In the three years Ta owned the salon, he met a lot of girlfriends and spent much of his time with them, experimenting with makeup and beginning to embrace who he was. At 21, he came out to his friends, and then at 22, to his parents. They didn't take the news well. Around this time, he was also forced to close down his salon after going bankrupt. "I honestly had no idea what I was doing," Ta says. As much as he dreaded disappointing his parents with the news of the salon closure, it allowed him to have more time to pursue his real passion: makeup.
Thanks to a connected roommate, Ta ended up getting a job at MAC working as a makeup artist, but he had to hide it from his parents. Quietly, he worked to build up a portfolio and branched out into bridal makeup, and then landed a couple of gigs working with the wives of athletes. Though he was still based in Arizona, they began to fly him places for jobs. That's when he realised the potential of what he was doing: "Makeup was my first job that I felt true passion and excitement for, and I wanted to do it whether I was paid or not."
Soon, he felt like he was outgrowing Arizona, so he set his sights on Los Angeles, which he says completely changed his life. Prior to living there, Ta didn't fully understand just how big he could make it doing makeup. "LA is a completely different ball game — there are celebrities, there are commercials, there's editorial."
At the time, social media and influencers were just starting to take off, and Ta solidified himself as a makeup artist for some of the biggest ones. "It was a really great community that I was able to move into," he says.