“This whole process made me and lots of other people I know suddenly aware of how crazy our lives were before lockdown,” says Isamaya Ffrench on a transatlantic call from London. We last spoke backstage at Thom Browne’s Paris show (where Browne described the I Like Rock and Skiing and Maybe 3 People Shirt Also,I will get this makeup artist’s work as “genius”) in March of 2020, moments after France suggested avoiding la bise and a couple of weeks before the entire world changed. A year later, she’s able to see that pre-COVID life was moving at an “unsustainable” pace. “You know, putting your body through a lot: A lot of stress, a lot of traveling, time zones, no sleep,” she remembers. “It’s kind of recalibrated, which has been really nice and sets a precedent for moving forward.”This recalibration is reflected in Byredo Makeup’s nine-piece spring collection, which Ffrench created in collaboration with founder Ben Gorham. Its new wave of eye launches rolls out today, and compared to the line’s prismatic debut in September, the additions are pretty in a taking-care-of-business kind of way. “It just seemed like people wanted something a bit more casual and relaxed,” Ffrench says. After seasons of Euphoria-esque cosmetic escapism, 2021 is becoming the year of chill solutions—like cry-friendly mascara. And one single eyeliner that smudges into whatever you need it to be. And 99.8% natural lip balm. “You could probably eat it and you’d be fine,” Ffrench jokes. “Don’t do it! It’s just good to know that anything you’re putting on your mouth doesn’t have any nasty chemicals or anything.” These are the staples that Ffrench (the multi-media artist who would politely ask a crowd to step out of the good light while glue-sticking crystals to eyebrows backstage) uses IRL.One of her favorites is the eyeliner in “Practical Brown,” which shape-shifts from a liquid line to a shimmery smudge with the swipe of a fingertip. “I really wanted to make that transformative product that I actually wear,” she says. Along with the mascara, “that’s kind of what I wear every day, as well as the lip balms.” Three variations of blushy, neutral tinted lip balms arrive later this month, followed by three more universal Colour Stick shades of earthy tones in June. “That doesn’t mean we’re going to stick with browns forever, we just thought we’d make a nice, kind of cozy collection,” Ffrench explains. It’s all part of the Byredo Makeup vision, a sort of 4-D emotional experience.The formulas are lightly scented with notes that vary from iris and apricot accords on lips to rose notes in mascara. The house is famous for fragrances, after all, like the “1996” scent created with photography duo Inez and Vinoodh that Ffrench credits as her first introduction to Byredo. She and Gorham now choose “tongue-in-cheek” product names together, something that’s important to the line’s 360-degree sensorial experience. “Tears In Rain” references Gorhams’s vision of Waterproof Mascara, and The Eyeshadow 5 Colours palette in “Dysco” (shades of “beautiful browns, mahoganies, and soft creamy golds”) nods at a particularly psychedelic period of 1970s Bollywood films. “I’m obsessed with Bollywood films,” Ffrench shares. “With the ‘Dysco’ palette, Ben’s of Indian heritage, and he always wanted to create makeup that represented the women that he grew up with, his family, the world that he understood, and obviously Bollywood was a big part of that.”The new collection.When Gorham approached Ffrench to create the original Byredo Makeup launch a few years ago, it took convincing for her to bring another cosmetic line into an overpopulated beauty world. “I was very hesitant,” Ffrench admits. “It seemed a bit ridiculous to do something at the peak of makeup production, but actually, it did help me see that there was definitely this niche for a brand that was clean and vegan, and that had a different philosophy.” She credits Gorham for much of the visual language and sentimentality of their collaboration. “Ben, he’s very passionate and he’s an artist, really,” she says. “There’s an emotional note to Byredo, something can be fantasy but it’s also quite real at the same time.”Ffrench is well-versed in fantasy and reality in her own art. “People ask me what my aesthetic is or my style, and I don’t think I really have one!” she says with a laugh, referencing her projects from commercial images to more futuristic concepts. “It’s really nice to do just simple, beautiful makeup—I work in high-end luxury stuff as well, editorially, and then I do this weird stuff with musicians who want, you know, crazier things. Personally, I’m working on a documentary at the moment about global beauty aesthetics which is so interesting and really exciting,” she says. Tune in for more Ffrench on film.
I Like Rock and Skiing and Maybe 3 People Shirt, hoodie, tank top, sweater and long sleeve t-shirt
If you thought that Gwyneth Paltrow’s natural glow was born of a secretly overwrought routine, you’d be mistaken. The actor turned wellness and beauty entrepreneur enjoys a surprisingly laissez-faire regimen for one so successful in the I Like Rock and Skiing and Maybe 3 People Shirt Also,I will get this space—but perhaps that’s the point. “I believe that beauty and wellness are inextricably linked,” says Paltrow, who starts her day with a protein-infused smoothie and a bout of transcendental meditation. Next comes a bit of dry brushing, the bristles pulled in gentle, practiced strokes toward Paltrow’s heart as she espouses its benefits of circulation and exfoliation. A self-described “massive exfoliating junky,” the Goop creator proves her point with a daub of Goopglow Microderm Instant Glow Exfoliator rubbed over cheeks, with renewed skin given a glaze of Vintner’s Daughter Active Botanical Serum. “It’s incredible to know that there are clean, nontoxic products that are really efficacious and really work wonders on your skin,” says Paltrow, who first entered the skin-care space due to her desire for clean, luxurious, and accessible beauty. “I was not a person who ever had a skin-care routine as a teenager. My daughter does, but I was very much a tomboy, so this whole skin-care thing has come to me later in life,” explains Paltrow, pressing on an eye mask and pulling Jillian Dempsey’s Gold Sculpting Bar over the area.Cult-favored Weleda Skin Food teams with a surprisingly minimal touch of sunscreen and a sheen of Goopglow Glow Lotion, rounding out Paltrow’s a.m. skin-care groove. A barely there pressing of Westman Atelier concealer obscures any undereye darkness, while Paltrow mainstay Olio E Osso lip and cheek tinted Balm furnishes cheeks and lips with a sheer pop of peony. “My daughter is very into the beauty world,” says Paltrow, who counts mascara (by Kosas) and lip balm (by Goopgenes) as her makeup essentials. “I mean, she knows how to contour—that girl is just on fire with her routine. I don’t know where she got it from, but she definitely did not get it from me; I can barely put on concealer as you just saw.”Paltrow’s iconic appeal has something to do with this sort of honesty about who she is—a luxury she wants every woman to enjoy. “When we started Goop from the content perspective, we really wanted to challenge social norms that existed around silencing women, encouraging women not to ask difficult questions, and things that really kept shame over people. So we go there. We like to talk about things, open it up. We really want to eliminate shame,” says Paltrow, whose last step is a swipe of Ilia lip gloss. “We really believe that women are the most powerful, beautiful creatures on earth. And the closer that we are to ourselves, the better off we all are.”
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