m a reserved kind of girl. I don’t get overwhelming desires to rush out and buy the latest thing, I like to investigate new products and new brands, but I don’t start talking and buzzing about them that far in advance, but when I heard about a new brand with a concept of using Human Colours as the basis for their colour palette, I couldn’t help but want to know more, to dig a bit deeper, and find out what’s behind this range created by Ellis Faas.
Ellis herself is a highly accomplished makeup artist, starting out in photography before falling in love with SFX makeup and being ‘discovered’ by Mario Testino who took her across the world and into the inner realms of Fashion makeup.
In fact, Vogue Paris have said – “Ellis Faas is one of the most influential make-up artists of her generation.” And given her forthcoming makeup range, it would be impossible to disagree.
Most women have worked out that not every colour suits them. Some of us suit a blue based red lipstick, others suit an orange based red lipstick, its a rare woman who can wear both. With this in mind, and her years of experience, Ellis set out to create the perfect red that would suit everyone. Her logic took her to the colour that we all have in us. Blood. No matter what the colour of your skin on the outside, we all bleed the same colour.
My initial thought was, well yes, we do all bleed the same colour, but do we actually suit that colour red? Mind you, how many of us cut ourselves and stop and think ‘gosh, I really suit my blood’! But the logic is there, and she’s taken it a step further, creating products in the shades of a freckle (apparently they are all the same tone!), the colours of bruises, and even the colour of the veins in our skin, her concept is simple, if it’s skin colour or blood colour, or a combination of the two, then it’s a human colour.
As I said before, I’m not normally over excited about a product in advance of actually seeing it. Yes, I may know a brand well and be looking forward to their latest palette, or seasonal collection, but as far as new brands are concerned, I’m a bit more reserved and will wait and see before I up the excitement stakes.
Ellis Faas however has created a level of excitement in me about makeup, that I haven’t had in a long while. So much so, that I’ve started telling everyone I know about this crazy, yet clever, new concept in colour design.
You might think it would stop there though, but clearly, Ellis Faas wants to tick all the boxes right out of the starting gate.
While her professional kit, like all professionals, is kept meticulously clean, neat and tidy, she’s clearly a regular woman herself, with a jumble of a handbag where finding the lipstick she wants seems to take forever. Wanting to sort out “the handbag jumble” as she calls it, she took her ideas to an industrial designer who came up with a concept of making every product, from lips to eyes, into a bullet shaped applicator, and a pistol holder for them all to fit into. The only one that doesn’t fit this mould is the powder, but this designer is a clever cookie, and made it into a shape to fit as the lid of the holder!
Genius!
I’m very excited about this brand, whilst I know which colours suit me, and those of my clients, not everyone has that training and experience, and for as long as I’ve been championing women to put makeup on, this seems to be something that can help me with my ’cause’.
Sam Donald
