Welcome to The Who What Wear Podcast. Think of it as your direct line to the designers, stylists, beauty experts, editors, and tastemakers who are shaping the fashion-and-beauty world. Subscribe to The Who What Wear Podcast on Youtube, Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
For makeup artist and groomer Tasha Reiko Brown, she got her start working in a different type of artistic medium: graffiti. "I started in art, doing graffiti," Brown said. "The biggest canvas, the freest canvas, and it was just that time in New York. It was fun. It was creative."
Eventually, the canvases started getting smaller until Brown started doing makeup. "I think it just sort of came to me," Brown said. "Because of my background, it was just very, very organic transfer just to sort of switch canvases." Since she made that switch, Brown has gone on to work with everyone from Tracee Ellis Ross to Michael B. Jordan.
On the latest episode of The Who What Wear Podcast, Brown shares how she got her start, the products she can't live without, and more. For excerpts from their conversation, scroll below.
I want to talk about your incredible career and your incredible clients and all of the work that you do, but before we get into all of that, can we start by talking a little bit about how you got your start in beauty and what you were up to before that? A little birdie told me it was something quite interesting.
It was something quite interesting. It was New York. New York was always interesting back in those times when New York is still interesting, but it was more interesting back then.
I started in art, doing graffiti. The biggest canvas, the freest canvas, and it was just that time in New York. It was fun. It was creative. You can do it in the middle of the night. It was after the club when you still had all of that energy going. Me and friends, we would work on a piece. We'd climb up the thing, go to the rooftop, work on a piece all night long.
At what point did you start to think like, "Oh, I'm actually interested in sort of the beauty side of things"? Art on a smaller canvas, if you will.
Art on a smaller canvas. Well, I moved from the larger canvases because I got too old to keep ducking and dodging police when they would catch you doing that. I eventually moved to smaller canvases and acrylic.
Faces came along, through, I think it was just organic… I don't think I found it, or was looking for something else to do. In my mind, I was going to keep doing my canvases. I was going to show in galleries. It was going to be just this artist, bohemian. Like inside my warehouse, throwing paint everywhere, a type of existence.
I think it just sort of came to me. Because of my background, it was just a very, very organic transfer just to sort of switch canvases. The canvases kept getting smaller and more intimate.
For our folks at home, who are maybe not in a red carpet situation, but they know they're going to be photographed, what are any tips or tricks? What should we know when doing our makeup at home?
I think you should look at what you don't like. What didn't you like about the last time you were photographed? You looked a little washed out? We need to do a little bronzer. We need to do a little blush. And more than we think, right?
Look at what you don't like and then just correct those things. I don't think you need to go out and purchase a whole new beauty wardrobe. Most likely, the things that you need are the things that you have. It's just applying them correctly or applying them to maximum effect.
So look at what you don't like and then just do little tweaks and you'll get there.
Do you have any predictions for 2026, whether that's products or techniques or styles or anything that you think is going to be big in 2026?
I think multiples are going to be big in 2026. Like a lip and cheek. I see a lot of oil stains that I think are beautiful. That I feel like brands are expanding and doing a lot of lip, because stains typically wear more of that dryer, matte texture.
Now it's like a stain that has a glossiness to it. I love multiples because I love a coordination happening. You don't have to sort of try to mix and match too much. You can get a lot done with a little bit of product.
Every year, where skin is going cleaner, cleaner, cleaner, the best version of you with not a lot of product. Obviously, that makes me really, really happy.
What are some of your absolutely can't miss products? Your desert island products?
Solution 10 by Chanel. It doesn't matter if you just did a peel, a laser. It only has 10 ingredients. I can use it on someone. I don't really know their skin. I know it's not going to react at all. It's just going to give me hydration.
Another Chanel, the Baume Essentiel. It's the glowy—it's like painting with light, even if heavy isn't my aesthetic, but sometimes the skin demands it. It's a cheat code. You just kind of put it over the face.
Because powder isn't the last thing you see, it's that glow. It's that light hitting it. The eye is just tricked, and it's like, "Oh, there's nothing there." So it kind of makes everything heavy look light, and it makes everything light look angelic.
I love these Morphe pencils. Probably $8 or $9. They're lip liners, but they have five different shades of brown, and a good brown lip liner is really, really hard to find.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.