It’s hard to keep up with MECCA’s ever-expanding roster of beauty brands, but the latest one has beauty creatives seriously excited.
British makeup artist Isamaya Ffrench may not be a household name to the general public, but to those working in the upper echelons of fashion and beauty (and those just inspired by free-spirited makeup artistry), she’s an icon.
Ffrench is known for her boundary-breaking creativity with cosmetic colour and texture, using makeup in ways not seen before, working with major fashion labels and publications and on stars such as Charli XCX, Rihanna, Madonna, Cher and Rosalía over many years in the industry.
Now Ffrench’s own makeup line, ISAMAYA is launching in selected MECCA stores and online in Australia and New Zealand.
Ffrench’s success was honed by a less conventional career path. She studied product design at London’s Central Saint Martins, the world-renowned arts and design college, and developed experience in dance, theater and performance, each step feeding into her talent for expressive and edgy use of makeup. A side-hustle as a children’s face painter quickly evolved once she realised body painting was a thing, before fine-tuning her makeup use on the face, and the rest is history.
More recently she worked with fragrance house Byredo as Creative Director for the label’s makeup line, leaving her mark with a line that turned out unconventional products able to be used in a number of ways.
In 2022 announced she was creating an eponymous line of makeup, with limited edition colour collections but now she’s added a core collection of products. This line up of multi-taskers keeps the focus on combining artistry, innovation and science – high-performance products that care for the skin beneath.
“The core collection represents what the future of beauty means to me, says Ffrench. “The line of skincare-infused makeup products, housed in strong and timeless chrome packaging are the tools for anybody who wants to feel empowered in the truest version of themselves.”
The highlights launching into MECCA include base products like illuminating face glaze, colour correcting serum, sclupting face sticks and skin enhancing duos containing blush and highlighter, as well as a number of different lip colour products including a refillable metallic lipstick housed in a metal case.
ISAMAYA is available from MECCA from April 15.
