Today we’d like to introduce you to Holly Star.
Hi Holly, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I come from a family of artists, so creativity was always around me growing up. My great grandmother’s paintings hung throughout my grandmother’s home, and I’d constantly find my mom’s and aunts’ sketches and paintings tucked away in closets or storage. Art always felt normal to me. It was just part of life.
When I was 7, my Aunt Patti, who was an art teacher, won a trip to Japan. When she came back, she introduced me to Japanese art, manga, origami, paper cranes, all of it. That really stayed with me. I completely fell in love with the artistry and intention behind it, and honestly that influence still exists in my work today.
I stayed in art classes my entire childhood, but once it came time to graduate, the idea of pursuing art as a career was shut down pretty quickly by the people around me. So I listened. I decided to go into physical therapy instead.
Not long into college, I discovered I had fractures in my spine. Dance team made that obvious pretty fast. I ended up dropping out after my first year to have back surgery, which unfortunately went horribly wrong. That period of my life completely unraveled me. I didn’t know what I was supposed to do anymore or how I was going to build a future for myself.
So I started drawing again.
Then in 2013 I discovered microblading, and suddenly I was sketching eyebrows in every notebook I owned. Something about it immediately clicked for me. It combined artistry, precision, anatomy, and human connection in a way I became completely obsessed with.
I saved up more money than I’d ever had to take my first permanent makeup training, which was honestly terrible. We basically watched a 15 minute video and then models walked in for eyeliner procedures. But by that point it didn’t matter. I was already hooked.
From there, it became an endless pursuit of knowledge. I worked out of my school for a few years until I felt like I had learned everything I could there. Then I went out on my own and spent years doing hundreds of procedures for little to no money just to gain experience. I worked seven days a week, often 12 hour days, in a tiny 100 square foot windowless salon suite. Every extra dollar I made went straight back into education and advanced trainings.
Around year five, I became frustrated with the quality of education in the industry and started teaching myself. Eventually I opened my own commercial retail space, built a team, and became even more focused on creating the kind of education I felt was missing from permanent makeup. Since then I’ve spoken at conferences, developed pigments, expanded into laser removal, and continued building Hoshi Studio into something far bigger than I ever imagined when I was sitting in that tiny salon suite years ago.
Now, after 12 years in the industry, it’s really surreal to say we’ve grown into something globally recognized. But at the core of it, I still feel like the same kid sitting on the floor surrounded by sketchbooks, completely fascinated by art.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Absolutely not. Honestly, the road here has been brutal at times.
The biggest struggle by far was my back. I discovered fractures in my spine very young, and my first back surgery was botched horribly. It’s something I genuinely wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. I spent two years in debilitating pain. No one wanted to help me. I felt completely abandoned by the medical system and truly thought my life was over. Physical movement had always been one of the biggest loves and outlets in my life, so being told I might never move normally again destroyed me mentally.
Eventually I found Dr. Corenman at the Steadman Clinic in Vail, Colorado. He gave me a 50% chance of success with another surgery. I took it. I spent six months in a back brace and years rehabbing afterward. Recovery became my full-time job. I fought for every inch of it physically and mentally. It’s still the hardest thing I’ve ever done.
After about two years of rehab, I took my first pole dancing class. It felt impossible at the time. Now I train and perform advanced level pole in my free time, which still honestly feels surreal considering where I started. That experience changed me permanently because it taught me what persistence really looks like when things feel hopeless.
Outside of my health struggles, building a business has come with its own challenges. Surviving Covid was incredibly difficult. Permanent makeup got grouped into the same category as strip clubs during shutdowns, so our industry faced some of the longest and strictest restrictions. We were shut down for months, and when you’re responsible for a team of women whose families depend on that income, the pressure is overwhelming. A lot of businesses in this industry didn’t survive it.
Then after Covid came the explosion of social media demands. Running a business now basically means working two full-time jobs at once. The amount of content expected from small business owners is honestly insane compared to even five years ago. There are endless services promising growth or visibility, but most of them are either ineffective or outright scams. At the end of the day, you realize no one is coming to save you. You have to learn to do everything yourself and somehow still do it well.
I think all of those experiences forced me to become resilient. I didn’t really have another option.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
One thing that sets me apart immediately is experience. Not just years in the industry, but actual hands-on hours. I have been full time from the very beginning of my career. Five, six, sometimes seven days a week. Long days. Constant clients. Constant practice.
A lot of artists understandably choose flexibility once they become self-employed, but I went the opposite direction. I became obsessed with mastering this craft. Experience is the greatest teacher in permanent makeup, especially because healed results take years to truly understand. You cannot shortcut repetition, pattern recognition, skin variation, aging, pigment behavior, or problem solving. I’ve spent over a decade deeply immersed in all of it, and I think that volume of experience shows in both my work and my teaching.
What really separates our brand though is our focus on sustainability in permanent makeup, which is a concept that honestly barely exists in this industry yet. Most permanent makeup is taught around immediate results and how something photographs fresh. My focus is long-term integrity. How does this tattoo age in the skin? How does it evolve over 3, 5, 10 years? Does it remain flattering as someone’s face changes naturally with time? Can the skin tolerate repeated work long term? Does the technique preserve softness and realism instead of creating buildup and migration over the years?
That mindset completely changed the way I approach tattooing. It pushed me into developing my own signature techniques and approaches centered around softness, longevity, natural healed results, and color preservation. My goal has never been to create trendy work that looks dramatic for social media. I want work that still looks beautiful years later in real life.
That pursuit also led me heavily into pigment science and eventually pigment creation. The deeper I got into understanding color theory, undertones, particle behavior, fading patterns, and long-term retention, the more I realized there were major gaps in the education available within this industry. So I started creating the education material I wished had existed when I started.
Today, education has become a huge part of our brand. I teach artists both online and on world stages, sharing the techniques and philosophies that have shaped my career. I’m incredibly proud that our brand has become known not just for beautiful work, but for depth of knowledge, innovation, transparency, and pushing conversations forward that the industry wasn’t really having before.
Can you share something surprising about yourself?
I think most people would be surprised by how much of my work is driven by science and analysis rather than pure artistry. People see the creative side first because permanent makeup is obviously visual, but behind the scenes I’m incredibly technical and obsessive. I spend a huge amount of time studying healed results, pigment behavior, tissue response, aging patterns, lighting, color theory, and even the physics of how pigment moves in skin over time. I’m probably closer to a researcher than people realize.
I also think people are surprised by how much my athletic background influences my work. Pole dancing completely changed the way I understand movement, body mechanics, precision, consistency, and discipline. It taught me patience in a way nothing else could. Advanced pole takes years of repetition and failure before things finally click, and permanent makeup is honestly very similar. Both require an unusual amount of body awareness, control, and resilience.
At the same time, outside of work I’m actually incredibly domestic. My husband is my best friend, and some of my favorite moments are the really normal ones at home. I cook all the time, clean, reorganize things, do laundry throughout the week, take care of fur babies, and genuinely love creating a peaceful home environment. I think because my work is so mentally intense and demanding, home became the place where I recharge and create in a completely different way.
Pricing:
- Microshading eyebrows – $800
- Lip Blush – $800
- Laser Removal – $150
- Permanent Freckles – $500
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.hoshi.studio
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hoshi.studio.holly?igsh=YjB6YmJkbmo4OGdr&utm_source=qr
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/188dSxG79S/?mibextid=wwXIfr
