Wonderloving: Ellis Faas Makeup

The products i use the most barely get a mention here so I’m remedying that with the Wonderloving series. Next up for the Wonderloving treatment is ELLIS FAAS.  I’ve previously mentioned the concealer, which is my favourite ever, in What’s In My Make-up Bag.

It was love at first sight when I set eyes on the ELLIS FAAS makeup collection. Founded by Ellis Faas, a Dutch makeup artist who’s considered one of the best in the business having worked with a who’s who of the fashion and photography world including long term collaborations with Mario Testino and Karl Lagerfeld. Before becoming a makeup artist she worked as a photographer herself in a Cindy Sherman style,  transforming herself for self portraits. She now takes all the brand’s pictures.

I can’t deny that I’m a complete sucker for packaging so the elongated bullet/pen-like casing immediately grabbed my attention. Love love LOVE the packaging – sleek, elegant, streamlined, minimal, missile-like, aerodynamic, architectural and something non-girly about it that really appeals to me.  Basically it just looks cool!

The even better news is that the products themselves are also ace showing style and substance can work in harmony.The colours are inspired by pigments found in the human body – freckles, blood, bruises and the formulations are all liquid so easy to apply.  The packaging is also very travel-friendly with minimal spillage opportunities. As I travel a fair bit Ellis Faas items always make it into my see-through plastic bag for carry on luggage.

I met Ellis herself and her brother Thijs who is her business partner at Liberty when the brand first launched four years ago. She paid me a compliment on my skin and as she didn’t strike me as a BS-er  I was inordinately chuffed. Glad I’ve got that brag out of the way.

I love everything about the brand – the design, the marketing, philosophy, vision and most importantly the products themselves. It’s a brand with a point of view and I like that. It also has an ‘only tested on Supermodels’ policy so no animal testing. Like everything I adore, it isn’t perfect. There are occasional issues with the packaging and I wish there were refills. It seems such a shame and waste of resources not to be able to reuse the beautiful cases.

For me makeup should be fun and using the ELLIS FAAS products feel like play time.  I will be doing separate reviews on the products I own – a couple of which are on my Holy Grail list.

More information at ellisfaas.com