Today we’d like to introduce you to Tosh Moore.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
PoisonApple_FX really started with my love for horror, creativity, and transformation. I’ve always been drawn to the kind of art that makes you stop and look twice, especially creatures, characters, practical effects, and the makeup that helps bring a story to life.
My background is actually in art, animation, and digital communication, but over time I found myself becoming more and more interested in special effects makeup. I started teaching myself, experimenting with different materials and techniques, and creating looks whenever I could. There was a lot of trial and error in the beginning, and honestly, there still is. That is one of the things I love most about SFX makeup. Every project gives me something new to figure out.
Eventually, I realized this wasn’t something I wanted to keep treating as just a hobby. I wanted to see how far I could take it. I formed PoisonApple_FX LLC and began intentionally building a portfolio around the kind of work I hope to do professionally, from injuries and practical effects to full character and creature transformations.
Since then, I’ve continued pushing myself creatively and putting my work in front of people. I’ve created everything from original creatures and horror concepts to character-inspired transformations, and I’ve started becoming involved in conventions, creative collaborations, and opportunities within the horror community. I’ve also been invited to serve as a makeup judge for a horror film festival, which was a really exciting reminder that the work I’ve been building on my own is beginning to reach people outside of my immediate circle.
Social media has become another important part of that journey. Sharing my work publicly has helped me document my growth, connect with other artists and horror fans, and put PoisonApple_FX in rooms I may not have had access to otherwise. It has taught me that sometimes you have to create your own doorway instead of waiting for someone to open one for you.
I’m still very much in the building stage, and I’m proud of that. I’m continuing to strengthen my portfolio, learn new techniques, make connections, and pursue opportunities that bring me closer to my ultimate goal of working professionally in special effects makeup for film and television.
PoisonApple_FX is still growing, but it has already become much more than a name I put on my artwork. It represents me deciding to take something I genuinely love seriously and giving myself permission to chase a career that once felt very far away. I don’t know exactly where it will take me yet, but I’m determined to find out.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It definitely hasn’t been a smooth road, but I think that has made every bit of progress feel more meaningful.
One of my biggest challenges has been trying to find my way into an industry where I didn’t already have connections or a traditional path to follow. I’m largely self-taught in SFX makeup, so a lot of my growth has come through research, practice, experimentation, and plenty of trial and error. Sometimes a look turns out exactly how I imagined it, and sometimes I’m staring at it wondering where things went horribly wrong. Either way, I learn something.
Finances have also been a challenge. Special effects makeup can get expensive very quickly, especially when you’re trying to expand into new techniques and materials. There are always new products, prosthetic supplies, tools, equipment, education, travel, and other investments I would love to make. Building from the ground up has taught me to be resourceful and make the most of what I have while continuing to invest back into my work whenever I can.
I’ve also been building PoisonApple_FX while being a single mom, working regular jobs, and navigating some significant personal and professional changes along the way. There have been periods where life demanded most of my attention and energy, but SFX makeup has remained something I continually come back to. If anything, those experiences have made me more certain that this is something I genuinely want to pursue.
One of the more difficult parts has been learning how to keep going when there isn’t immediate proof that what you’re doing is working. Creative careers involve a lot of putting yourself out there. You create something, share it, send the email, submit the portfolio, apply for the opportunity, and sometimes hear absolutely nothing back. It can be difficult not to question yourself during those quiet periods.
But then something happens. Someone notices your work, an unexpected opportunity comes along, you make a new connection, or you realize that something you struggled to create a year ago has become something you can do confidently now. Those moments remind me that progress is happening, even when it doesn’t always feel dramatic.
I’m still navigating challenges and figuring things out as I go. I don’t have a perfectly polished success story where all of the difficult parts are behind me. I’m building PoisonApple_FX in real time, and I’m actually proud to share that part of the story too. I’ve learned that progress doesn’t always come from one huge break. Sometimes it’s a collection of small doors opening, and you just have to keep creating, keep reaching out, and be brave enough to walk through them.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
PoisonApple_FX is my special effects and creative makeup business, with a focus on character transformations, creatures, horror, fantasy, body painting, injuries, and practical effects. At its core, though, it’s really about storytelling. I love the idea that makeup can completely change the way someone sees a person before they ever say a word.
Horror has a huge influence on my work, which probably isn’t surprising if you spend five minutes looking through my portfolio. I love the strange, dark, beautiful, unsettling, and sometimes completely over-the-top side of makeup. I’ve created everything from fantasy creatures and human-animal hybrids to recognizable characters, wounds, trauma effects, and original concepts. I’m constantly challenging myself to make the next project more detailed, more believable, or more ambitious than the last.
My ultimate goal for PoisonApple_FX has always been bigger than creating looks for social media. I want to work professionally in film and television, creating the characters and practical effects that help make those worlds believable. I want to be on set. I want to collaborate with actors, directors, designers, photographers, and other artists. I want to eventually see something I helped create on a screen and know that somewhere, someone is looking at it thinking, “How did they DO that?”
That goal has also pushed me outside of simply creating makeup. I’ve been building my portfolio, putting myself in spaces where I can meet people in the horror and entertainment industries, pursuing collaborations and production opportunities, participating in conventions and events, and continuing to put my work in front of people even when doing that can be intimidating. More recently, I was invited to serve as a makeup judge for a horror film festival, which was an incredibly exciting opportunity because it showed me that my work and perspective as an artist are beginning to be recognized beyond my own platform.
I think one of the things that sets me apart is that I’m willing to chase an idea before I necessarily know how I’m going to accomplish it. I’ve had concepts where my first thought was essentially, “I have absolutely no idea how I’m going to make this work,” and instead of abandoning them, I start researching and experimenting until I find a way. SFX makeup is part art and part problem-solving, and I love both sides of it.
I’m also not interested in staying inside one comfortable box. I want to become the kind of artist who can create a believable bruise or injury for a close-up one day and help transform someone into an entirely different creature the next. There is so much within practical effects that I still want to learn, and instead of finding that intimidating, I find it exciting. I don’t ever want to reach a point where I think I’ve learned enough.
What I’m most proud of is that PoisonApple_FX exists because I decided to take this dream seriously. I didn’t wait until I had industry connections, a huge budget, or someone telling me I was ready. I started creating, learning, sharing my work, reaching out to people, and building something.
I’m still early in that story, but I’m ambitious about where it goes from here. I don’t just want PoisonApple_FX to grow into a successful makeup business. I want to build a career and a body of work that I’m proud to put my name on. I want to contribute to films, television, music videos, photoshoots, live productions, and whatever other strange projects find their way to my chair. If something needs to be transformed, injured, aged, bloodied, turned into a creature, or made just a little less human, that’s where I want PoisonApple_FX to be.
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
I think the next 5–10 years are going to be really interesting for special effects makeup because technology is changing so quickly, but at the same time, I think there is a growing appreciation for things that are physically created and actually exist in front of the camera.
CGI, AI, digital effects, 3D printing, scanning, and other technologies are only going to become more advanced. I don’t necessarily see that as the end of practical effects, though. I think it creates an opportunity for the two worlds to work together in ways we haven’t even fully explored yet.
There is something practical makeup can give an actor and a production that is difficult to replace. If an actor is standing across from an actual creature, wearing prosthetics, covered in an injury effect, or physically transformed into their character, there is something tangible for everyone on set to react to. Practical effects also have all of those tiny imperfections, textures, and details that help make something feel like it belongs in the real world.
I think we’re going to see artists become increasingly versatile. Someone may begin a creature design digitally, use 3D technology during the sculpting or fabrication process, apply practical prosthetics on set, and then have VFX enhance the final result. Instead of always asking whether practical or digital effects are better, I think the more exciting question is what happens when talented artists from both sides use each other’s strengths.
I also think audiences are becoming more interested in how things are made. Behind-the-scenes content gives people access to the process in a way they didn’t have before. People can watch an actor disappear underneath prosthetics, see a creature being sculpted from the beginning, or discover that an effect they assumed was CGI was actually created practically. I think that appreciation for the craft is really exciting.
For artists like me who are still building their careers, it also means there is constantly something new to learn. I don’t want to fight technology or be afraid of where the industry is going. I want to learn how to use it alongside the traditional skills that made me fall in love with special effects in the first place.
Ten years from now, the tools may look very different, but I don’t think the desire to transform people and create things audiences have never seen before is going anywhere. My goal is to grow with the industry while still keeping my hands in the clay, paint, prosthetics, fake blood, and all of the wonderfully messy things that make practical effects feel alive.
Pricing:
- PoisonApple_FX offers custom pricing based on the individual project, complexity of the makeup, materials and prosthetics required, number of talent, application time, location, and overall creative needs.
- Services are available for film and video productions, photoshoots, events, character and creature makeup, body painting, injury and trauma effects, and other creative projects.
- Custom concepts and larger-scale transformations are welcome.
- For rates or collaboration inquiries, please contact PoisonApple_FX with details about your project for a personalized quote.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.poisonapplefx.org/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/poisonapplefx/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tosh-moore-a7971515a/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@poisonappl3fxstudio
