Patrick Ta, the celebrity makeup artist behind Patrick Ta Beauty, is openly defending the price. In a TikTok video posted about a week ago that’s drawn more than 3.2 million views and 422,700 likes, he explained, “The eyeshadows in these duos are not your normal eyeshadows. These are not a press formula. These are not a cream. These are what you call a slurry. What is so special about this formula to me is that there is no filler in this formula. This is a baked formula, and you are getting 100% pearl.”

The kerfuffle over Patrick Ta Beauty’s duo isn’t the first time social media critics have been vocal about eyeshadow. In 2021, a five-pan eyeshadow palette from Hourglass Cosmetics was slammed for its $161 price tag. For Patrick Ta Beauty, the TikTok commotion doesn’t seem to have hurt business. The duo hit Sephora’s website on Oct. 15, and customers wiped it clean of all but one of the product’s five shades by Nov. 1.

Across brands, market research firm Circana’s prestige beauty data shows sales of eyeshadow duos are up 83% so far this year in an eyeshadow segment that’s seen a 7% sales drop from last year. Other growth areas in the segment include quads, which have registered a 2% gain, and sticks, which have notched a 6% jump, in the year-to-date period compared to the same period last year.

To get an understanding of what the outcry over Patrick Ta’s duo reveals about consumer preferences and the makeup category today, for this edition of our ongoing series posing questions relevant to indie beauty, we asked 12 brand, manufacturer and product development executives, consultants and founders the following: Why did it elicit such a strong reaction? What does the reaction convey to you about beauty shoppers? What does it say about the eyeshadow subcategory? Where is it going in terms of the mix of products and prices?