Rihanna's MAC Lipstick Gave Woman Herpes: Not The Souvenir She Wanted To Take Home From Pre-Show Popup Shop
A woman is claiming that a Rihanna-endorsed MAC lipstick she tried at a pop-up shop before a Rihanna concert gave her herpes.
The Harlem woman asked the MAC counter representative if it was clean, and she replied "yeah, yeah, yeah", the suit claims. The woman told her to "press her lips together and spread the lipstick around," the suit claims.
Normal concert souvenirs are T-shirts and posters...herpes is not usually on the list. But that's what a new lawsuit filed by Starkeema Greenidge is claiming she took home at the MAC popup shop outside a Rihanna concert at the Barclay's Center in Brooklyn.
A counter representative trying to sell the Rihanna- endorsed RiRi Woo approached Greenidge on her way to the concert. She applied the RiRi Woo to Greenidge's lips and claimed the tube was clean when asked. However, she "didn't use a fresh or new lipstick tube, but rather one that had been used for other patrons," the suit alleges.
The day after the concert, however, "My whole lip was irritated and hugely swollen," she told TMZ.
Two days later, the doc said it was herpes. Greenidge, a 28-year-old waitress, was not able to work for two weeks. "It cost me a lot of money," she told the Daily News.
Now she's suing MAC Cosmetics for loss of wages and damages due to emotional distress. The suit accuses MAC of bad business practices from not using individual swabs or disposable samples. MAC "should have known... it was unsanitary and exposing patrons to possible spread of disease", the suit said. "
"This is going to happen over and over again if nothing is done," Greenidge told press.
After all, Greenidge's Rihanna souvenir will last her a lifetime....but something tells us she wanted her lips to look red because of lipstick, not herpes sores. Is that too much to ask?
Rihanna's RiRi Woo lipstick sold out within minutes of being released on May 2. It's just one of a line of MAC Cosmetics that Rihanna will release.