Ellis Faas Mascara Review

I'm very glad that I waited to write the review for the Ellis Faas Mascara. I received this as a gift with purchase, and it's a good thing I did, because I don't think I would have gotten over the bumpy start if I had paid retail. Initially, the whole shebang was very disappointing. I couldn't put the wand back without huge clumps of mascara building up at the top and interfering with the screw closure. And god forbid product is lost!!! So I would sit there, painstakingly trying to get all the product back into the container by removing the wand, inserting the wand back, removing, inserting, removing, inserting, removing, inserting . . . well, you get the idea. It would take me five minutes just to put mascara on in the morning. NOT COOL. That's when I FREAK OUT ALL OVER THAT BUSINESS. Anyway, a week or two later, the problem vanished. Good thing.

Now that I can look past the crazy product loss disaster, I realize the formula is rather nice. It's reminiscent of the cult classic DiorShow. It adds lots of volume to my lashes, while keeping them supple. No crunchy lashes here. And the lash separation is very nice and natural, there are little to no clumps. There's a slight amount of transfer to the under eye, so you have to make sure you don't get raccoon-y by checking a mirror once or twice throughout a twelve hour day, but really, the transfer isn't any more or less than I experience with virtually all non-waterproof formulas.

The mascara wand brush head is nothing special, but I'm also not a believer in all that fancy business, so I couldn't care less. Because when you think about it, any makeup artist worth their salt uses those throw away mascara brush jobs, so they must not make that big of a difference, you know what'm'sayin'? Also, the wand itself is very long, which is definitely the most unique aspect of the entire presentation. It took a little bit of getting used to, but I think the length might help with even application. Neat-o.

So really the verdict is: nice enough mascara when you get past that awkward beginning, but not really anything exciting. Ellis Faas Mascara runs for $34, which is a lot of bank for being so similar to the $24 DiorShow. So don't bother buying it. I won't be.

But, if you're interested, Ellis Faas mascara can be bought at ellisfass.com, and Bergdorf Goodman in New York City.

My Ellis Faas Glazed Lips Collection: Swatches and Review

Today I bring you my entire Ellis Faas Glazed Lips collection. The formula of these is pretty excellent. They're extremely moisturizing, and decently long lasting when taken in context (they are lip glosses after all). But what I really love best about these glosses is the color range. The colors are so unique, and look soooooo right with my skin. Ellis Faas's philosophy is "human color." She bases all of her products on pigments and colors found in the human body. Want to rock the orange lip that's been featured on the runways, but don't know how you could possibly pull it off in real life? Ellis Faas Glazed lip in L304 is your answer (which is the third swatch from the left). I own Mac morange, and that shit is damn hard to wear, it really does look like clown mouth, but not Ellis's take on orange. Her take on the orange lip is so easy. Think Prada Spring 2010.

Another very wearable color is L301. This is the "glaze" version of the notorious "Ellis Red." This color makes your lips look like you were just tearing a carcass apart with your teeth, while lying in the tall grass of the savanna, but in a good way.

L303 is a dark pink color that looks excellent by itself or layered over another lip color. That's pretty much all I have to say about it. It's awesome.

Full sunlight. From L to R: L301, L303, L304, L305, L306, L307, L308

An unusual, yet complementary color, is L304. This is very brown in base, and is probably the product they're referring to when they say "tawny peach of a freckle." I like to wear this color with warm fall colors, like reds and ochre.

Two brights that's just right are L305 and L306. They're both coral shades that really look much different in real life. I don't know why they insisted on looking so similar in the swatch photo.

L308 is a surprisingly opaque neutral lip shade. When I wear this it's not quite concealer lip extravaganza, but not that far off. This is a good color to combine with other shades to make them more pink. If you have difficulty with overly pigmented lips, and would like a gloss with fuller coverage, I would highly recommend this shade.

Shade, same order.

The Ellis Faas website has some of the best swatches I've ever seen. The color is very true life, at least on my screen. Although, be aware that the lip swatches are extremely heavy on the website. None of the lip products really look quite that even or vibrant in real life, because there's just no way a normal person could walk around with that much product on their lips.

One last note for those of you ordering sight unseen, beware of the color L309! It's just clear, the color in the photograph is the model's natural coloring! Although it appears that the swatch is plainly labeled these days. Good for them.

Example of the tip, L301

To learn more about Ellis Faas and her philosophy, visit ellisfaas.com.

For my review on the Eye Lights, click here, and for my review of the concealer, click here.

Ellis Faas Concealer

Onward to more Ellis Faas goodness. In my humble opinion, the Ellis Faas concealer is the very bestest concealer on the market. It has medium coverage, and literally looks like real skin once applied. I use S202, and it is an exact match for my skin color. For so many years I labored to make all the high end concealers work. Dior, Chanel, YSL. But they were all too yellow, or didn't cover quite enough, or covered too much and got cakey. Mercy! But now I am saved from my own dark circled self with help from Ellis Faas!

Here is a swatch of it on my wrist. This is probably not very representative since my wrist is much lighter than my under-eye, and you could better see the color match with it applied to my dark circles. But no dice. The wrist is all you'll be getting, sorry.

Top swatch: Unblended, Bottom swatch: Blended

Unfortunately I don't think the photograph captures the color very well, even though it's taken in full sunlight. I can say that the color has a bit of corrective peach tint to it that doesn't come across well in the picture. The finish is semi-matte deliciousness. Which is another way of saying that the finish is very natural. Not sparkling highlight-y, not flat matte. A similarly finished item on the market that everyone is familiar with would be the YSL touche eclat, which I've also used for a long time. However, the Ellis Faas concealer has more coverage that the touche eclat. I have never tried the Ellis Faas foundation, since I don't wear any, but I have a feeling it would have the same quality. Ellis Faas is available online at ellisfaas.com and in store at Bergdorf's.

And just because:

Ellis Faas Eye Lights, Swatches and Review

I also picked up the new Ellis Faas Eyelights from the recent Bergdorf beauty gift card event. There are five colors, E301 through E305. The first is a warm silver, the second is a golden green, the third is a gold bronze, the fourth is a medium purple, and the last is a duochrome brown teal. I've played with them only a short time, but I can safely say that I've never seen anything like them. The Ellis Faas Website describes them as:

"Although liquid, they dry upon application to create the illusion of metallic eyes. The texture appears moist whilst being perfectly dry with a smooth finish, so you won't feel any stickiness and you'll avoid those pesky eyelid creases."

All true! They actually dry down to an almost-gritty dry feel. Not sticky in the least, although I suppose if you have dry lid problems, these might not be for you. I unfortunately have oily lid problems, so I don't mind. I generally apply all Ellis Faas products with my fingers, and these are no different. I haven't tried blending these with other powder shadows, but they blend nicely with each other. I've been using them individually as the main lid color, with some additional powder products added as highlight or emphasis once the Eye Light has dried. And word to the wise, they dry quickly, so you have to work fairly fast if you want to blend them out.

From Left to Right: E301 E302 E303 E304 E305, in indirect light

Direct Sunlight

As mentioned above, the fifth color also has a true duochrome quality that I really like. I guess it's similar to Mac Club, which I've heard volumes about but surely will never own. Speaking of which, Amy at Cafe Makeup just did a review of a brand that has a similar color here.

I had a hard time capturing the effect of the eye lights photographically, but just trust me that they're gorgeous.

Ellis Faas is definitely one of my all time favorite brands, and I own a large variety of the products. One of the complaints I often hear is that the click pens are a huge pain. And yes, I would also say that they are a huge pain. But don't be afraid! Just click your little heart out, and all will be well, I swear! When I was first experimenting with the Ellis Faas click pen, I was so timid, not wanting to waste, not wanting explosion, not wanting DISASTER! But now when I receive a new pen, I just go nuts clicking, until product comes shooting out. I've started, let's see, about 20 of these pens now, and trust me, the shooting is a good thing. Because you have to saturate the tip with product in order for application to be at all doable anyway. And sure, some product is inevitably lost, but not even close to a significant amount. The same goes for restarting the pen. I just click like a maniac, because life is for the living!

The Ellis Faas Eye Lights can be found at ellisfaas.com.