Vanity verité: Ellis Faas cosmetics replicate blood, bruises

Amsterdam – Heralding a return to authentic beauty, Dutch cosmetics brand Ellis Faas has launched a line of beauty products that mimic real body tones – such as blood and bruises – so as to enhance natural skin tones. This is not the neutral ‘no make-up’ look of Bobbi Brown’s 1990s heyday but cosmetics based on ‘human colours’ already present in the skin. Ellis Faas lipsticks are, for example, literally blood red.

‘[Our lipstick] is the colour of pure blood,’ Ellis Faas, the make-up artist, says. ‘That may sound a bit scary, but it’s the most natural red colour to use on your face.’ Faas also mentions an available shade of purple that mimics the colour ‘when blood comes to the surface of the skin’ and a blue that was inspired by the ‘turquoisey-green blue which is in the veins’. ‘It’s all colours that shine through your skin naturally,’ she says.

Indeed, fake beauty is the latest victim of the credit crunch. The recent drop-off in plastic surgery procedures has been so steep that it could force nearly 15 % of UK surgeons to shut up shop, according to the Times. Plastic surgeons in the US have reported similar declines.

Forget fake – beauty now is all about vanity verité.