Isamaya Ffrench wears GIVENCHY top, and necklace and earrings available at Paumé Los Angeles.
Few makeup gurus have pushed the envelope in recent years more than Isamaya Ffrench. Her diverse background in theater and restaurants has allowed her to see beyond the typical needs of the traditional makeup marketplace. The ideation and innovation of her work, which co-exist with sensuality and fetishism, has taken her practice into a conceptual path that has grown symbiotically with the internet. Her many adoring fans often take on her luxuriant styling and avant-garde approach, frequently mimicking her work on TikTok and YouTube-refining the most classic lipsticks, dewiest aestheticized painted bruises and prosthetic ears of the sexiest metallic aliens. We caught up with the makeup icon to ask burning questions about her impactful process, the creation of ISAMAYA, her ongoing collaboration with FaceGym, and other glittering
How did you begin your journey to makeup artist, and how did you create your subversive vision for beauty and makeup within a traditional artistic practice?
I was part of a performance company and doing body painting as a side job when I was in my early twenties, and was asked to step in to do some body painting for a shoot for i-D Magazine. Because I had no specific makeup training, I think I brought ideas that had very little to do with makeup and cosmetics into the beauty field. The newness of my ideas caught the eye of a bunch of artists and designers who booked me for a lot of various kinds of jobs, from shows to editorials to campaigns.
Isamaya Ffrench wears THEO OFFICIAL jacket and CRUIZE harness exclusively available at Paumé Los Angeles.
Having lent your creative direction to other makeup brands, did you conceive ISAMAYA as a space where you could continue to freely create? And how important has it been that you became the model and creator of your own product range?
When I started consulting for other brands, I had no intention of having my own brand. It became a very organic decision that cemented itself in lockdown. Seeing the limitations that come from working for existing brands (and therefore consumers) pushed me to create something new.
You are one of the innovators of using FX makeup in the fashion context. Now that it’s mimicked in real lite, do you see that as a trend that will evolve into more of a standard beauty practice?
I suppose the fate of anything new and exciting is to become normal and mainstream. We have definitely seen a rise of prosthetics used in the fashion, music and beauty industries. More generally, people have started to really embrace things that are “weird” or alternative. If that truly resonates with people on an emotional level, I don’t see it dying out like a trend.
It’s amazing how you’ve interpreted the historical and conceptual in the visual, literary and cultural references of your innovative work. Have there been trends born on TikTok and other digital platforms that you’ve translated or incorporated into your work?
I don’t find it very inspiring to work from what’s trending on social media, though I am very interested in new technologies and the breadth of the impact of the digital world on our lives.
Isamaya Ffrench wears THEO OFFICIAL jacket and CRUIZE harness exclusively available at Paumé Los Angeles.
In a previous interview, you talked about working in a restaurant kitchen.
I worked as a chef from the age of 16 to about 22. I was offered a place on MasterChef when I was 19 and show was relatively new. It’s one of my biggest regrets not going on that show.
In your latest collaboration with FaceGym, you continue toan important feature in your beauty range of bringing back the sculptural objet d’art to the beauty and design, while pushing the boundaries with technology.
As a beauty brand, I love the idea of creating products and experiences that extend the limits of beauty beyond make up, which is why I collaborated with FaceGym. We released a face tool first and we’re about to launch to body tools which I find very exciting as some thing to include in your beauty routine, and as an object to have in your bathroom! Their team developed protocols to use them which makes the whole experience feel complete.
You have long been part of the creative process of make up with Junya Watanabe. How much conceptual freedom do you have when being prompted by the themes of the latest collections, and what has been your favorite collaborative effort?
Working with Junya Watanabe has been one of my most stimulating collaborations in my creative career, which started almost 10 years ago now. Every season, he emails me a few words a couple of weeks before the show and asked me to come up with a concept. He’s more interested in the concept of beauty than the make up at south. We discuss ideas over emails and then we do a test the day before the show. I never see anything from the collection until then because it’s not relevant for him to show me anything he’s working on
Isamaya Ffrench wears necklaces and earrings available at Paumé Los Angeles and talent’s own hoodie.
