Six years after launching with an unconventional body glow product, Patrick Ta Beauty has emerged as one of Sephora’s fastest-growing brands, with the Middle East now accounting for more than one-third of its global sales and serving as a blueprint for worldwide expansion. Chief executive officer Kimberly Villatoro revealed the striking international performance metrics during WWD’s Global Fashion & Beauty Summit in Riyadh, where she spoke with WWD executive beauty editor Jenny B. Fine about the brand’s evolution from a digitally native start-up to global beauty contender.
“Thirty-five percent of our global sales from our website come from the Middle East,” Villatoro disclosed, a figure that has surprised even company executives since launching worldwide shipping last year. More telling still, the average order size in the region exceeds orders from anywhere else in the world by more than 70 percent, with blush and tools leading sales.
The Middle East success story reflects a broader international appetite for Patrick Ta’s artistry. Seventy percent of the celebrity makeup artist’s social media followers are based outside of the U.S., with particularly strong communities in Latin America and the Middle East providing a strategic road map for the brand’s next phase of growth.
TikTok Technique Transforms Category
Patrick Ta Beauty’s meteoric rise has been propelled by social media virality, particularly on TikTok, where the brand’s dual blush product became a cultural phenomenon after Ta shared his counterintuitive application technique. The method — applying powder blush first, then layering cream on top — defied conventional wisdom but delivered Ta’s signature “lit from within” glow.
“That first video caught fire and went absolutely viral,” Villatoro explained, noting how the technique video drove unprecedented traffic to Sephora and ultimately catapulted the brand to the number-one blush position at the beauty retailer.
The viral moment exemplifies how Patrick Ta Beauty has leveraged its founder’s 13-year career working with A-list celebrities including Salma Hayek, Halle Berry, and most recently, collaborating with clients at the Cannes Film Festival. This celebrity network, combined with authentic social media presence, has made the brand one of Sephora’s fastest-growing names, holding top-five rankings in four subcategories across North America.
Customer satisfaction metrics reinforce the brand’s quality positioning, with products averaging 4.75 stars across all categories — a critical factor as consumers become increasingly selective about beauty purchases in the current economic climate.
Experiential Strategy Addresses Digital Challenge
Despite thriving as a digitally native brand, Villatoro identified a key strategic challenge: translating online success into meaningful real-world connections. The brand’s recent “House of Glow” pop-up experience in Los Angeles provided a proof of concept for this transition. The two-day activation drew more than 2,000 visitors, with lines of 1,500 people forming on the opening day. Rather than focusing on transactions, the brand prioritized experience, offering custom products and one-on-one interactions with Ta himself, who personally met every attendee.
“We weren’t selling a single item at that pop up,” Villatoro emphasized. “Instead, what we wanted to do was give people an experience, and give people really custom products that were going to be really memorable.”
The success has prompted discussions about scaling similar experiences globally, potentially including masterclasses that showcase Ta’s artistry techniques — events he has conducted internationally but never in his home U.S. market.
International Recognition and Future Vision
Following the summit, Patrick Ta received WWD’s International Beauty Innovator of the Year award in Riyadh, accepting via video from Cannes where he was working with Halle Berry.
“As a makeup artist that has been working over 13 years in the industry, having a brand that represents and champions confidence, creativity and authenticity truly means so much to me. I am so proud to have such an amazing community that has supported me on this journey,” Ta told the audience.
As Patrick Ta Beauty plots its global expansion, the strategy will prioritize markets showing natural brand affinity, guided by social media analytics and direct-to-consumer demand patterns. The brand’s unapologetically luxurious positioning appears particularly well-suited for markets that embrace glamour and makeup ritual, with the Middle East serving as validation for this premium approach.
The brand has significant growth runway, with 30 percent of makeup categories still unexplored. Villatoro emphasized the company’s intentional approach to expansion, ensuring each new category launch reflects Ta’s distinctive artistry rather than chasing market trends.