The Beauty Products Isamaya Ffrench Uses to the Last Drop

Photo: Courtesy of Isamaya

Throughout her career, Isamaya Ffrench has built a reputation for not being afraid to explore the taboo. The packaging of her products is always just as interesting as the formulas they house — her brand’s very first collection was BDSM-inspired and included a palette with a 3-D outline of a woman’s body, and the latest one has an aesthetic medicine-inspired bent and features syringelike concealers.

And who can forget the $95 penis-shaped lipsticks? “It wasn’t really about anything exploitative or grotesque,” she explains. “It was actually about saying, ‘If lipstick can be a penis, maybe not everything does have to be the way we’re told.’”

Growing up, she was a self-described tomboy but first felt the pull toward beauty at the age of 7, when she came across Making Faces by legendary makeup artist Kevyn Aucoin in a bookstore. “My mum probably took me in to buy Harry Potter or something, and I found this book,” she says. “I was mesmerized by it, and I can remember every single page to this day. It felt so transformative and like painting as opposed to makeup.”

In a twist of fate, Isamaya Ffrench has grown up to become one of the most in-demand makeup artists in the world. In her 30-something years, she’s managed to be a competitive diver, study product design, perform as part of the Theo Adams Company, write as a beauty editor, and work with Rihanna, Madonna, and Kate Moss. She’s helped create makeup collections for Tom Ford, YSL, Christian Louboutin, and Burberry, and she developed Byredo’s inaugural makeup line as well as served as Off-White Beauty’s creative director. To top it all off, she founded her own namesake brand, Isamaya, in 2022, and it entered Sephora stores earlier this year with a brand-new collection.

Below, Ffrench tells us about her skin-care routine, the makeup products she now can’t live without, and her candid thoughts on injectables.

The first thing I do is my skin-care routine. I’m very loyal to two brands: Allies of Skin and a brand called Gezeiten, which is particularly interesting because it utilizes plant-based extracts to align with your skin’s circadian rhythm. But I’ve recently been using a very strict Allies of Skin routine. My cleanser is by Allskin Med, and it’s a really great cleanser. And then I use my Isamaya Microbial Gel, which is basically a probiotic shot for your skin — like doing kefir or kombucha in the morning but for your skin. Then, I use the Allies of Skin 20% Vitamin C Brighten + Firm Serum and the Allies of Skin Copper Tripeptide & Ectoin Advanced Repair Serum. I mix them together, put it on, let it set in, and I won’t do my sun cream until much later, because I want to make sure that that’s all absorbed and set.

Then, I’ll do my hair, and I use a brand called Bleach London. They do a really great serum for hair. I’ve also just found this great brand called Rōz, and they have great shampoos, conditioners, and styling products. They also have a really great root-lift spray. I’ve got quite flat hair, so that’s really good. And then I have a Dyson Airwrap, which I use when I’m having to do something a bit more glam. I also use the Act+Acre Stem Cell Scalp Serum. And James Pecis’s hair-care brand, Blu & Green — I use their Weekly Repair Mask.

For SPF, I love Ultra Violette, and I love the brand’s Sheen Screen SPF 50 Hydrating Sunscreen Lip Balm as well, because your lips are as important as everything else when you’re sun protecting. They also have a really great spray, the Preen Screen SPF 50 Facial Sunscreen Mist, which you can use to top up throughout the day. If you’ve already applied some product, you don’t want to rub more cream into your face. Otherwise, I use La Mer’s The Broad Spectrum SPF 50 UV Protecting Fluid, which has a slight green tint. I feel like it softens any redness in the skin. After that, I would use my Color Correcting Skin Tint Serums, because I don’t like wearing foundation. I like keeping it really light, so I use Pistachio and the Lilac where I need to, like just around my nose or my chin. It’s really soft, barely there, but just brings your skin tone into balance.

For fragrance, I love Vyrao and D.S. & Durga. I hate floral fragrances, but I smelled D.S. & Durga’s Brown Flowers, and I’m obsessed with it. It’s very unusual.

We did a collaboration with Conserving Beauty, and they’re cleansing cloths that can flush down the toilet, because they dissolve in water. They completely remove everything, but then they leave this incredible serum that you don’t need to take off. So I’ll use the wipes to strip everything, leave the serum to infuse, and do my little de-puffing nighttime routine. Then, it’s back to Allies of Skin or Gezeiten. Currently, I use the Allies of Skin Tranexamic & Arbutin Advanced Brightening Serum and the Azelaic & Kojic Advanced Clarifying Serum. I mix those. I don’t think there’s any point in overloading your skin. And my main concern is pigmentation. So all of those are really good products for pigmentation, and I don’t need moisturizer because they’re rich enough.

I love Lashify. We did a really cool edge lash with them, which gives you a winged-liner look, but they also do very natural lashes. They do brown lashes, which I love for a soft look, and I feel like you almost don’t need to wear anything else when you have a really good lash. The Isamaya Face Glaze is one of my products, and it’s a really beautiful and silky clear gel. I love doing that on my eyelid, because I think a glossy lid is everything. It has a brown-algae extract, as well, so you have real hydration when you’re using it. You know that really sad moment when you take all your makeup off and your skin feels dry? With this, you’re super-moisturized.

Saie has some lovely lip oils. And I’ll just take a brow pencil and use that to line my lips. I prefer cool-toned lip liners, and a brow pencil is perfect for sculpting your lip shape. I like the Sephora Collection Retractable EyeBrow Pencil and the M.A.C Pro Brow Definer 1mm-Tip Brow Pencil. Simihaze’s Sun Flush All-Over Face Tint is really nice, and Makeup by Mario has a great cool-toned Master Mattes Eyeshadow Palette. That is my staple.

I’m obsessed with the U Beauty Resurfacing Body Compound. I would really like to try Nécessaire’s Body Retinol, but that’s just for the winter, because you don’t want to be going in the sun with retinol on. Then, I like Aesop’s Geranium Leaf Body Cleanser. I’m quite simple.

I actually have a gua sha that I launched with FaceGym, the Isamaya x FaceGym Sculpt 01. It’s a multi-use face and scalp gua sha, and it has an acupressure ball on it. I have the M8 Microneedling Pen from Dr. Pen, and I also use the Dermalux Flex MD LED Light Therapy Device. I personally don’t believe those face masks are strong enough. Go hard or go home.

I spend most of my time in London. I go to Dr. Karen Doherty’s clinic, and she injects polynucleotides into my skin, and that’s really an amazing thing for skin elasticity and collagen production. I just wish it was permanent, because the results are so good. She also does NeoGen plasma treatments for me, and I’ve been trying the ClearLift laser at a clinic called Pfeffer Sal. I also see somebody called Dr. Brian Fu, who’s in West London, and he also does microneedling treatments with polynucleotides and exosomes. If I need, like, an extra boost, I’ll go to him, and then, one other person I see is Jasmina Vico. She does a lot of red carpet, and she does signature lifting procedures with microcurrent and that kind of thing.

Just in my forehead — Botox. But I keep it natural. I think it’s important with something like Botox to not do it when you’re young. I’m in my 30s now, and I think that’s acceptable. I do very small amounts, very spread out.

I love Alexis Smart’s flower remedies — I take Safe and Sound. I also go to Mongolia every year, and I bring back herbs for tea. I have a consultation with whoever’s at the market, and they’ll give me bags of things, and it’s for everything from digestion to kidney health to sleeping to fatigue. I take the Organic Lion’s Mane Mushroom Powder from Erbology and Sakara Life’s Daily Elixir and Metabolism bites, as well as cacao from María Cacao. And then just your regular vitamin C, vitamin D, resveratrol, and maybe glutathione.