Patrick Ta Breaks His Silence on the Viral Blush Controversy

3 min read

“There’s no smoke without fire,” Emma Grede says in the opening montage hook of her latest podcast, Aspire with Emma, with an episode aptly titled “The Accountability Conversation.” Opposite her is the beloved makeup darling who has been in the hot seat for the past few weeks: Patrick Ta.

To catch you up to speed, there’s a bit of drama in blush land. Earlier in May, Patrick Ta, a makeup artist known for his eponymous line, expanded his blush offerings with two new products: the Liquid Transition Brightening Blush and the Major Headlines Transition Blurring Under Eye Blush Duo, both designed to help consumers achieve a bright, blurred, ombré-like finish. The only thing is, someone already popularized the look and technique—and the question is, who?

That would be Ngozi Esther Edeme, otherwise known as PaintedByEsther. Her signature technique is an ultra-matte, highly pigmented “blush-blindness” style that takes the color right up under the eyes and fans out past the outer corners, seen on the likes of Tyla, Love Island’s Olandria Carthen, and even Summer House’s Ciara Miller.

PaintedByEsther’s signature style isn’t merely just another makeup fad, but a statement, one that rejects the notion that Black women shouldn’t experiment with their makeup styles. Her choice in muses—add Kelly Rowland, Doechii, and Chloe Bailey to the mix—is intentional. “‘Clean girl’ makeup neglects a section of people, particularly Black girls,” Edeme previously told ELLE.com. “I wanted to challenge that by using this style of glam on Black women, who have always been told to wear purples or reds.”

In a launch video demonstrating how to use the new system, Ta had opened up by saying, “I created a three-step blush technique to give you flawless blush every single time.” Social media lit ablaze with critiques for Ta, with many people name-dropping Edeme’s pseudonym in the comments and comparing the two artists’ techniques. Edeme eventually responded with a video of her own, visibly shaken up. “I’ve actually never one time said I started anything,” she begins. “My goal is to constantly reference artists like Kevyn Aucoin and Danessa [Myricks] and Pat [McGrath].”

Sitting across from each other during the podcast interview, Grede and Ta weave through his upbringing and early career before touching on the blush controversy. Ta describes his two new blush products, which operate as a “three-step program” designed specifically for “the blush lover.” He maintains that “the intent of this launch was never to take ownership over this technique; it was to create a product to simplify this artist technique that people have been doing for the consumer,” though he recognizes how “this has become a larger conversation.”

“I’ve had to take a step back and listen to what everyone has been saying. And even though it wasn’t my intention, the impact matters,” he continues. Elsewhere in the convo, he praises his counterpart. “Esther is an amazing makeup artist—she really popularized this high contrast of blush on dark skin.”

Later in the episode, Grede asks the question on everyone’s mind: “Did a collaboration with Esther ever come up?” Ta reveals that he and his team reached out to Edeme prior to the launch, but she wasn’t accepting paid collaborations at the time. Still, Grede posits that he must have known that launching such a product without mentioning Edeme’s impact would lead to an uproar and the “erasure of her influence,” as Black women’s creativity has historically been overlooked and copied without credit, leaving consumers especially sensitive to cases like this.

Ta apologizes. “I’m really sorry for the hurt and frustration that I have caused. For anyone who felt overlooked or not recognized for their contributions, that was never my intent. My intent was only to create a product to allow people to make this technique more accessible at home,” he says. Ta wraps by saying he would love to have a conversation and work with Edeme in the future, though they haven’t been able to connect yet.