The New Elizabethans: Ellis Faas

Ellis Faas began as a photography student from the Netherlands that used herself as her model which is where her interest in make-up sparked from, as she used make-up to change her look each time. Although after high school she thought photography was the path she really wanted to take her career in, as a little girl she used to put make-up on her school friends and even her brother. She began to dislike the technical side of photography and her passion for make-up grew, so she moved from Amsterdam to Paris to study make-up professionally at Christian Chauveaus Technical School of Artistic Make-up. After completing her qualification in Paris she moved back home to Amsterdam and worked there for a while on various shoots for magazines and a couple of films, but made the decision to move to London to develop her work and career. In London she did a mixture of special effects make-up and make-up for music videos as well, before moving back to Amsterdam yet again after pregnancy to raise her child. The work didn't stop here, she opened a portrait studio called Face Value where she would both apply make-up on clients and then take their photograph herself. This was a huge hit as it was the first of its kind in the Netherlands and she was very prosperous. Alongside her work at the studio she frequently worked alongside famous fashion photographer Inez van Lamsweerde and remained in the industry. Mario Testino, a Peruvian fashion photographer visited the Netherlands to shoot for L'Uomo Vogue and discovered Ellis whilst on the search for a make-up artist in the area. Faas travelled with Testino to Paris, London, New York and LA and shortly after she found herself in charge of a huge team of make-up artists, showing them how to apply make-up she had designed for Lagerfelds shows for Chanel and Fendi. She has been described by Vogue Paris as one of the most influential make-up artists of her time and has worked with some of the most prominent designers, photographers, models, stylists, hair stylists and make-up brands (MAC, Clinique, Lancome etc.) and had her work published in some of the biggest magazines we know today. Now she has her own brand under her own name which sells quality and professional make-up and tools for make-up artists which she created in 2009.