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"I don't feel like I am ever categorized in a certain genre."
For Patrick Ta, a makeup artist and founder of Patrick Ta Beauty, diversity and inclusion is central. Ta says it is "really important for me to make sure everyone is accounted for in campaigns or the product we make." This direction comes from personal experience; growing up gay and Asian American, Ta says he rarely saw himself on billboards. "I wanted to make products that would empower people to feel comfortable in their own skin." And he's seeing that, particularly in younger fans. "I feel like kids these days are so lucky. I look at [them] and I'm like, God, you're so unapologetically yourself and that makes me so happy." Part of how Ta is making a difference for inclusive beauty is being visible in major retailers. "I feel really proud to be able to be in a brick-and-mortar such as Sephora because they are such a powerhouse." But Ta knows that for a brand to succeed, the goal is to maintain interest and not always "wow," which speaks to the natural and understated makeup he's known for. "Instead of having constant peaks, we want to have a constant flow."
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Your brand has a focus on beauty being for everybody. Why is that so important to you?
So for me, when we first launched the brand, I wanted to make products that would empower people to feel comfortable in their own skin. I'm gay and I grew up very overweight, I wasn't academically the best in high school and I actually dropped out my junior year. I never had that much confidence. Not until I started doing makeup. The women around me were the ones who really allowed me to feel comfortable in my own skin. They allowed me to talk the way I wanted to talk. I feel like I owe so much of my career and self identity to all of the girls around me because they gave me a voice. And so when I started the brand, just over four years ago, it was really important for me to be able to allow people to come into their selves and feel the way that I did.
Starting a makeup brand is such a bold endeavor. How did you start yours?
This is my seventh year living in Los Angeles, and I had been doing makeup for about nine years prior to that. I felt like I finally had a platform and a voice. A big part of it was I used to have a tanning and nail salon in Scottsdale, Arizona, that my parents helped me open. It did really well at first and then the third year it did really, really bad. I ended up having to foreclose on the space and I had to file bankruptcy. And I thought, as a 21-year-old, there's no way in hell that I'm ever going to be able to pay that back. It was an all-time low in my in my life. I was so young. I experienced a lot of success when I was young but also a lot of failures. I'm Asian American and there was so much disappointment to my family. So for me, it was something that I wanted to prove to myself. Like, when I told my parents I wanted to become a makeup artist, oh my God, here he goes again, they didn't learn the first time. I feel like when people experience failures, either they make or break you. And I feel like it really made me push to work really hard and to put myself out there when I moved to Los Angeles. But in my career, it felt like the right time [to start the brand]. I started to really excel in my makeup artist's career. I started working on some of the most famous faces in Hollywood. I really felt that I fine-tuned what my look was because when I first started in Los Angeles, I didn't know what my makeup style was, I was more just kind of always looking at Instagram or looking at pictures and trying to recreate those instead of creating my own. After a few years I fine-tuned what I thought was beautiful and resonated with a lot of other people, too. That's what I started getting known for and that led to business partners (Avo and Rima Minasyan)—I definitely couldn't have done it by myself. They believed in me to start this brand with me. I feel like everyone needs someone to believe in them, and they were the ones for me. It was definitely tough at first. We thought we would blow it out of the water. But instead of having constant peaks, we want to have a constant flow. Running a brand is not easy.
It feels like the makeup industry has done a lot of work to diversify the products they offer for a wide variety of people and races. Have you noticed that?
I definitely think so. Growing up as an Asian American, I definitely didn't always feel comfortable in my own skin just because I grew up in a predominantly Caucasian high school. I think if I had more representation when I was younger in spaces that I found interesting or that I gravitated toward, maybe I wouldn't have had the stress. I felt like I didn't look like the person on the billboard. When you're that age you just want to feel beautiful, everyone wants to feel confident. It was really important for me to make sure everyone is accounted for and people can see themselves in campaigns or the product we make. If I saw that when I was younger I would have came out of my shell when I was like 17 or 18. I feel like kids these days are so lucky. I look at these kids and I'm like, God, you're so unapologetically yourself and that makes me so happy.
One thing you do is provide duos for most of your products, which is a genius idea. How did that come about?
When I first started we did full beatdowns, start to finish, using 30 products. So that was something natural. When I matured into this career, I've done more refined and chic. I would look at my friends who were influencers and look at my clients that are these supermodels or actresses and stuff, and I feel like I live in this fine line between both. So I wanted to be able to have that option of making really high-impact pigment product, but also really creamy and glowy and super clean and natural and then blending the two together. So either you can live in the in-between or you can be this person or be this person. So you have everything in one.
Social media has really changed how we view and buy beauty. What impact has social media had you and your brand?
My career started on social media. I think one of my first clients that I was reached out to was Miley Cyrus on Instagram. Then it was Kim Kardashian, Ariana Grande and Katy Perry. Social media gives my brand a platform for people to see and learn how to use my products and to see the color range. That's why I think it's so important to be able to showcase testimonials, application technique, because being an artist, I definitely use my products in a certain way, but it definitely isn't the only way or the right way. So just to be able to share that across my social media platform so people have the best experience with the product as possible. Kind of like being able to have me there with them and creating a face for them. When I first started, I worked at a counter and I would create a face and people would basically like it. If you know how to use something, you're most likely going to buy so that you can do it yourself at home.
I also feel like social media allows people to feel comfortable to experiment and try new things, because they can see it done in real time.
I think it's so exciting to see where makeup has gone. I remember when I first started my makeup drawer consisted of nudes, brown, more brown, nude and nude. I feel like now people are so much more adventurous in the evening blush. I like this bright pink blush that is so viral. That was definitely not a trend five years ago. People were afraid of putting cheek color on. It's just so crazy that social media can really start people experimenting and trying, and I think that's so much fun. I get to do that every single day with clients that I work on. They get to be different characters or they get to play dress-up and look in so many different ways. I'm so happy that our consumer is more inclined to doing that now.
May being Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, I'm struck by the advancements of Asian Americans not just in beauty, but just in general. I'm thinking Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan, among many other examples.
I was watching the Oscars with Gigi [Hadid], and we were literally both crying. I don't know why, she started crying, I started crying, just feeling so proud. Unless you have lived the life that we have lived, to be able to feel the excitement and just being proud of where we come from is the best feeling, it's truly the best feeling. I still think there's a lot of work to be done. I find myself very lucky here. Because nowadays, I don't feel like I am ever categorized in a certain genre.
It really shows how much representation matters. To be able to walk into Sephora and see makeup for every type of person, to see an Asian face on a beauty ad, that's so important.
I feel really proud to be able to be in a brick-and-mortar such as Sephora because they are such a powerhouse brand. They stand behind so many different messages but one main message is we belong. My dad is almost 70 years old and he moved here from Vietnam not knowing really any English. Being gay was not the norm growing up in Vietnam, and I can proudly say that my dad brags about me to his friends all the time now. He's constantly, check[ing] my Instagram, my social media, he reads the comments, he knows who I am working on, and when I was in high school he was not the same person. Just to see the progression in him and my parents having our own conversations with each other, it makes me so happy.
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