Makeup Artist Patrick Ta's Career Evolution Story
Patrick Ta's Tumultuous Rise to Celebrity Makeup Artist and Brand Founder
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It took less than a year for Ta to sign with an agency and begin growing a following for his work on Instagram. "If a celebrity started following you that meant, Oh my God, they might use you," he says. That's exactly what happened when Shay Mitchell hit the follow button on Ta's account.
"Back then, 'Pretty Little Liars' was one of my favourite shows," he says. "That's a feeling that I don't think I'll ever be able to feel again: I went from never working with any celebrity to working with someone that I was actually obsessed with."
That big break set the rest of Ta's career in motion. After working with Mitchell, he got the opportunity to work with Gigi Hadid. "She was at the beginning of her career as well, so I think with both of them, I started really growing as their careers grew."
Then the opportunities came rolling in. Ta starting booking jobs with the Kardashians, Ariana Grande, Katy Perry, and Rihanna, to name a few. It's a little like dating, Ta says: "You just want to do a good job. You keep thinking, 'Are they going to call me again? Did they like me?'"
Those first few years in LA felt surreal. "I was doing jobs that I never thought I could do," he says. "I started setting goals for myself — who I wanted to work with, where I wanted to travel, what productions I wanted to do." One by one, he was able to cross those items off his bucket list.