Elsa Durrens - magnifying beauty

She followed “her thing” and excelled at it. That opened the door to success beyond imagination.

Elsa and I met almost 10 years ago on the set in Costa Rica for the French luxury swimwear Pain de Sucre. Whereas the following year it was the breathtaking Scala dei Turchi in Sicily. Since then Elsa has been working for Chanel, to name one among the most ambitious sets and fashion teams in the world.

What I learned from her is the importance of cherishing and nurturing connections; those 1 day relationships that are magically created for a common project.

Tanya Gervasi: I’ve been following your journey and career path since we worked together many years ago. You’ve made some bold decisions moving from Paris where you have a flourishing career, so I’d like to ask straight away what would you tell those people who feel a push to move to another country but are scared from a professional point of view. How was that process for you?

Elsa Durrens: So it's quite hard. It's got the hard part because you really have to accept that in a way you will lose of a course, especially me having a contract with Chanel.

Well actually I didn't tell Chanel that I moved to Cameroon, and this makes it hard because I kind of live a double life. I’m not secretive about it but I just told them I am not based in Paris anymore… especially post lockdown things have changed and brands are understanding that many people don’t want to spend all their time in the city anymore. I go back and forth, like it’s the case of many, this means I only come for big jobs or when I have several consecutive days, and this is totally accepted. Before to work in fashion, you really had to live in Paris or in London. Now, after 2020 a lot of people bought houses in the South of France or the North, or in the countryside, and live there. They kept a small apartment in Paris, and go back and forth.

Luckily, since I I told them that they totally accept the situation.

I have to admit that I have to refuse a lot of options which is really hard, because I took a very long time to build this career. I had amazing jobs being proposed to me, but I cannot go back for one or 2 days. So that’s something I had to give up, and another thing that I really had to give up in a way is my ambition. My ambitions like, I know, being here, I cannot really be in all the magazines and do all the campaigns. I cannot show off like I used to do on all the jobs, but on the other hand, no one is a prophet in its own land so when you move somewhere else - and that's what happened in Asia and that's why, we all wanted to move again - people get very curious about who you are, and you can have a fresh start.
I can position myself on a higher level than I feel I am in Paris because in Paris there’s many makeup artists who are at my level so sometimes you see on Instagram what one is doing and wonder why it’s not you on that set or why they are working a lot and you’re not as much, but when I am abroad it gives me the possibility to see myself in another way.  

I feel elated by this move, both this one and the previous one to Asia, I really feel empowered. And this is very positive.
The negative part is that you have to start all over again, build anew, clear trail, and obviously here is not the same level money-wise and image-wise as New York etc. I didn't really think about it professionally-wise. Actually, the fact that we moved it was really for the girls. We really wanted them to grow in Africa, and in an English speaking country.

Only then after making that decision for that reason first , I figured out how I could make it possible for my job. Honestly having at my level and with my contract with Chanel the doors are already open and new ones are opening.

You know Chanel has a kind of beauty standard, a way of doing makeup. While Cameroon, and Africa in general, must have totally different beauty standards. How does opening up to different jobs and a different culture, impact your style as a makeup artist and also your own vision of beauty?

So the Chanel vision of beauty is really an empowering vision of beauty. It's not something that transforms, it's actually something that magnifies, making you feel comfortable and strong and bold. But it’s quite an effortless beauty.
It's very different the way girls do their makeup here, which is more like the American way you know that we see on social media.So I have to find a balance between that.
The funny thing and the difficult thing is that I really have to adapt to all the clients because of the clients I'm doing here. My clients in Cameroon are the vip and businesswomen and it's totally different from what I used to do in the studio, where the model comes and she doesn't have a word to say. She accepts the look that we are giving her. Here I really have to change, because they really know what they want: I like the eyeliner up this way, and I like the lashes this way, and I do it even if I don’t think it fits them or that is good for their skin. So you really have to change the approach but I still keep my signature look, which is about making the girl look very pretty and fresh, and feel comfortable in her own makeup.

I always try to adapt this to the beauty standards that I am confronted to.  For example in Asia I did girls much paler than I used to do, and used a lot of pink. I always change my palette according to who I’m doing the makeup for and whether in Asia or Africa it’s important to adapt but always bring your own touch. 

It's really interesting to bring your own vision into it so you kind of do a remix of the local style with your signature or your touch.

You know, you once told me that painting faces or painting a canvas are the same.

I changed quite a bit about that. It depends what you mean, because I think if you do something quite artistic, I would say yes.

But if you want to do something real and fresh, and respect the features, then it’s closer to Renaissance painting, and then it becomes super super hard to compare it to a canvas.
But remember the shoot we did on the beach? This is just like a canvas like you have a vision of colours, you put them on and it creates. It’s really about mood and emotions for me by placing the colours, and how I do it. I really want to create an emotion when you look at this, even if it's natural makeup. The choice of the blush, the choice of the colour and where you place it, tells a totally different story.

Yeah like if you put the blush really on the mid-cheeks, it's young and fresh. If you put it higher, it's a little bit feverish and more romantic, whereas under and close to the ears it's more I would say bold.

Do you paint?

Not really actually.

Ah, why did you choose a career in makeup?

I always like the power of magnifying people and things, that's something I love to do, like improving. I've always been passionate about that so my passion is really not about makeup. It's really about making things and people look better, look their best. That's really what I like. And I love the relationship we create with the models, I love to take care of people.

So I think magnifying and taking care of people together really leads to makeup.

I think that's how I came into that. 

But I'm not someone who will go to Sephora every now and then and check all the products that are coming out. No, you know I get some product sometimes, try it and say, Wow! This gives this effect, and this is amazing to pump up the face. Or this is amazing to make the eyes look brighter. That's how I work, it's really about improving and I’d say create an emotion.

Most of the people I work with, not in fashion but the private clients, I always ask them, How do you feel today? Which person do you want to be tonight?

This guides me a lot to do the makeup. I want to be sexy. I want to feel super, bright, super shiny. I feel super powerful. Then I really have a vision of the makeup I'm going to go for.

That’s a gift! I read, you wrote the right choices pay off. My question is, how did you know back then they were the right choices?

Because it's what I do naturally. So, I would say career wise yes, I made choices, but they were actually easy choices, it was like a path that was a bit guided.

I didn't really have to make drastic decisions like, do I do makeup, or not? It's always something that I did kind of naturally and since I think I loved it so much it just came and lead me all the way to where I am now.
Of course there were some decisions to take, because I also used to do nails.

I remember, in fact, on models com you're presented as a manicurist.

Yeah, I know. There's one for manicurist and one for makeup. I think so, I have to double check but I did my agent change that. Anyway it was hard, because that's something I always used to do makeup and nails, but when I arrived in fashion these were two separate things like the girls who do nails don't do makeup, and the girls who do makeup don't do nails.

But when I was assisting makeup artists when I started, there weren’t a lot of manicurists on sets. There were maybe like 3 in Paris. So I started helping the makeup artists by doing the nails, and they all realise that I do the nails very well. So sometimes they'll say, Oh, can we just book you for nails? And at first I say, yeah, no problem, just give me my money, and I do my job and I like it, it's fine. Then it started to be complicated because I was doing more nails than make up because there was literally nobody in nails, and I was l the only young one coming and doing the nails.

And so at one point it's a decision I had to make. Do I do nails or do I just stop and do makeup? But I mean it made me work quite a lot. It gave me access to a lot of jobs like literally for the nails I worked on the highest jobs ever with the best photographers in the world. I met everybody by doing the nails, so it was like assisting because I worked with all the best makeup artists as well, and I could see the techniques.
I think it was a decision I had to take but in the end I actually didn’t really make any decision. I kept doing nails, and after Chanel was looking for a spokesperson to talk about the nails for the press. When I met with them I said yes but I'm a makeup artist first and they said, Oh, but that's amazing that you have the global vision of beauty, then you can talk about the makeup and the nails.

So the nails career brought me to a super high level that gave me access to Chanel.

Chanel signed me and now I do more makeup thanks to Chanel.

I’m rarely doing nails now. So you see it wasn't really a decision. The decision was just take what life gives you and follow the path that you were brought into, and see what happens.

What did you dream of becoming when you were little?

I actually think I didn’t really have a dream. My dream was to never live in winter anymore. I want to live in a hot country and not have to go through winter.
That's the biggest dream I remember but apart from that I remember literally asking to make life good for me and make me happy. That's all I ask for. I didn't have a plan like I want to be an architect, or I want to be a makeup artist.

It all came, built up slowly by slowly just by doing what I like.

You know the funny thing is… you remember the shoot we did in Sicily? That is when I received the call that I had an appointment for Chanel for the contract.

We were in the car I remember, back to the airport when the car broke.

Yeah, I think it was right before, my agent called me and said, Okay, they have a contract to give to someone and they are thinking about you, we're going to meet them next week.
And I got it and it's been like 10 years now!

How do you feel leaning into these longer relationships?
Fashion is interesting, because on one side there is a lot of change: models change, style changes, and everything changes. There is almost no time to really build long lasting relationships. But at the same time, at a certain level like, high up, you do and it’s all about relationships: people tend to work with who they know and who they like.

I think, Yeah, there's a moving process for the young fashion industry that they want to try everybody, every newcomer. Then there's also, as you say, at a higher level you always find the same people. In the end it's hard to get in there. Now when I work I know almost everybody. It's really rare when I come in for a shoot and I don't know a team.  Most of the time I know the team already, and I think at this level with Chanel, and some other clients I have, they really want to work with people who make them feel comfortable that they know they’re always on time, know we work well, that our tools are clean. They know that we take care of the model, it's like insurance. There's people I started with 15 years ago, and now we are really good friends. So the people I really built a relationship with become really close friends. Mostly it's hairdressers and we get along, some other manicurists too. After I wouldn’t say it’s a friendship, like with photographers or with clients, I mean we don't see each other out of the studio but just truly  appreciate working with each other.

This gives another reading to fashion and makes it quite special. A group of people truly choosing their tribe, through feeling and creativity. In this way the exclusivity that is often portrayed as a negative aspect, stems from a need to trust and feel good with the people you work with… time and time again. This goes beyond just talent. Talking to you makes me realise now (after 20 years of modelling!!) how also there needs to be a willingness to build long lasting relationships. There’s a big value there.

What’s interesting too is that I envisioned you as being an artist, not that you’re not, but I thought that the primary reason you did makeup was that it brought you close to painting. In my mind I didn’t tie it to a care feeling more than just an artistic expression.

But I think that the artistic expression is still there in what I told you about how I really want to create the emotion. That's what a painter wants to do, you know, out of a canvas. That's what I want to do also out of makeup. But there’s this synergic aspect with care and the fact that I really want people to feel amazing. I create something from the base that I’m given, you see my style. I'm not crazy with brushes… I think the shoot I did with you is one of the most artistic I’ve ever done and I loved it, but I don’t get to work so much on these type of projects. Maybe I have to do it more to express my artist's side.

I still consider myself as an artist.  Also I come from a family where there's a lot of artists.

So that also lead me to where I am now because it's not easy for parents to push you in this direction, like what ?! makeup ?!  really ?!  Because they really understand the artistic part of it and they see that I'm not just a facialist. I think they accepted more when they realised that what I was doing was really empowering myself and others as well. My grandfather, Claude Durrens, was really a famous artist. He won the Grand Prix de Rome, he was an engraver. He engraved copper, used to do the stamps and build illustrations. It was famous at this time and I always loved to see him work because when you engrave a stamp, you really have to carve it the size of the stamp not something big that you’ll resize after. This was in the sixties, so he really had to do it, and he was so precise. and so in love with this work, so passionate about it I think I really got that. I was really inspired by that.
I love the little details.