Beauty icon Isamaya Ffrench on reformer pilates and tweakment trends

Medina Azaldin

10 March 2025 at 6:29 am·7-min read

Isamaya Ffrench has lived multiple lives. At only thirty five, the Cambridge-born make-up artist’s vibrant past saw her training as a competitive high-board diver at age seven, then dancing and practicing mixed martial arts before becoming a revered figure in the beauty industry as a make-up artist, brand founder and creative visionary.

Ffrench's CV is glittering; she's led the beauty arm of major fashion and lifestyle labels such as Burberry, Off-White and Byredo and created runway looks for the likes of Chet Lo and Thom Browne. She founded her namesake beauty brand, Isamaya, in 2022, and counts A-listers Debi Mazar, Lily-Rose Depp and Charli XCX as clients.

Last month, Isamaya (the brand) launched its high-performance, skincare-infused Core Collection of complexion-boosters, colour correctors, lip and eye products, all designed to work for all skin tones and types, including more mature complexions. In between her hectic schedule, Ffrench took some time to sit down with Bazaar to share her little black book of beauty recommendations and her thoughts on the future of trends.

On her personal beauty philosophy…

"Even though my work is often avant-garde and creative, I myself am quite a 'natural' person. It's a little bit like chefs who eat fast food. I invest time in treatments and products, but I tend to be on-the-go all the time so taking care of the staples is fundamental to my skin and wellbeing."

On her creative work…

“I bought Kevyn Aucoin’s Making Faces when I was about seven years old, and that was really the bible for me. For a long time, I was fascinated by creative make-up and transformation and I loved films that have that incredible, fantastical transformative element. Personally, I was more expressive with my hair. I grew up in a family of non-make-up wearers and so it always felt like something external from me that I was fascinated by, as opposed to something for myself.

"One of the lovely things about my job is being present in how important make-up is in terms of confidence. We did a collaboration with Nike recently and it made me fall in love with make-up again because all of these incredible athletes are at the top of their game and they take make-up so seriously as an opportunity to enhance their own performance and their confidence. That was a really touching to experience firsthand."

On her skincare routine…

“I use the AllSkin Med pigment serum in the evening before bed and I rotate between Alpha-H and Dr Sam's cleansers. I also love Medik8 and I use the Medicube pore refining pads. During the day I love the brand Gezeiten and Heliocare SPF. I always do a little gua sha facial massage; I launched a massage tool last year with FaceGym. I do think that boosting circulation and lymphatic drainage is really beneficial for the skin."

On professional treatments…

"I see Dr Karen Doherty, who has a clinic in East London, for polynucleotides and Neogen Plasma treatments. I think working with Karen is where I've seen the most significant improvement in my skin health. I also love going to FaceGym. If I’m doing a laser treatment, which is a lot less frequent now, I’ll go to see Jasmina Vico or Dr Brian Fu."

On her hair…

"I see Alex Brownsell at Bleach London. I have it coloured quite frequently, I’m ginger at the moment and I love the Bleach Awkward Peach Shampoo and Conditioner [not yet available in the UK]. It’s amazing for keeping that vibrancy. I also use a Dyson Airwrap, that's my staple."

On her make-up routine…

"I love doing avant-garde looks on other people, but personally I always keep it clean and polished. Less is more. You're better off taking care of your skin health and then using more considered make-up than putting too much of anything on because, ultimately, you want to look fresh and healthy.

"I rarely wear full-coverage foundation. I've just launched some colour correcting serums, and that's what I would use instead. I keep it light with some concealer, and a bit of under eye corrector if I need it."

On the importance of movement…

"I do a lot of yoga and reformer pilates. Fitness and wellbeing has been sort of the bedrock of my sanity forever so I always make time for that. I see Mauricio (@massagepointuk) who’s a fantastic sports physiotherapist. I used to do a lot of endurance and competitive sport such as long distance running, martial arts and dancing but in the last few years I've moved from cardio-based endurance sports to weight-bearing and flexibility because they seem to do better things for my body.

"As a woman, weight-bearing exercise is really important. My body needs to move and it feels and looks better when it does."

On slowing down…

"I’m much better at allowing myself to switch off now but I think that comes with age. Living in a big city, the pressure to be on all the time is real. I have three cats as well and that really helps."

On fragrance…

"Vyrao and Aeir are two of my favourite brands. Aeir is a California-based biosynthetic fragrance company with very interesting, innovative fragrance formulations. There’s another fragrance brand called Rook Perfumes that I love too that has an incredibly scent strange library. One of my favourites is called Undergrowth, and it smells like soil."

On the Core Collection…

"Isamaya used to be driven by a sense of creativity and world-building but with the launch of Core, I felt like there was such an opportunity to create skincare-infused make-up. I'm such a skincare fanatic and I'm fascinated by innovation, technology and machines. All of my products have very high levels of active ingredients. It's very easy for me to develop them because I just think about what I and the people around me need.

"It’s a very intuitive way of working and it's really fun because I feel like they're genuinely making a difference to people's skin and the way people approach make-up."

On her favourite runway show…

"I've always loved working with Junya Watanabe. I've been collaborating with him for a decade now and he always pushes me to create the unexpected. I really appreciate that about him. He asks me to think deeply about the mood that he's conveying and the storytelling and it's a lovely, rich collaborative process."

isamaya ffrench beauty interview — Junya Watanabe SS25 LAUNCHMETRICS SPOTLIGHT

On tweakment trends…

"What I've learned in the past 15 years is how transient trends are. The thing with trends now is it’s not just about shaving off your eyebrows - which will [relatively] grow back - it's things like remodelling your face from the inside and the trends that go with those kinds of procedures.

"I have no judgement or expectation and everyone can do whatever they want but longer term, it's always worth reminding yourself that most things that feel exciting and new are temporary. We are all blessed with wonderfully different faces and I think the best thing you can do is to try to celebrate that, as opposed to looking for something outside of it."