A funeral director and embalmer has shared what it’s like to work around dead people - and even put makeup on them – but says it’s the only job she’ll ever do.

Eileen Hollis, 32, grew up amongst the dead in her father’s funeral home – and now working there herself, she says she will never do anything else.

Eileen, from Syracuse, New York, works as a funeral director and embalmer at Hollis Funeral Home – where she spends every day surrounded by dead people.

Her day-to-day activities involve chemically preserving dead people before applying makeup to make the person look the same as they did in real life ahead of their funeral.

She also assists her father, Charlie, 71, in running the funeral services, which can often be emotional – but she plans to do the job her whole life and will one day take over the business.

Eileen says the job is completely different to what people think it is – and rather than being creepy and depressing, it is actually complex and can be very rewarding.

Eileen, who currently lives in a house near the funeral home with husband Neil Hueber, 35, said: "My parents have lived in the funeral home all my life - I grew up wandering around downstairs.

"To me this is normal but there are so many people who don't understand what it means to do my job - it's not like what you see in horror films.

"It can be a very emotional job because you want to do your best for a grieving family who have lost a loved one.

"One thing I get asked a lot is if I'm afraid of the dead, and I'm not at all - working with the dead is my job and it is an important one.

"It's one I'll do for the rest of my life!"

After growing up in the funeral home, Eileen trained at a mortuary school for two years - involving countless exams - before eventually joining her dad as a licensed funeral director and embalmer.

Ever since, she has spent her days working with the dead - everything from chemically preserving people's bodies to applying makeup to them and even running the funeral services.

Embalming, where the bodies are temporarily preserved, takes around two hours and involves injecting chemicals into arteries to drain out the veins and preventing the body from decomposing by removing bad bacteria.

She then goes on to 'cosmetise' the individual - applying makeup to make them look as much as possible like their former self.

Eileen explained: "Applying makeup to the dead is very different to applying it on a living person because the skin texture changes and the skin is not warm so it doesn't blend as easily."

When cosmetising a body, sometimes very little makeup is needed, or they may need a lot, for example to cover bruising - and Eileen adapts her technique depending on what is required.

She told how in her toolkit as well as mortuary makeup such as wax, needed to cover heavier discolouration, she also reaches for her own makeup - and applies brands such as Fenty, Glossier and Maybelline.

The cosmetising process is required for both men and women and can take all day depending on what Eileen needs to do - but the ultimate goal, she said, is to make the person look as good as when they were alive.

She said: "I'm used to it, but even now sometimes I'll be working on a person and suddenly think 'wow, what you're doing is crazy'.

"But normally I treat it like a puzzle - finding the way to make the person look most like themselves - and try to do the best job possible for the grieving family."

But despite her unusual job, Eileen said it's very rewarding and she'll never do anything different.

"My job is no different than working as a social worker, or a nurse," she said. "It can be depressing at times but it's important and you're there for a reason.

"A lot of people think it's scary but that's because they don't know what we do - we're not monsters!

"I'm not what you'd expect from a funeral director - I'm a sparkly colourful bubbly person and I love to do things like go roller-skating.

"I do talk about it a lot because nobody really does that - I want to educate people and show them the truth."

*Videos filmed throughout 2021.