Ellis Faas

Ellis Faas is said to be one of the most influential makeup artists of this time, from the Netherlands, she has worked with everyone from Mario Testino to Karl Lagerfeld. Ellis actually began being a photographer, but always had an eye for fashion. After a while she became to dislike the technical side to photography and this is where her love for makeup artistry came in, after attending a short course in Amsterdam, she then went to Paris where she trained in make-up and special effects at Christian Chauveau’s Technical School of Artistic Make-up. After her studies ended, she returned to the Netherlands where she worked as a make-up artist for fashion magazines, as well working on two movies. Searching for something more she then decided to move to London where she soon became very successful. There she used her talents for special effects by reproducing skin diseases for medical inserts, as well as doing work on pop videos for the stars of the time.

After the birth of her daughter she then decided to move back to Amsterdam, this is where she decided to start up her own portrait studio. Here, she not only took clients' photographs but she also did their make-up. It was the country's first ever "makeover studio” and came to be very popular.

However in 1999 her whole world changed when she was asked to work for Mario Testino to shoot a series for L’Uomo Vogue. Following this she travelled with him all over the world from Paris to Los Angeles. This is also where she met French fashion editor Emmanuelle Alt, who introduced her to Karl Lagerfeld. Suddenly Ellis was working with makeup artists teaching them how to apply makeup she designed for Lagerfeld’s shows for Fendi and Chanel.

She has an impressive list of people she has worked with some notable include; Working on magazines such as The Face, Harper’s Bazaar, V Magazine, Vogue (Australia, Deutschland, Italia, Nippon, Paris, Russia, UK). She has also worked on fashion shows including; Giorgio Armani, Emporio Armani, Chanel, Diesel, Dolce & Gabbana, Fendi, Diane von Fürstenberg, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Kenzo,  Lanvin, Moschino Couture!, Moschino Cheap&Chic, SportMax and Yves Saint-Laurent Haute Couture. 

As well as having an incredible list of people she has worked with she has also recently brought out a cosmetic range with include products for the face, eyes and lips.

Some of my favourite looks she has done are shown below: