Ellis Faas makeup at Sccube The Apothecary
I had heard rave reviews of Ellis Faas makeup and was really excited to be invited for a makeover at Sccube The Apothecary last week. Unfortunately, the makeup artist called in sick at the last moment, so I was left to explore on my own. I also had the pleasure of meeting E.K., Director of Sccube The Apothecary, who took the time to introduce me to the various brands Sccube carried.
Ellis Faas Makeup
Launched in 2009 by leading makeup artist Ellis Faas, the namesake makeup collection sets itself apart by its bold, industrial designed packaging. Perhaps most intriguing, is the fact that every item in the range is in liquid form, and housed in a sleek click pen. The only exception is pressed powder, which Ellis has yet to find a liquid replacement for (psst, do have a chat with the Guerlain folks, ja?).
The other thing that struck me the moment I laid eyes on the collection was how pigmented everything was. Imagine eye colors and blushers as boldly pigmented as liquid lip colors, in shades that resemble nail polishes! Even though Ellis Faas had drawn each color from natural skin tones, and designed them to be universally flattering, these are not for the faint-hearted. Given the wide array of hues and shades, I have swatched just a few from each product line, to give you an idea of the colors and textures. As I did not try them on my face, the comments below are entirely my first impressions.
Ellis Faas Skin Veil foundation
One of the greatest surprise is the foundation pen, which brings touching up and re-applying makeup outside the home to a whole new level. I imagine the brush applicator would make it easier to get to the corners of the nose and undereye areas. The foundation also comes in a larger bottle version for use at home. The Skin Veil foundation blended out well on my hand, and I estimate it goes on sheer to medium. What puzzled me was the bigger bottle-sized foundation in the same color code as the pen did not seem to match up in shade (granted though, I had some difficulty getting the product out of the pen, hence it seemed much sheerer on my arm than it really is)?!
Ellis Eyes
The eye colors are available in 2 different formulas – creamy eyes and lights. You could use them individually for dramatic eyes, or layer lights upon creamy eyes to create varying textures.
Creamy eyes leaves a velvety matte finish, and are smudge-proof once they set (although I didn’t get to test them out on my eyes). The colors surprised me as they are quite different on my skin than from the back of the pens. They are also much more vivid in reality than shown here as many of the testers had dried up and I had a hard time getting them out of the tips.
The Lights range of eye colors blew me away! I love how pigmented they are, and the shimmers are amazing! I think this is truly where the liquid formula is an advantage as there are no shimmer particles waiting to fall all over your face as you party the night/day away! There is also greater depth of color here than is possible with powder shadows.
Ellis Lips
Ellis’ lip products are available in 3 formulas – creamy lips, milky lips, and glazed lips.
Creamy Lips leave a velvety matte finish and comes in an arresting variety of vivid shades. As with the eye colors, the actual color on my skin is very different from the swatches on the back of the pens.
Milky Lips are well pigmented and leave a glossy finish.
Glazed Lips are some of the most beautiful opaque lip glosses I have ever seen!
My thoughts
I am really quite fond of the sleek, gleaming silver pens… I can just imagine how handy and unobtrusive these would be in my handbag. However, I was rather disappointed with the click mechanism. This seems to be a common problem with such click pens, I’ve encountered them in my teenage years with Stila glosses, and then with YSL’s touché éclat, etc… there’s something about the capillary action, blah blah. However, this is usually a once-off issue with brand new pens, and once you have managed to draw the product up to the tip, it should flow easily with each click. Unfortunately, that is not the case with Ellis Faas, where drawing the product up to the tip seems to be a constant problem. Not so handy and unobtrusive on the go!
Another issue for me, is the need to blend things out with my fingers. Thank God that He blessed me with 10 inherited digits, but honestly, I have only perfected the use of 2-3 of them for make-up purposes. For a full-face of makeup, I’d imagine things could get rather tricky and messy. I could always use my own brushes of course… but washing out heavily pigmented liquid makeup from brushes can become a serious chore with daily use.
Notwithstanding the shortfalls, my favorites from the collection are the Lights eye colors and Glazed Lips. I loved how intense and bright the colors are, an arresting look for sure!
A big thank you to PublicistPR for reaching out to me, and inviting me over to Sccube The Apothecary to experience the Ellis Faas makeup range for myself. I really appreciated the amount of time EK spent with me – he left me deeply impressed by the thoughtful way Sccube analyzes each beauty trend and assesses the products to carry! Based on the damaged state of my hair and skin, EK generously gifted me with a couple of samples from Philip B. and ReVive. Will review these in separate posts soon!
Ellis Faas can be found exclusively at Sccube The Apothecary located at #05-25 Ngee Ann City.
