Jools Lebron Didn’t Get Paid From This Beauty Brand — Fans Suspect It’s Patrick Ta Beauty

Jools Lebron didn’t get paid from what beauty brand? Gather around, divas! Unfortunately, the TikTok star has had some “not-so-demure” things happen to her since taking off on the app this past August.

If you didn’t know, the transgender influencer received global acclaim after uploading her super-viral, classic “How to be demure and modest, and respectful at the workplace” video, which is currently sitting at 50 million+ views on the China-built platform. In the 38-second clip, Lebron iconically phrased, “You see how I do my makeup for work? Very demure, very mindful. I don’t come to work with a green, cut crease. I don’t look like a clown when I go to work. I don’t do too much; I’m very mindful while I’m at work.”

She continued: “See how I look very presentable? The way I came to the interview is the way I go to the job! A lot of you girls go to the interview looking like Marge Simpson and go to the job looking like Patty and Selma. Not demure!”

Although, per the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the word “demure” has been around for centuries, Lebron popularized the term in 2024. Following her (seemingly) overnight win, she quickly became a household name among fans and fellow public figures, with everything from TV appearances to brand deals solidifying her now-celebrity status. However, though the recognition did (in fact) change the former cashier’s life, some of that publicity actually didn’t put a dime in her pockets.

In the debut episode of her new web show, “The Very Demure Podcast,” Lebron opened up about an uber-successful cosmetics company and its owner, who she feels used her for free promotion. The segment has since sparked quite the chaos online, as many have concluded that celebrity makeup artist Patrick Ta is the alleged “shady” man in question.

The Real Reason Why People Blamed Patrick Ta When Learning Jools Lebron Didn’t Get Paid from This Beauty Brand She Worked With

During the 43-minute sit-down, Lebron said, bleeping the person’s name out, “I went to New York to do _________’s foundation event.” She added, “_________ gets called out for not paying brown and Black creators.”

As you may (or may not) have heard, in December 2024, beauty creator Avonna Sunshine took to the “innanets” to blast companies who “profit off of the Black dollar” but refuse to pay influencers of color. Sunshine, whose video has one million likes and over 14,000 comments on TikTok, expressed, “What do you suppose I do? I went the nice way; I wasn’t the mad, Black woman when I emailed or when I DMed you. [laughs]”

She expanded, controversially breaking products from Ta’s line, Patrick Ta Beauty, which signaled viewers to believe she was targeting the high-profile makeup guru: “I have a question for brands. How would you feel if someone stole from you? If someone took your hard-earned time and work–blood, sweat, and tears–and they stole from you?”

“I was like, ‘You know… just let it go.’ But, then, you see people, especially Black people, riding for the company, and that doesn’t make me feel very well,” Sunshine (who, per People magazine, was seen reviewing Ta’s lip glosses and blushes earlier that year) proceeded. “‘Cause I just wonder… if those Black creators, who are supporting you so heavily, knew that you were out here not paying Black creators, how would they feel? I don’t think they’d be okay with that. I’m surely not.”

[SEE ORIGINAL VIDEO HERE]

Eventually, Ta offered an apology and a check to Sunshine, but it appears that his poor business practices continue to loom.

While the censoring effect was placed over the sound of Lebron citing the individual, the lip-readers of the cyber world swiftly caught on to who she was (assumedly) referencing, and if you closely take a look yourself, you’d (more than likely) agree that Ta was the topic of discussion. In the soft exposal, Lebron recalled how followers asking for her opinion on the situation regarding the unidentified bossman who failed to compensate his minority collaborators prompted her to reflect on her own experience.

“I thought about it… at the height of the most viral sensation of TikTok in 2024, you got me to fly to New York for free, unpaid, to essentially promote your foundation?” she challenged. “I didn’t feel this way until I looked back at the simple fact that like… him and his manager were like, ‘Oh, we’re gonna just make some TikToks. We’re just gonna make some TikToks.’ And so then I’m excited because _________ is like one of my idols. Gagged! Love him. So, I’m like, ‘Of course, I’m gonna make some f*cking TikToks with you.”

If you remember, Lebron and Ta were spotted posting a few TikToks together around the time of the “demure” trend. Unfortunately, Lebron later discovered that while her services went uncompensated, the unconfirmed CEO had no problem issuing a coin to others in her lane. When speaking on why she chose to stay quiet about it, she summed up, “[I] didn’t want to like stir the pot ’cause like… what am I gonna say? Like, ________ didn’t pay like the ‘very demure’ girl who’s a plus-size like Afro-Latina? Like, that’s gonna be an ending stab in the wound. You know what I mean? So, I was like, ‘Let me just shut the f*ck up and let that play out.'”

According to Lebron, she also noticed that the company’s workers had “nicer” staying arrangements in New York than she did and was frustrated that she quit her job to travel there on a whim.

“It was kind of gaggy for them to fly us out and then make us meet them at their hotel and their hotel’s just so much nicer than ours,” she detailed to her brother/co-host. “And then… on top of that, they got us there last-minute. I quit my job to go… and I told them I quit my job.”

Apparently, amid the backlash surrounding the person (allegedly) taking advantage of those within BIPOC communities, Lebron urged them in their comments to pay up but to no avail.

Jools LeBron clocked the tea HARD when describing the Nicki Minaj-ification of Patrick Ta. He’s a nasty individual just like someone else we all know!! pic.twitter.com/Nr6OKSxrRe

— The REAL Chad Turner (@TheMrChadTurner) March 7, 2025

We’re hoping the accused beauty brand and its runner will square Lebron away soon enough. After all, she did (jokingly) document her sentiments on the lost momentum of the #DemureTrain and how she’s trying to figure out her next career move.

“You see how I don’t do crying on the internet about the fact that I’m irrelevant and I’m a flop now, even though I’m still trying to put out content?” she quipped. “I’m not crazy like you girls. I’m very demure when I spiral about my career. I’m very mindful about the fact that ‘very demure’ is over, and now I’m spiraling about what I should do next. You know, I’m very mindful when I know my career is coming to an end.”

What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments below!

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