Let's Talk Live with Yu Tsai : Patrick Ta, Celebrity Makeup Artist

[Music] hello everyone visit you site welcome to let's talk and our special time at sweet 15 because our guest today is uber super busy he's creating line of his own building his house breaking down boundary is he breaking into the industry the last couple of years had a pleasure watching him to make up on all the a-list celebrities on the red carpet as well as on Instagram and I know you click like many many times he's our beauty guru makeup artist today catchy Todd thank you for joining me today thanks for having me so where are you right now Patrick I'm just at home I had a couple things I'm doing for my brand today grabs up on today Los Angeles mine oh yeah I'm in West Hollywood I've been in LA now for almost seven years I think I met you I met you do a lot ago I met you like five years five years like maybe like five five five years ago around five years ago when we actually I think you were just hitting that stride working on a lot of clients of mine so we kind of cross over quite a bit on on the creative side of it and when in the last five years we have seen your career just Excel and it's such amazing speed and I think our viewers today would love to get a little bit know about that journey because that's what inspires all of us and one of main reason I want you on the show because as a fellow Asian American we know how difficult it is to break into the industry in in any industry being a minority let's give us a little bit of a journey how did you fall into the love of beauty and makeup so I first started doing makeup around eight years ago I was living in Scottsdale Arizona and I I had just I used to have a nail salon my parents opened up like a nail salon for me I'm bidding these by the way so my parents I grew up they they had a fight response to all my awesome nail salons so growing up growing up in in San Diego like that's what my parents did I move to Arizona they help they help me open up my nail salon and it did really well but then did it really bad and ended up having to close that and my roommate at the time was a makeup artist and she got me a job at Mac and I then became like obsessed with makeup I didn't know that I wanted to be a makeup artist but I worked at Mac for about a year Mac were you on the counter will you trained as a beauty specialist or I so I had no experience so like I got hired I mean I buy like I feel like I look back at the makeup that I did back then and it was like for render so like who anyone like who is just starting to do makeup who wants to be a a a makeup artist it takes time I'm I'm always learning I'm still like always trying to like just like figure out like my style and I remember when I first like moved here like I was doing a lot of like just copying other people's like makeup looks and like not into like when I figured out like my own personal like likes and like what I like how makeup should look what I think makeup should look like but well while I'm Mac did train you for the counter did they teach you I wasn't I wasn't I wasn't full-time but I think if if I was full-time then they would have changed me but it doesn't my part-time I was a freelance artist I didn't Jamie so like we kind of were just like thrown in there [Music] I learned a lot from just like working with other people so if any of you guys are makeup artists the best way to learn is like from your peers from like your friends I give you have questions like ask people like ask your friends because it's hard because they has a working makeup artist you're consciously like working by yourself or you're working with a hairstylist so you're not really getting like tip so I really think that working at the counter was a really good part for I mean it was really beneficial for me but you've got to learn about products if you didn't pick up the technique from them at least you were watching other makeup artists and you understanding the products is I think that's a really big foundation of being a good makeup artist right and the pallets are important to learn kinda like a painter they need to know all the spectrums of different colors and different type of brushes I would equate that to be very similar yeah I everyone always asked me if I was a painter I am NOT a painter but um yeah I I then side then I moved to Los Angeles seven years ago and it's been like a roller coaster like moving out here has completely changed my life I never thought that I would be able to be like just like doing what I'm doing now and it's taken like for me I feel like it's been a while but I know that like seven years is it like that long of a time but I feel like it's been long and I started my brand about I started working I've written three years ago we launched last year and it that has been also like a roller coaster boy before we talked about the brand because there's a there's a leap of a career path there because I remember when you first starting out you were you you had to Instagram pretty hard or you were already doing a lot of postings and you were doing your own style and I remember back then even six years ago I probably didn't know you seven years ago but I began to see your work around six years ago you definitely had a style that you were putting out there and you were you were making a brand for yourself what was that like in the very beginning when you were doing all this work trial and error and how did the community the community come come rushing in and embrace you right away No so my makeup style back then was very heavy I still say it's heavy now but I love it like it was very heavy biking but that's what that's what I was taught I came from that counter like you're not to use as many products as possible to like style to style makeup so I didn't come from like a I got it assist anyone so just coming from Arizona I was taught to like use every single product that you can like you use on the face and that's why I did so but I also why did you learn these techniques other than Matt was a YouTube was it watch your other makeup wasn't magazines what was it that that really took your technique to a whole new level I think honestly Instagram is such like it was such like a great way for people to just see different types of makeup and to for you to try new things because like before I remember like when before I started working at Mac I would go into Sephora and I would like like I would bring in a photo and I would ask him like what is this and like back then like there was only like I feel like one like Holy Grail highlighter of fact that I was like this is like golden shiner from from Mac and like no one else made this like highlighter and like now obviously there's like thousands like like thousands of like highlighters now but like I think back then it really took a lot of like studying and like figuring out what products were in order to create these looks now I feel like it's so easy for people because it's it's made so easy there's every single beauty print has so much to offer but back then YouTube Instagram and honestly just screenshotting photos whether it's in a magazine or but back then I didn't really like it sounds really bad about it really I wasn't the makeup artist that like would reference photos from magazines I reference like more so like Kim Kardashian I mean all like all all all the Kardashians like Rihanna like I was like very into like pop culture and that's like the era that I like came up like right from so um I know style maker was very much Kevin little on style was very much Mariana Mariana was making those make up for flick him and and you're right doing that time if you were influenced by that time and watching YouTube and Instagram those were absolutely the the the the start of a new trend of makeup I remember as a photographer at that time it was very hard for for makeup artists of beauty to write there's a magazine to actually embrace that style makeup it wasn't on trend but to say but that's not makeup start to develop and refine and artists like you starting applied that on influence or like Kim Kardashian's and and and and even people like Rosie Huntington's and and people really respect a looks on the red carpet I think it began change a meter and direction of what good makeup is and what makeup I such wide range there's not one style makeup that should be raised only and I think that's when I I remember having this conversation with you at the gym we ran into each other at the gym I remember from the sideline I saw you were struggling with the industry whether they were embracing you or not yeah they people would definitely work I think that because I I and everyone is gonna have a different opinion and everything when I first moved to Los Angeles I was like reaching out to two different people like just like wanting to like expand my book and to just like make a name for myself here I feel like back then like I was like Mary thirst he's like trying to like I want to touch every single face possible I want to do every single phase possible and I think Leslie you were hustling yeah I had just I had just filed bankruptcy in in in Arizona because of my salaat I was 21 years old and I thought being come see because I had like a $200,000 debt that I was like how am I ever gonna pay that like that that number to me like I could I wouldn't be even able to that I was like I can't like there's no way I like ever in a million years being able to pay that back and it's just like so you're and now like I look back at it but like I didn't think that like my life would be where it is now but so when I moved to her coming from like an asian-american family like I my parents like I'm gay my parents did not expect to feed that they expect me to have their son wanting to be a makeup artist they didn't expect me to be gay they didn't like thank I don't know like I have such loving supporting parents now my dad is like my number one fan he knows like he reads my comments he he like knows like oh like you haven't been working with like this person anymore like what's wrong like did you not do a good like oh my god maybe I just didn't post like buy silver but like it's it's it's really cute because he's like 65 years old and like just to have the feeling of having my parents be proud of me there's like the best feeling that I think any any kid could could could could could want but wait I lost track it wasn't that I mentioned this conversation we had at the gym it was because that not only did I saw you was struggling with people embracing your work or not and and I find a kinship with you because I'm also Asian American and I went through that same type of trial and tribulations when I try to break into the industry you know it is not a very inclusive industry and I think over the last five years we have evolved and I change a lot but back then it was definitely an exclusive club and and people did get things only one way in one way only and when I saw you coming in really utilize a platform like social media and and utilizing utilizing Instagram to reach out to people and contacting them directly which is very different than what the world we were in at that time that you do age and you go to PR this is a channel that people are used to but I have to say today I can tell you that you were way ahead of your time because in order for me to put talent on my talk show here i DM and directly I skip the PR I skip the agents and that has to do with the fact that you were hustling and you were hungry along the way I'd be the first to tell you you step on a lot of toes a lot of people didn't work whether they were intimidate it or whether they're just did not embrace your style at the end of the day success proves everything and you did earn your place where you are and I told you that day that day I said you will be there where you don't care anymore what they say and just keep working for it because I still struggle with that every day you know we we in this industry don't always support each other especially I feel like sometimes within our own community would tear each other down so we can climb above somebody else you know and so so how we climb is so important and I know I want to have this conversation because I think is so important for people to know that that your journey was not a she won and it wasn't easy a row was not pay for you you were you were I would say quite lonely in your own little journey and and I'm so glad that you were able to find people that really embrace your work and amplify your work and the social media Wow and if I could be so bold and said I think Kardashians really did embrace your work and they really put you on a map yeah I I remember I mean it's been it's been a while now since I had to go through that but like moving to LA is already scary enough but moving to LA and not have people like you is even scarier like I it took to me like I would I would I would get like hate from different artists that like I respected that I never even had ever even like a conversation with talk bad about me and I like I want you to understand why I would come on like crying because I as someone like I know I'm very calm very calm they caught like confrontational person but I'm not the type of person like I don't want people to hate me like I don't want Wawa walking to hate me but and I understand like back then why here like here and like I understand like why but I think like now that I have a platform like I want to try to it's hard to get into this industry if there's like when when you think about it there's hundreds of thousands of makeup artists in the world and there's just like a there's a small number of people working on the people that everyone wants to work on and maybe not everyone wants to work on them anymore like maybe like you don't want to be a sudden makeup artist for me that was my dream so to have like what what what I came here like to tell like I didn't want to let down my parents like so I did everything that I could in order to become successful because I didn't want to have to go through that feeling of like that bottom feeling of like I did just like found bankruptcy like I didn't go out I didn't do I feel like I'm like I'm like I'm honestly like a pilot very socially awkward person just because I don't know I I I like dropped out of high school III didn't finish high school I didn't like get along with people so I think I kind of like the reason why also I am a makeup artist is because I've always wanted to just like be accepted or like me in this like group of like school kids and now that I feel like that I'm at the point like it's not about like I don't know I I uh I during this quarantine like I've learned a lot about myself and what I want to do and where I want to spend my time and who I want to focus my time on and it's not all about like working or before a toy was that work and I still have like a lot of work to do because I just learned to brand so but I'm sure a lot of you guys have learned a lot during this quarantine suits just because there's time to think and there's I mean what like what about you absolutely I mean reflection is the most important thing to exist quarantine I learned a lot I learned a lot from my own journey of 15 years in photography how I got here and what was the rice tip I should have taken or wrong step I took and and a lot of it not because of my career path more about behavior or or insensitivities on say because we are in the industry that we come in in live in a bubble that we get away with a lot of things and and those things are over the years has been adjusted to me to movement those things that's but just to do do it just changing up the cars and magazines and I actually loved in the industry now more than I did back then because what you had to do to break into the industry it was not something that's to me humane in a way that you had to be a hustler like you you had to really put yourself to the grind the way that I hate to say yeah the kiss-ass I don't like kissing ass and you had to play the game you had to go out drinking with someone you had to entertain someone and I can tell you eight years ago I was asked some Gucci bags to PR people so don't give me to shoot I was before your era I you know it's been it was crazy what happens on our set you know publicist will walk on a rack and said I'm taking that personal me by don't you take that personal you never did issue with me again and this happened all the time it gets who pays for those persons when they leave the set the photographer in the production so do do I do I love where's what the industry has evolved to now yes and along the way I'm also adjusting the way I want to work how I want to be accepted as well I came from the same journey as you da we want to make sure as asian-americans we stand out in our industry number one number two that you want even be raised by your industry and I always call myself an outsider because I always feel like I'm never all the way in the door because I'm not at the best parties I don't get invited I am NOT at because I don't drink and I don't smoke and I obviously don't do I know in our industry you do a line of coke you seem to go really far you know sorry guys it's a truth back then maybe not now I'm not judging just saying but it wasn't me and and and I attest to it actually when I had to be in this environment I hated it I hated it so much and now I love now I love that how you have embraced the social media before I'm embracing the same way I love now I can share what I love on this platform on IG and I can share with you and revisit stories in the past because those journeys are so important for other people to hear that's what I love now and if I get to be on set to shoot with the same energy I get to do on IG here live it's why I want to be and that's the biggest learning for me you know and one of the reason I really want to talk to you because I wanted people to know that yes there are different ways and different paths to get to where you are along the way you may have stumble over someone you might have push someone it over knowing it without knowing but during this time we really do get to you anyway and said okay perhaps is if I sorry I need to say perhaps we need to make a phone call you said you know that joke wasn't right and I never made that joke or this was my journey understand when I'm going through because truly I don't think people realize what it was behind of all the husk right behind the hustling you were struggling behind hustling you have bankruptcy you know and and for that journey to even happen is who you are and I don't think a lot of people out there actually knew that and I think it's so important that you got to share that today and and and and look at you now right I know but one thing is about confidence and trust me to meet you right I'm still going what am I gonna get a call from you know American boat am I gonna just say never gonna happen or am I gonna still waiting by the sidelines I still go through that sometimes but doing this pandemic I don't care to work for magazine doesn't have inclusion on the first of the agenda I call them out right because that's important because we've been silent people be silent about these issues and and this is all parallel to beauty well we do write and we're gonna talk about your line because I I'm here with you guys I'm celebrating your line if your line was one of the few lines out there that was very inclusion conscious and about skin tone that's berries from from dark to light and I have to interview her makeup press on here and people have their own lines and I challenge him ask them how come you don't have inclusion in your line an answer to me as always well we won't sell as many or we do have enough money to produce online but that's not good enough answer from you and that's part of it this is why you're here that I'm celebrating your journey with you and I have to say as a friend I'm so happy you went through all that you were able to get through that hump of craziness and there might be more to come but but you're doing it and and and the funny things that when I go back and I think about all these people and I know exactly who they are you know who they are that were unhappy the way you obtained it clients but the fact is that any day the clients pick who they want to work with his makeup artist right the clients chose you to touch their face they make a final decision whether how you hustle is one thing but your work and who you are and how people embrace you and I've been also with you Gigi Hadid and now we see the bond and a friendship that you have with these clients they're genuine and authentic they're real and I love you so that's a when went right there for me I yeah Emily so Gigi I got Oh Gigi like honestly so much of my success because my moocher she embraced me for all of me and like I learned I've learned so much like so much it just about like myself like my career like makeup from her just because she hasn't work with a lot of people and I feel like she's constantly challenging me to do different looks to elevate my style and just constantly like just like learning but as far as as far as like I do want to say something on on on unlive and I'm just cuz I've always wanted to talk to talk to talk about it because I do get these comments a lot from from from people or teams like saying that on my on my Instagram feed it looks like Barry White and the thing is like the thing is I before before a brand before me as a brand owner I am just like a working makeup artist I work on people who true who choose me as their makeup artist so like if I could be doing Rihanna Beyonce Naomi like I would die trust me be like they have to they have to like I think anyone would want to do them but they have to hire you and these are the people the people on my page are my clients they are the ones that are hiring me right now I get I also get a lot of people asking like how come you don't have any Asian clients you're like I would love to work with I there's so many people I would love to work with like and like more sewing now I am able to like I have more time now to have just like maybe just do a test shoot before I didn't have time to do test shoots I was constantly working and always traveling and like just you're working you're you you basically go here I'm posting the people that I'm working on and those are the people of that that hired me like I don't know they're like if anyone wants to but you won't budge on small don't you look which one's mom yeah but people don't say that she's like dark you know so well you can't win but here's the thing that guys it's that the fact that there's not enough color on Instagram when it comes to artists for example for me as a photographer and Patrick I can completely relate if you get opportunities stand from the agency side stand from the client side that there don't represent enough artists out there to have color that would come across our desk to work with it's a struggle for me to find Asian models issue because they're in Asia they don't come here often when they do I gravitate to them and same went black artist when you have when you ask for casting is agent responsibility to say I have five black girls I want you to really take a chance and shoot them and work with them but that's not always the case some do some don't and you can tell from my page whom are very embrace and the diversity and what agency really embrace culture diversity too and a nomad I work with all the time that Asian that black that white they have all range of colors you know and and there's some agency to just as white as him be and they have three black girls and they called it yeah what I'm so I'm saying this because I want the audience to know the responsibility doesn't just lie and the person who is posting their work the opportunity to be given to the people of color to be models or be hair makeup or to be glad to be sons and then I school we are do what we do we will be able to put that work forward now over the years I've always celebrated color that's why shoot Essence magazine I choose a shoe color people by a by a sheer white people because that's something I relate to more and I that's the textured I love more I love beauty all the way around but being being conscious about what you're saying now is really powerful you're absolutely right now you take the responsibility to call the agent and say give me five dark-skinned women in town and but the thing is so I've been shooting a lot of a lot of my campaigns and I think this is something that we have to call out agencies as well because when you ask for a black model they send you like one or two options and dirty options white models like do you have any more more more black girls Eric no you having asian girls no like it's all like it's just it's honestly crazy so like there's not that many options for you to like for brands to hear it choose from so that I think that that's like it just makes it very hard I mean it just makes it very hard like people op it is absolutely changing I can tell you that when I was shooting for coca-cola brand for five years and Jonathan Mithun Rosenthal was actually the creative director there at the time and he's he's black and one thing we sit down discuss is that he wanted all to make sure that all the campaigns are incredibly diverse in color and height and shape and sizes and all different ages so why did casting back then that we couldn't get those people because that was not that that was not what the agency thought the models so with the open casting call you know we did giant open casting with thousands of people line up and we went through and find the people who represent the brand coca-cola so I think with your power that you have in social media now you don't need those agents sorry guys that you're watching you don't DeeAnn somebody you're fine beautiful and the color skin that you love and buy them over and work on you because they'll be so happy to have you touch them with your brush I truly believe in that and it's yet we we all I'd blame a bit right we all M of how much inclusion we're doing our work and for me as Asian American the dark skin of Asian American of all of all you know I I make sure that be very conscious as I do my work always now like even more than before and I think you as a makeup artist having a line by the way Patrick has a lineup Pettit are beauty you guys can follow on Instagram and in a beautiful they're gorgeous and then they do work on our inclusion basis and I think that's all you can do is represent you know and and I think those teams are dangerous right they can bring you down it can be you down all the time but if you truly believe in love there's the color that you want to paint you can find the talents to paint it on maybe fear I think more so more so now than ever I am so proud to be Asian American like I am like before I think growing up I I grew up in San Diego I like went to a predominantly white school so like I wanted to be white and like I am like I don't like anyone who knows me now like like only eating Asian food I like I did I drink boba every single day I'm afraid of all about it I'm so afraid that we stick to my body and it's just I love it so much I feel like it's my downfall I drink it like every day and I cannot I cannot stop but I'm just so proud to be Asian now and they had like I'm like I always get d-ends from other like Asian Americans and they were just like or like just like they like did I get like bit bit bit in these people and it makes me like proud it makes me happy that that people are able to like I'm able to like inspire people and like it's a good feeling but along the way Patti don't forget to share with the trial and tribulations because a lot of Asian community out there that don't know how hard it is to get you where we are or don't even know how to get there and I think your story is so important especially in doing this time when we're trying to find social justice for all colors and but we often forget to ask the passage how we got here everybody has an own story and your story will resonate to so many young people young black kids black girls Asian Indian Muslim people of color you will inspire them to hustle and that's that's it and make your own rule I mean when I think about you and I I laugh because I'm like his house is amazing guys he's doing exactly what you wanted to do and he did it and and we we can only celebrate those those things and you we can learn from the passage that we come from but but I want everybody to celebrate everybody success and that's really hard for a lot of people you know in our industry especially I can't speak for other industry for all industry it's only small percentage of people get to shoot for certain magazines I'll work with certain talent and we've been trained to hate on people who has them that we don't and through this time into the last few years of my own trial tribulations up up different things are happening in an industry how make me realize that I can't worry about those things you know I just I have to hustle my own way and this is this is this is my journey of my path and I won't let anybody else in a way of it like you I love that you're like you're bringing on like just different good people in the community and just like letting like letting them talk and I'm giving them a chance like to tell their story like it's like it's nice to be able to tell to tell your story and I definitely like if I feel like I definitely want to be able to like I do like I I'm sometimes I'm really bad at responding to the demons and I and text messages and all that stuff but like if someone tells me that I'm doing something wrong I always change it like I'm here to learn I'm here to grow whether it's like just me personally me as a makeup artist me like my friend just I want to be able to make products for all skin tones I want to be able to just to continue to make good product that people are excited about that they want to keep in their bag not just like a product that is that is like hyped on social media because every single product that I have come out with now it's taking me a long time I am like I have OCD and I it's very stressful it's very fun to create a product like the whole creation of it is so much fun and then it's not fun anymore when it's time to launch it because then people have things to say about it people like investors then laughter you have to sell it and this makes it not fun so like I remember like last year on on the day after my launch day it should have been like we sold out like it was like it should have been the most exciting time like for me but like I felt empty inside after we launched and like I had the most amazing amazing launch party I had all my friends my family like people at my party like it went by so quickly I didn't even get to enjoy like I don't even like remember like half of the night but like I came I remember coming home and I felt like what now like but I also didn't like remind myself and I hope that you guys are able to remind yourself too because I also have like I have like four assistants right now that I work with him right now they're constantly going through comparing themselves like getting really down actually and like even like comparing themselves to me and like feeling depressed like why I've been doing this for so long now like why not me why not me like why I like what's wrong with with my makeup and and but I just know that like we all feel that way but like I think just if you have to be willing to to like just take in information and want it that bad to do something about it and I feel like I'm so lucky to be working with the girls I'm working with because they are such hard workers they they like they want it so bad so like now like as I feel like I'm like okay with where I am at right now I'm like I love my career I love my like like where I'm at right now like I think before I was like more so like I have to like again like do everyone but like I want I want the people around me and I want other people like like the younger generation to be successful so III tag my assistant and every single pose the ideal if they work with me just I want them to grow I want them to be successful I want like I want like I try to always like help them just like get new clients and but something that like during quarantine and this pandemic it's been hard because it's easier for poor artists like me or influencers who have a following who can do social media posts or do all these or work with brands like how are how are they younger artists going to survive through this we're like are they even going to do makeup anymore because it's not sustainable I want to figure out like I think it's our dog I mean my job with all the other influencers out there all the limited Wireless like get back a little bit like help like we we I don't know how well it's really it's great that you're steel you're saying discuss because we'll most up time and I want to be able to to share this with you is that you're saying that you don't know how but truly I have seen so many videos that you have done so many tutorials and you on on your channel and your platform constantly teaching people about makeup and only thing I can encourage you to do to help people is really share these stories that you share today because I don't think people know that much about you and I think more they know about you know about your journey you're helping especially for the Asian American communities and for people who who may be living a minimum Erica and just says I would love to come to Los Angeles how do I do it how do I break in what do I do have to do to hustle and I get down a lot among young photographer with the Emmy like what can I do to do it differently how do I learn and you are helping you are doing exactly what you're doing you exemplifying what it means to struggle and be successful and and visit your journey don't let anybody take away from it and along the way just in by everybody in when you can you know and now you're doing that so I so appreciate that and I so appreciate for your time today and your candor and honesty because I know it's not an easy topic to go through and I know we talked many times about the struggle is how difficult it is but within all of it your your your have your own line you're doing what that you love and you're smiling right now and it makes me so happy Thanks well I'm waiting for the eyebrow kid from you because I'm the worrier oh my god my eyebrows are always was it does my lack of confidence if I don't put something my bronzer we have no eyebrows or join forehead but guys thank you guys so much for being with me today Patchett I have two top beauty and you guys keeping my accountable to share his stories with you because it is inspiring and for me I'm so proud of you and I'm so happy for your friend thank you so much thank you so much let's see you again okay everybody thank you so much for joining me today makeup artist Padgett on his own journey and story wasn't as easy as people think out there I have known for about five years I seen a struggle as an interpreter that he had to go through to break into the industry and it may not be the consequence away by the Ernie's play / proving his talent and also probably I think what makes him so different than what a lot of people in our industry is this kindness and one in place and willing to continue learning and thank you so much again Patrick for being with you here today and guys thank you so much I will be back again tomorrow

Channel: With Yu Tsai

Views: 25,124

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: photography, fashion, design, clothing, makeup, hair stylist, talk show, talkshow, instagram, instagram live, facebook

Id: QEAkj9bMIT8

Length: 39min 25sec (2365 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 03 2020