Joyce Boiardi has found her passion – making people feel good about themselves. A creative soul with a flair for turning her interests into business opportunities, Boiardi has channeled her lifelong love of color and design into a service of care and compassion for her clients. She recently relocated her studio, Permanent Makeup by Joyce, to a warm, inviting space at Medway’s Stone Mill.

“My passion for hair and makeup has always been a part of me since I was very little,” says Boiardi. Childhood dreams of becoming a Hollywood makeup artist were tempered by her parents’ more conservative vision, but Joyce’s business schooling would serve her well as she turned her talents into a lucrative home décor business and later, a lofty position at Ethan Allen. Her heart, however, would lead her to revisit her girlhood dream after her youngest graduated college, when she applied for a makeup artist job at a local Clinique counter. As much as she just wanted to have fun playing with makeup and skin care, Clinique, impressed by her business acumen, hired Joyce to run the Massachusetts satellite counter. 

After four years, Joyce started coursework to become an esthetician. Upon graduation, she worked as a freelance makeup artist and trained to become a lash extension artist. Her esthetician’s license allowed her to volunteer with the Look Good Feel Better Program, teaching cancer patients skin care and makeup. Joyce found the experience more uplifting for her than for the women she helped. “To watch the transformation from being timid and reserved, worried that their wig would be noticed, to taking it off and playing with makeup like when they were little kids, laughing and sharing thoughts, was most rewarding,” says Joyce. These women shared that the loss of hair, brows, lashes were sometimes harder for them than the disease itself.

This led Joyce to another career path – Permanent Makeup. “Most people take one course, but I ended up taking five courses. I wanted to make sure I was doing right by my clients,” she says. In fact, both the Medfield and Medway Boards of Health, under which she is governed, assert that her qualifications go above and beyond what is required to operate.

“My first client I ever did had alopecia. She was bald, had no lashes and no eyebrows, and I gave her eyebrows and eyeliner, and she cried with such happiness. It changed her self-esteem. Now, I do all kinds of permanent makeup, brows, eyeliner and lip color,” says Boiardi, whose clients range in age from mid 20’s to 80. She’s also able to remove permanent makeup done incorrectly by others or done so long ago they used tattoo ink instead of the pigment used today. She uses the Softap method of permanent makeup, which is a manual method of application.  

Permanent makeup, explains Joyce, “doesn’t go as deep into the dermis (as a tattoo),” and many variables affect how long it will last. Joyce discusses options in depth with each client, and there are always two visits. “I want them to get the best results, and there’s certain paperwork, protocol and some contraindications,” she says. Visits are conducted in a sterile, masked and gloved environment. “I don’t touch you with any of the disposable one-time-use instruments until we agree on shape or the color,” she says. After the first treatment, clients are sent home with products to care for their new permanent color, and after 6-8 weeks, they come in for a touch-up. How long the permanent makeup will last after that depends on how well the customers take care of it, their skin types and their environment.

Boiardi is often conservative in her approach to color choice and shape, and she helps clients of all ages manage realistic expectations versus current fashion trends. 

“There are a lot of people who want big bold brows, but just like when skinny brows were in, they went out of style. If next year, the natural look is in, then they’re coming to me or someone else to remove that brow, not an easy process.” The artist advises, “Allow me to give the most natural-looking brow, to enhance the look to complement your eyes and our features, and if you want something thicker and bolder for a night, pencil it in. You’ll like me a lot more if I do less.” The same goes for eyeliner.

Joyce has the best interests of her clients in mind, and she feels fortunate to have located her new studio among the women-owned businesses in the Mill. “I think there’s a lot of positive energy,” says Boiardi. “There’s a sisterhood, and I see how much they care about their clients. I think that’s why I like it so much here.”

Joyce hasn’t stopped doing lashes. In fact, she has expanded on her trade and now offers her knowledge teaching esthetician students at Tri-County and will be offering classes there for licensed cosmetologists and esthetician in 2021.

Joyce is also a trained reiki practitioner, who offers this as a separate service, but also uses it while performing her permanent makeup application.

Permanent Makeup by Joyce is located at 165 Main St., Suite 102, in Medway. You can reach her at (508) 667-7256 or find Permanent Makeup By Joyce on Facebook. Gift certificates are available, and ask Joyce about her half-price service for cancer patients who are in remission!