Sept. 12, 2025

Modern Metal: Isamaya Ffrench’s Otherworldly Elegance

Photography Phil Engelhardt
words sarah brown

EE72 Beauty Director-At-Large Sarah Brown asked today’s most exciting makeup artists to create the look of now. Isamaya Ffrench plays with minimalist metallics.

Makeup artist ISAMAYA FFRENCH

It’s about very clean, elevated skin and those beautiful details with a twist.

— Isamaya Ffrench

“I don’t know that I have a beauty philosophy other than that I just do what I feel is new and interesting,” says Isamaya Ffrench, the avant-garde artist known for her playful and boundary-pushing approach to makeup. For this look, “I wanted to create something that felt unusual, which is a bit ethereal and otherworldly,” she says. That translated to a bold take on metallics. “I love metals because they feel very modern. I wanted to do them in a sophisticated, minimal way,” says Ffrench, who used products from her Isamaya range to create a molten lip and gilded waterline, a shimmering high-gloss lid and a plummy cheek. Her hydrating Face Glaze gave Aluel’s complexion a glassy finish Ffrench describes as “liquid. It’s about clean, elevated skin and those beautiful details with a twist.”

THE PRODUCTS:
Isamaya Metal Lip Balm in Guilded
Isamaya Face Glaze
Isamaya Skin Enhancing Duo in Char

Photography PHIL ENGELHARDT. Makeup ISAMAYA FFRENCH at Art + Commerce. Hair PÅL BERDAHL at LGA Management. Model ALUEL MAKUACH at ELITE Model Management. Stylist ENIOLA DARE. Casting PIERGIORGIO DEL MORO for DM Casting. Production Bellhouse / PATRICK ARMSTRONG. Photo assistants KLAUDIJA AVOTINA and MARIA GORODETSKAYA.