Beauty influencer Avonna Sunshine, who commands nearly half a million followers, drew a substantial audience to TikTok when she criticized celebrity beauty label Patrick Ta for failing to provide compensation to her.
Ta and fellow owners Rima and Avo Minaysan have built a beauty empire centered on inclusivity, emphasizing an expansive shade range and profiting “off of the Black dollar,” as Sunshine highlighted during her frustrated diatribe.
“This isn’t merely about a single brand; it’s about the need for fairness, accountability, and equity spanning the industry,” she declared as she demolished several of Ta’s signature Double-Take “Blush Duos” and discarded them into a trash bin.
@avonnasunshine Any guesses on who it might be?
♬ original sound – Avonna Sunshine
When her clip went viral, Ta promptly issued a tearful apology on TikTok, but another Black beauty influencer, Tiffani Davis, noticed something “odd” about it. Ta had recorded multiple takes, one with a trembling voice seemingly on the verge of tears (though no actual tears appeared) and another with a straight face. Davis criticized the celeb makeup artist for deleting his initial post and replacing it with the version in which he appears to cry.
“Um…” she commented with a laugh. “I understand having a script and wanting to organize your thoughts, but the post-and-delete move is a little strange because you’re returning to the crying take,” she said in her video.
@tiffanicvd PATRICK TA APOLOGIZES 🤔🤔🤔 vc: @Court 💕 #makeup #makeupartist #patrickta #makeupbrand #greenscreenvideo ♬ original sound – tiffani 🧚🏾 | 4c natural hair
In damage-control mode, Ta added a caption to his “crying” TikTok apology, stressing that it represented the “original take.”
“This is not a situation I took lightly. I recorded several rounds of this response and aimed to share what felt most authentic to me,” he wrote. “This was my original take. More importantly, this is about righting my wrong.” In the apology, Ta speaks directly to Sunshine, stating, “I want to get you compensated as soon as possible, today if you are willing to answer me,” and noting that he was unaware of the mistake made by his finance team.
Sunshine, who reached a deal with the brand in the spring, is simply the latest in a long line of Black content creators who have challenged brands over compensation. A 2023 study indicated that Black influencers earn substantially less than their white counterparts, despite Black beauty consumers spending $9.4 billion annually, according to Nielsen IQ.
“I have a question for brands. How would you feel if someone stole from you? If someone took your hard-earned time and blood, sweat, and tears, and they stole from you?” Sunshine asked her audience.
“You see people, especially Black individuals, backing the company, and that doesn’t sit well with me. I wonder, if those Black creators who supported you so heavily knew you weren’t paying Black creators, how would they feel? I don’t think they’d be okay with it. I certainly am not.”
Following the controversy, the Dallas-based influencer contemplated whether to re-enter the fray but ultimately posted a follow-up video praising brands that pay her. The support in the comments has been overwhelming.
“PERIOD!! Pay Black creators for their content. It’s that content that boosts product sales within their communities. There are products promoted by Black creators that literally sell out because of their influence. THEY DESERVE the compensation!” commented a Reddit user, while another wrote, “Code for ‘I saw your pathetic apology video you taped multiple times, Patrick, and you can choke on it…PAY ME in dollars not words!’”
Another remarked, “It’s unreal to me that this is even a debate. This is work, and it requires time and energy. Black creators deserve to be paid for their work.”
Comedian and actress Jessie Woo also weighed in on the Patrick Ta controversy on her podcast Jess A Couple Things.
“While they don’t always want you as the face, they recognize the power Black women have in pushing a brand out there, they know it, and that’s why you saw Patrick Ta with his balloon lips and his white-woman tears on TikTok crying and dragging out for a third take of his apology, because he knows he messed up.”
