Airbrush makeup Hall of Fame: Tasha Boyd. How airbrush makeup changed my life and career.

The Galaxy within: Airbrushed with Dinair by Tasha on Tasha in  just 30 minutes

If there was such thing as airbrush makeup royalty, and I suspect there is, Tasha Boyd woul be it. This amazingly talented makeup artist, now living and working in Las Vegas, was "born" into airbrush makeup thanks to the talent and vision of her step mother Sheila, a longtime collaborator and friend of Dina Ousley, the originator of beauty airbrush makeup and founder of the leading brand Dinair.
I met Tasha at Dinair's North Hollywood headquarters in the last days of her tenure as Leading Educator, shortly before a series of moves that would eventually see her settle in Las Vegas. Tasha has a very engaging, luminous and spiritual personality, and wears some of the most amazing self airbrushed eyeshadow looks I have ever seen on anyone, which turned me early on into a massive fan of her work and expertise.

Tell me something about your background.

Tasha Boyd

I was born in San Josè, California, and I grew up right outside Yosemite National Park, one of the wonders of America that people come from all over the world to see. After I got my degree in acting at California State University in Fresno I moved to LA to pursue both acting and airbrush makeup. I was there for four years as Leading Educator for Dinair and traveled monthly around the States teaching groups of 50 plus professionals at a time on the art of airbrushing makeup. I am now settled in Las Vegas, Nevada where I work as a freelance makeup artist and wellness advocate for doTerra, advocating for overall health in mind, body and spirit! (pls visit Natural BeYOUti.com for description of services)

Glamour shoot with Blogger Eva Catherine

When did you first become interested in airbrush makeup?

Actually I started airbrushing when I was 14. My step mom Sheila Boyd (same last name but no previous relation) is a world renown freehand airbrush artist, and she met Dina Ousley back in the early 80's when she had just started making her products out of her own home. My mother found Dina's ad in an airbrush magazine, and she called her immediately needing all her products. They worked together for years. Sheila entered my father's life when I was 14 and I had serious cystic acne. She told me to try Dina's products urging me to not use anything else for a good month, and that this would be better than any conventional makeup I was using. I tried it one time and I was immediately sold, because for the first time it didn't hurt to put makeup on. It felt like my skin and not a mask. When you have cystic acne and you touch your skin it hurts, and ultimately causes the bumps to swell more. The airbrush application felt like a cooling effect on my skin, and within a month and a half my cystic acne was gone. It's never been back, because by not pushing products into your pores airbrushing allows your skin to breathe. So basically I was letting my skin heal itself while I concealed it. In high school I didn't have to worry about acne thanks to Dinair, because I was covering it and it didn't even look like I had anything on. It significantly helped my self esteem as a young woman. At age 14 I actually started modeling for Dinair at their trade shows and fell in love with the fantasy side of makeup.

Did you also use any medicine to get rid of your acne?

No, Dinair was all I needed. My skin was able to balance its own PH and oils, producing only what it needed in order to keep it healthy. I never used compact powders after that and still don’t. I had been using both high end and cheaper products to conceal my acne before, but these kept clogging my pores making my acne worse. I saw no end to this vicious circle and I thought “conventional” makeup was the only possibility I had. Or going bare face….But that wasn’t an option!

Would you say that airbrushing allowed for a profound psychological change, besides the improvements in your skin conditions?

Makeup byTasha for SpiritTats -ph: Jai Day

Of course. When you have acne and you look in the mirror, you think that everyone else is looking at your pimples, and that's all you can think about when someone is talking to you. Can they see it? Are they staring? Do they see me, or do they just see the acne on my face? In your teenage years you are still trying to find your beauty, and I think airbrushing pivoted my confidence level, it made me feel beautiful, it helped me loving who I was and allowed me to find myself beyond my perceived insecurities much faster.

So you can actually say that your makeup artist career began with Dinair...

Yes, I started working at 15 at our local salon and SPA. Yosemite is a popular wedding destination, and sometimes I would fill in for weddings, so when I was only 16 I would do makeup on brides because my confidence level with it made me look like I was older. If pepole asked I would say I was 18, but in fact I was only 16...

Can you recall an early experience that helped you define your dream to become a makeup artist?

Well, acting was my main goal but makeup was my side choice, because of the uncertainties of the acting world. Even while I was in college I would do little side makeup jobs, and during the summer I would go to LA to work with Dinair. At 17 I had a chance to work with Dina on the German version of Next Top Model with Heidi Klum which was filmed in LA. That gave me a taste of what it felt like to work in the industry and it was amazing, it gave me a clear idea of the potential that airbrushing had for editorial makeup. We were doing fully airbrushed editorial faces and paining the bodies with animal patterns. At some point, with the shoot just a few minutes away, Heidi Klum came on set and asked for a change some of the colors we had been using. We had just run out of some custom shades we had brought along, but we were able to meet the challenge by mixing new colors on set, and the whole process was so fast! I love to be challenged and I knew that this was going to open up my artistic abilities.

When did you decide to move permanently to LA?

Working with Dina at The Emmy's Governors Ball

Dina called me right out of high school, but I told her I wanted to go to college first. I invited her to my college graduation, and she told me to come to LA right away. I took a month off after college to recover as I had taken 19 units each semester while holding a 50 hour a week job as a waitress and performing in college plays. I guess you could say I don’t know how not to work hard!

Two days before my official start date I got a call from Dina asking me to come and teach an airbrush workshop that Sunday. I was immediately placed as lead instructor and went on to traveling with them two or three times a month out of state training professionals.

When you started airbrushing, what aspect of the technique did you find to be the most difficult?

Winged eye shadow and liner using only airbrush makeup

Foundation was easy, blush wasn't too bad but it was eyeshadow that was difficult at first. I started with very dark colors. We all do that. We all want to do a smokey eye right away, and that's the first thing you shouldn't do, you should begin with something simple. My step mother knew that and she advised me to try lighter colors first, such as Light Bronze and Pink Blossom. When I took my first course with Dinair at age 16 I was trying to use the color Light Smoke but I was getting a spotty result because I was spraying too close and too much. Dina came up to me and said "Just throw some Light Bronze on it, it will make everything better" so that's what I did [laughs]. I was scared to play with colors so I kept it natural. I got a call from Dina before I had moved out to LA asking me if I did eyeliner. I took a small pause and said “Yes”. She said “good because you’re coming to Vegas to do a show and you need to do a good 40-60 faces a day!” I hung up the phone with her and went "well shoot, I can’t do eyeliner". I practiced every day for one week until the show and somehow I did some form of eyeliner. [laughs] By the end of the third day with over 60 faces a day, I was good!!! I would say still today the only thing that keeps me from learning faster is my own fears. This is something I work on every day with life in general.

As Lead Instructor at Dinair and later on your own, what aspect of teaching do you prefer?

I enjoy all of it really. Everyone learns differently and I think being a kinesthetic learner myself this is a strength I bring to the table. Not to mention I’m a performer so that just makes it comical! I love every part of the class down to color matching and breaking the airbrush apart, because you have to understand all of it in order to succeed. Teaching made me a better airbrush artist and a better person. I learn something from the students every time and it continues to teach me patience.

What is the most common false idea that people come into the courses with?

I would say the most common is that it is a heavy look, and that is only for celebrities or such. When I hear that it blows my mind, because well, I am wearing it right now, and when I tell them that, they’re shocked! They don't see it on my face which this ultimate compliment, I think. They have this past experience of it hurting and that it's too heavy or wet… I ask them what products have they seen or used, because this certainly doesn't apply to Dinair. Another misconception on behalf of makeup artists is the fact that they view this product as viable only for foundation. This is due to lack of education, as many makeup artists look for the quickest short cuts to results without fully realizing that if they learned this medium correctly every aspect of their makeup application would be faster and more durable too. This makeup is amazing even for working out, which I do on a regular basis. When I see the makeup on another girl's face melt under the sweat, and I dab my face and nothing transfers to the towel, I think "Yes, thank you Dinair!" [laughs]

Is there a line in the Dinair brand that you are particularly excited about, and one that you feel is somewhat underrated?

Airbrush underwater on Abby Oliver -ph. R Klein

Being very fair I have redness and purple under eye circles because my skin is translucent. Glamour is my favorite line, it has all the coverage I need and works great on all ages and skin types. If I need a little more coverage still I lightly layer over a little Paramedical, as I do for my brides to create extra resistance. My preference and skill is natural looking makeup that doesn't even show on the skin, this is what I am sought for and that's why I prefer Glamour. My next favorite line is Colair Xtreme, because it changed the whole tattoo cover up industry by cutting the application time in half. You just have to be careful because it dries fast, so you have to use a few drops at a time so it doesn't sit in your airbrush. In any case the new Deep Clean product will solve any clog very easily. Finally, I am in love with the Colair Opalescent eyeshadows, which is all I use know. It is by far the best shimmer shadows out there. I occasionally dabble in traditional powder shadows and I’m left frustrated with half a missing lid of shimmer throughout the day. Dinair’s opalescents are also water resistant! The most underrated line is probably the Fantasy line, which allows for amazing body art. The colors are amazing and while it's water based it's also waterproof, which is amazing for my underwater mermaid shoots! (shhhh I’m a mermaid on the side)

What made you decide to leave LA and start your own business?

I worked with several celebrities, The Oscars, The Emmy’s two years in a row and many other important events that I totally loved. However I have to say the industry is not what you think it is. Hollywood is like a curtain of magic draped across our eyes by TV and film that quickly fades away when you work within the industry. There are dozens of makeup artist lined up ready to work for free because it’s a “privilege” to do this person's makeup… Well a privilege doesn’t pay the cost of living LA. I saw myself in the glamour and bright lights, and then I saw them for what they truly are, and I am not that kind of person. I am a country girl and I grew up with a love for nature, mother earth and the animals. I try to stay as humble as I can and I had lost a part of me in LA ...No job is ever worth losing you! Hollywood and LA are a very tough environment, and spending four hours in traffic is just a waste of life for me.

What makes your new role as free lance makeup artist and wellness consultant special, and how big a part does airbrushing play in it?

I have always known my gift in this lifetime is to help people heal. Some may say it’s a curse but I see it as a gift I must share. The many thousands of women I have had the pleasure of meeting and airbrushing over the years have shown me the way women look at themselves. I myself had to learn what it truly meant to love yourself unconditionally and with learning this on-going lesson came the love of my life shortly after! I get the honor of seeing a woman mesmerized at something so simple as finally finding the perfect color match! That’s BIG!! I now focus on strengthening women emotionally, physically and spiritually but only if they're ready. As a freelance makeup artist I get to place my positivity, love and hopefully inspiring energy around the work I do.

My favorite makeup gigs are anything Avant and Boudoir. This style allows me to create beauty outside of the norm and dive into a different reality. Boudoir strips away the comfort surrounding us and captures our true BeYOUti! It’s sexy, it’s wild and it’s supposed to be “out there”. It’s that split moment when the camera is clicking you see in her eyes the balance between feminine and masculine energy… And that’s when her true Goddess Roars!

I was introduced to doTerra essential oils after a minor car accident in LA that resulted in annoying issues that halted working for sometime. It is now part of my daily life, creating a more natural lifestyle and eliminating as many toxic products as I can. I have always had a knack for holistic healing through natural ways. doTerra happens to resonate with my makeup philosophy of “watch what you’re putting on your face!” , thus creating the ultimate business name that encompassed it all: Natural BeYOUti 

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