Rihanna's New Makeup Kit Literally Contains Packets Of Ketchup

Ever find yourself eating your McFries and wishing, dang, I really wish I had a lip gloss as pretty as this ketchup smeared all over my face? Or perhaps you can't help but notice how tomato has a way of brightening the complexion with a longevity unknown to commercial makeup. Well, maybe it's time to assume that Rihanna's new collab with MSCHF is more about gimmick and less about product. 

Don't be fooled by this recent venture — the pop star is no stranger to cosmetics. Her Fenty beauty line, first launched in 2017, is a cult favorite at Ulta and Sephora stores, where her highly praised Gloss Bomb and Pro Filt'r sell like hotcakes (per Allure). Her lip and face colors are praised for their range of shades and dense pigmentation, making them especially appealing and wearable for women with darker skin tones, long underserved by the beauty industry (per Beauty Packaging and CNA). Make no mistake about it, Rihanna knows her way around the beauty aisle.

But this time, Rihanna's new release feels like a big tease. It's not the long-awaited album fans have been asking about. Instead, Rihanna's new collaboration is with the notorious prankster company MSCHF. The company's name was formed from the consonants that make up the word "mischief." Their mission? It's not entirely clear, even to CEO Gabriel Whaley. 

As Whaley told Business Insider "A brand of what? I don't know... We're trying to do stuff that the world can't even define...Our perspective is everything is funny in a nihilistic sort of way. We're not here to make the world a better place. We're making light of how much everything sucks." MSCHF is famous for some of its viral collaborations, like "Satan's Shoes," a Nike knock-off sneaker that claimed to include a drop of human blood in the sole, and "Puff the Squeaky Chicken," a chicken-shaped bong that squeaks when you smoke it (per Chi and Huang).

What does that mean for the makeup though? In decidedly tongue-in-cheek fashion, the package consists of six squirty packages, artfully contained in a cleverly-designed thin, red cardboard box titled "Ketchup or Makeup." Some of the packets contain a special shade of lipgloss, which seems to be a new color — red with gold flecks (per Highsnobiety), but others contain actual ketchup (brand unspecified). How do you know what's inside each? You have to open them up and find out. You could strike it rich and get six generous packages of single-use lip gloss or you could draw the short end of the stick and just get single-serve ketchup packets. But is $25 a bargain for something mildly entertaining and perhaps useful for those days when your drive-through order is missing key condiments? You be the judge.