Beauty & Wellness Briefing: Inside the Patrick Ta Beauty pop-up that inspired overnight camping and a mile-long entry line

Pop-ups are a dime a dozen in the beauty and wellness space, but few command the kind of reaction seen last weekend at Patrick Ta Beauty’s first in-person pop-up. 

Fans of the brand camped overnight in line to secure their access to the two-day Los Angeles consumer event, with some people waiting as long as 17 hours. 

“I don’t think anyone in their wildest dreams could have necessarily expected something like that,” Jacqueline Barrett, svp of marketing at Patrick Ta Beauty, told Glossy. “We have a passionate and excited community, and we’ve never done an in-real-life pop-up where you get to meet the brand and the people behind the brand before.”

Barrett’s team was forced to cap the line at 8:30 a.m. on its first day, a full 90 minutes before the event opened. At one point, the line for entry reached more than a mile and a half long. Barrett told Glossy that several brand fans flew to Los Angeles for the event, traveling from places like Chicago and Mexico, and one person even proposed to their partner at the event. 

But outside of fanfare, the event also moved the needle for sales. Despite not actually selling anything at the pop-up, during its first day, the team saw a 28% increase in Sephora sales and a 49% increase in DTC site visits.

“We’re a social-first brand and people are very used to interacting with us [online],” Barrett said. “We know people want that additional connection in real life.”

Celebrity makeup artist Patrick Ta launched his namesake line in 2019 alongside NPD specialist Rima Minasyan and entrepreneur Avo Minasyan. The company received minority investment from Stride Partners in 2022. The company is helmed by CEO Kimberly Villatoro and is exclusively sold DTC and through Sephora. Barrett has been with Patrick Ta Beauty since 2023, and her CV includes Kendo Brands, Beautycounter and Mattel. 

The event was called House of Glow and was designed to promote the brand’s glow-inducing complexion and body products like its blush and body oil, which retail for $38 and $44. The event ran last Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with a friends-and-family night on Thursday, designed for the internal team and their families, and an influencer night on Friday night, to drum up attention and satiate the content creator and artist community. 

The pop-up was created by the brand activation agency Kado in a 2,400-square-foot empty retail space on Melrose Avenue. Located in trendy West Hollywood, the space is adjacent to restaurants, boutiques and coffee shops. The event cost around $500,000, Barrett told Glossy. 

Around 2,000 people attended the event over the weekend, with the average person staying between 30 minutes and one hour. 

“We were focused on, ‘How do we create a high-touch, high-quality experience?’” Barrett told Glossy. “We wanted to make sure people had enough time to spend in the space and actually interact with people and not feel rushed or crowded.”

Barrett and her team teased the event a week before through social posts, targeted emails and SMS messages to customers based in Southern California. These targeted guests were asked to RSVP to help the team gain an estimate of attendee size.

“There’s so much happening in the world that we think people are planning their weekend maybe the week before,” Barrett said. “When you tease too early, people can become impatient.” 

Attendees were promised foundation shade matching and photobooths, plus free products, merch and samples. The first 100 guests each day received a free full-size body oil on top of what everyone else got: a free foundation brush or blush, lip gloss and a baseball cap with a choice of messaging: “She’s So L.A.” or “She Goes to The Gym.”

Ta, who has 4 million followers on Instagram, also spent time signing autographs, posing for selfies and chatting with fans during the event.

Guests were not asked for their names, email addresses or phone numbers — Barrett told Glossy that in-person data collection turns people off, so they avoided it. The team also strategically chose not to sell products at the event. “I know a lot of brands will do selling on-site at a pop-up, and I think that’s great, but we wanted people to feel gifted and celebrated and rewarded,” she said. “We wanted this to feel like a moment where we’re not asking anything of you.” 

Instead, they directed consumers who wanted to purchase an item they tried at the event to Patrick Ta’s DTC or Sephora — there were several within a few miles of the pop-up.

“Certainly there was no conversation where Sephora said, ‘You can’t sell.’ They would have loved for us to sell, but [this event] wasn’t that,” Barrett said “We just wanted [consumers] to come have a beautiful experience with us and leave with some fun freebies, swag and gifts — to feel that love and gratitude from us.”

Executive moves: 

• Longtime Estée Lauder exec Carl Haney will depart the company in June. Most recently, Haney served as evp of global innovation and research and development. Haney spent more than 13 years with the company and will be pursuing new opportunities. Prior to joining ELC in 2012, he spent 27 years at Procter & Gamble. His replacement has not yet been named.
  
• Delphine Viguier-Hovasse is set to be L’Oréal Group’s first chief innovation and prospective officer on July 1, a newly created role for the longtime exec. Viguier-Hovasse has been with L’Oréal for more than 20 years, most recently as global brand president of L’Oréal Paris.
  
• Former Glossier CMO Kleona Mack has joined the SharkNinja team as CMO of the company’s beauty division. Mack spent four years at Glossier. Her CV also includes Tarte and L’Oréal. Mack is SharkNinja’s second buzzy hire of the year: The company hired Michelle Crossan-Matos, former Ulta Beauty CMO, as chief growth officer earlier this year. 

News to know:

• A 90-day pause on President Trump’s sky-high tariffs on China was announced on Monday. The two countries reached a temporary truce that included a 30% tariff on Chinese goods for those importing into the U.S. and a 10% tariff on goods headed to China. This is a stark rollback from the 145% tariff implemented by Trump on April 2 and the 125% retaliatory tariff implemented by China soon after. The cancellation of the de minimis exemption on low-cost packages from China and Hong Kong remains. 

• Japanese beauty conglomerate Shiseido — which owns Drunk Elephant, Nars, Cle de Peau, Shiseido and many more brands — announced an 8.5% decline in sales on Monday for its first quarter of 2025 ending March 31. This includes a 65% year-over-year drop in Drunk Elephant, a 7% drop for Shiseido’s namesake brand and a 14% drop for Issey Miyake perfume. Nars dropped 2%, and Clé de Peau and Anessa were outliers with a 2% increase and a 23% increase, respectively. Slow sales in China and a drop in Drunk Elephant sales strongly impacted the company. This compounds with a 73% sales slump that hit its full-year 2024 sales, announced in February.
  
• Women’s sports continue to be a popular marketing channel for the beauty and wellness industries. On Wednesday, Fenty Beauty announced it has partnered with the WNBA team the New York Liberty. Both Fenty Beauty and Fenty Skin are part of the partnership, which includes branded uniforms, in-arena activations and more. In a statement, Rihanna said: “There is no energy and spirit like New York City’s. And the women of the New York Liberty exemplify such beauty, power and strength, so to have Fenty Beauty and Fenty Skin become a part of their journey this season is incredible. We’re excited to partner with them to get their game faces on.”
  
• Consumer goods company Church & Dwight is set to acquire Touchland for $700 million in cash and stock, plus an earnout based on 2025 sales. Touchland is the fastest-growing brand in the hand sanitizer category in the United States and is the No. 2 hand sanitizer in the category, according to Church & Dwight. Touchland sells its $10 hand sanitizers through Sephora, Amazon, Revolve and DTC.

Stat of the week:

Spate market research company released its 2025 beauty industry ingredient trend report on Friday. The firm found terms like “skin microbiome” and “skin boosters” saw stunning year-over-year growth, with 296% and 325% search growth, respectively. “SPF setting spray” also jumped 62% year over year, while “calico hair” — a high-contrast hair-color trend — spiked 1,359% in search. 

In the headlines:

Coty cuts forecast, delays investor day as economic uncertainty hits U.S. market. Paris Hilton reveals Parívie skin care line.  Pinterest shares rise 15% on better-than-expected guidance. SharkNinja CEO sees consumers facing tough choices. CNN hires Choire Sicha to lead features as it makes a digital subscriber push. Google cuts about 200 jobs in global business unit amid restructuring. 

Listen in: 

Once a DTC-only power player, Colourpop has since halved its launches and expanded into Ulta Beauty and Target. Colourpop brand president Vivian Weng joins the Glossy Beauty Podcast to discuss beauty’s evolving consumer and how the 11-year-old brand is tailoring its strategy to reach them. 

Need a Glossy recap? 

The pros and cons of near-shoring beauty and personal care manufacturing to Mexico. Beauty brands are benefiting from offering Amazon’s Buy with Prime to direct-to-consumer shoppers. Tootsies’s hands-on approach to brand partnerships is translating to big sales per door. How The Webster became a target partner for top luxury brands. ‘A 10% cost breaks me’: How independent perfumers are navigating Trump’s tariffs. As luxury stalls, Bluemercury charts growth in affluent neighborhoods using high-touch sales strategies. How Vacation is using fragrance to sell sunscreen.