Glossy Pop Newsletter: Patrick Ta is (also) quietly building a blush empire

July 12, 2024 Mary

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In February, Patrick Ta added three new shades to his Major Headlines Double-Take Crème & Powder Blush Duo assortment, bringing the number of offerings to 12. The $38 product includes cream and powder blush formulas. Ta, now famously, uses the cream over the powder — the reverse of conventional makeup wisdom.

Blush is having a moment, to say the least. According to Circana, in the U.S. prestige makeup market, blush sales reached $462 million in the past 12 months, up 36% compared to the prior year. It’s the fastest-growing product category within face makeup.

When you think of blush, perhaps you think of Rare Beauty’s $23 Soft Pinch Liquid Blush, which is Sephora’s best-seller in the category, according to industry sources — the retailer declined to comment on sales rankings. Or maybe Rhode’s just-launched Pocket Blush comes to mind. According to industry sources, Patrick Ta Beauty holds the No. 2 spot at Sephora, despite the product sitting at a much higher price point than Rare’s. In April, Ta posted a video comparing the six grams of cream product and four grams of powder in his duos to competitors’ blushes to show the comparative value of his own. “[Based on] the gram per dollar, … we give you a really good deal — a really, really stinking good deal,” he said.

The product’s sales have grown 200-300% year-over-year in 2024, according to the company. Ta was the first to introduce a product that combined cream and powder in a single palette, though brands including One Size from influencer Patrick Starrr have followed suit.

“Blush has been one of the strongest performing products in prestige beauty for several years now. The popularity was initially growing due to social media content featuring unconventional makeup techniques. And, as a result, blush in liquid and cream forms have gone viral,” said Natallia Bambiza, makeup category analyst at Circana. “[Circana’s reports] show that Gen Z are more likely to wear blush than millennials. Gen Z also significantly over-indexes on the weight of social media on their makeup purchasing decisions.”

The popularity of Ta’s formula is perhaps particularly notable given that, “year-to-date through May, blush sales more than tripled as compared to the same time period in 2021, driven primarily by the liquid format,” Bambiza said, pointing to Circana data. In addition, the space is becoming increasingly crowded. “Blush launches’ share of total prestige makeup launches grew almost sixfold between 2021 and 2024,” she said.

Patrick Ta Beauty launched in April 2019 and introduced blush, initially in three shades, in June 2020. It was successful at launch, Ta said, but has “just popped off in the last two years.”

According to Ta’s team, the product’s success can be attributed to a variety of factors, though Ta may be the brand’s most potent, not-so-secret weapon. Ta, who got his start at a Scottsdale, Arizona MAC Cosmetics counter, has built a sizable social media following — he has 3.6 million followers on Instagram and 1.8 million on TikTok. His brand, meanwhile, has 860,000 followers on Instagram and 294,000 on TikTok.

“People go to TikTok because they want to be entertained, but they also want to be educated. So when Patrick shared [his cream-over-powder] technique, as a marketing team, we were reminded of the power of his artistry and expertise. He can [teach] those techniques to people in such a easy-to-understand way. He can [point to] his decades of artistry experience and be like, ‘This is actually how I do it. And here’s why I do it [this way]; I want the skin to look this way.’ Translating his artistry techniques into education is a real unlock,” said Jacqueline Barrett, the brand’s svp of marketing.

Ta’s post explaining his cream-over-powder technique has 4.4 million views, over 218,000 likes and nearly 30,000 saves. “With saves, people are saying, ‘OK, I really want to come back to this and actually learn,’” Barrett said.

In February 2023, Ta began co-creating content with Alix Earle (7 million TikTok followers), initially visiting her dorm room and doing her makeup for nights out. According to Ta, “getting ready is literally better than going out.” Earle has helped bring a new audience’s eyes to the brand, he said.

“Before Alix, I used to work with all the Kardashians, the Hadid sisters, Ariana Grande, Rihanna, J, Lo, Katy Perry — every single person you could think of. But Ms. Alix Earle [put the brand on the map with the visibility she has] on TikTok,” Ta said.

“When Patrick showed up in Alix’s college apartment with roommates, … people lost their minds. They couldn’t imagine that an artist of his caliber would do that … and have this real friendship [with Earle] that has developed over the last two years. That brought a relatability to Patrick that people on TikTok latched onto,” said Kimberly Villatoro, CEO at Patrick Ta Beauty.

The brand’s newest blush shades — Not Too Much, Just Enough and She’s The Moment — launched early this year. The first two became instant hits, perhaps because they were designed to offer a contrast to what most of the blush market is currently delivering: pigment overload. The brand’s blush sales in the first week after the shades’ launch were 10x year-over-year.

“The trend is [people demo-ing blushes on TikTok] and saying, ‘One dot is so pigmented!’ … [I thought] we needed something that is the opposite of that, because — what about everyone who doesn’t want a crazy [amount of] color on their cheek, or wants the ability to add more [and build it up]?” Ta said. The shades also help combat the current TikTok phenomenon of “blush blindness.” Ta’s instinct was right: Not Too Much and Just Enough have become two of the brand’s top sellers, and on TikTok, many fair-skinned girls who have tested Not Too Much have deemed it perfect for paler-skin tones.

In April, the brand introduced a TikTok filter allowing users to virtually try on all 12 blush shades. Ta posted a video demonstrating the filter, and the brand tapped a handful of creators for paid partnerships to do the same. They included Sarah Wolak and Spencer Hedges, otherwise known as Painted By Spencer. Within a week of the filter’s launch, it landed in the top 1% of filters on TikTok and seven shades of the blush sold out on Sephora.com. Within two weeks of the launch, just under 9,000 people made videos using the filter. To date, 13,000 posts have been made.

The filter was a labor of love, Ta said. “I wanted the blush color to be super accurate, but I also wanted the placement of the blush to be on par with where I think blush placement [should be], which is a diffused blend between your concealer and your contour,” he said.

Perfecting the filter took 20 iterations, according to Barrett. “We knew people wanted to try on these shades, and [we wanted to give them a way to] try something outside of their comfort zone,” Barrett said.

“We’ve all seen on products pop and go viral on social. And sometimes they’re in, and then they’re gone. But what’s special about this product has been its incredible lasting power,” Barrett said. And, according to some fans, that’s true in more ways than one. In a recent post, TikToker @wildchildandreaa reported, “You wouldn’t know it, but I applied three fucking layers of the Rhode pocket blush in the shade Teddy, it’s gone. … I’m going back to Patrick Ta.”

Collab of the week: RMS x Heretic

Glossy Pop Newsletter: Patrick Ta is (also) quietly building a blush empire

On Tuesday, RMS, best known for its “clean” makeup, launched its first foray into fragrance via a collaboration with “clean” fragance brand Heretic. Heretic, which also recently created a sleep spray with Lunya, is known for its This Smells Like My Vagina candle, co-created with Goop. The scent, called Scarlet Moon, retails for $150 and is available on both brand’s e-commerce sites. The key notes include blood orange, violet leaf and Japanese hinoki.

“I’m not a big perfume fan; I find perfume to be a really undesirable intrusion on both my personal space and my well being,” said RMS founder Rose-Marie Swift. “That said, I happened to come across [Heretic] and was mesmerized by the unique and inviting fragrance of its perfumes. … They are all extremely clean, which is a must for me. I met with [Heretic founder] Douglas Little and we had an equally unique affinity to each other’s creative talents. … I think of this scent as a sensual and hypnotic apparition that invites you into its freshly soft, yet haunting, aura.”

Shop it here.