Just when you think you might dare be emotionally unmoved by a new Rihanna photo, a Fenty Beauty campaign with her sitting on the hood of a hot-pink Lamborghini, channeling Devon Aoki’s sporty-pink ‘fit in Fast and the Furious falls from heaven. Advertising the new Fenty Beauty lip paint dropping February 12, the new shade—named Unlocked—is next-level Barbie pink.
Rihanna’s look and Aoki’s 2 Fast, 2 Furious mise-en-scène are the holy grail of Pantone 225 U —a deep, bodacious pink that Durga Chew-Bose described perfectly in her Color Story for SSENSE. “Nostalgic but from the future,” she writes. “Not quite 3M and lighter-hued than T-Mobile, sporty pink is the Yamaha of pinks. It’s slick, sharing chromosomal ties with magenta, hot pink, fuchsia (on steroids), and hex code’s ‘deepink.'”
this rihanna with this devon aoki pic.twitter.com/2fVpx7AUnl
— mollie (@chaervn) February 6, 2019
Wearing hot-pink vinyl pants, an early-2000s fuzzy pink top, and a Djula diamond bracelet, the post’s original purpose—selling Stunna lip paint—is admittedly the last thing I noticed about this photo. Dropping February 12, the new lip paint is the hottest shade of pink imaginable, going beyond Elsa Schiaparelli’s “shocking pink” into a new dimension. It practically vibrates off the screen.
The description says it’s “the same soft-matte long-wearing formula that looks good on every skin tone.” And considering we’re nowhere close to getting over the neon trend (at least, um, this writer isn’t), the new DayGlo shade is likely to be a smash hit.
It was last year that Rihanna added four shades to her Stunna Lip Paint, all in the “Un” family: Uninvited, a matte black; Uncuffed, a blush pink; Unveil, a warm brown; and, Unbutton, a peach nude. Unlocked is coming just at the right time, considering we’ve all been obsessively energized by hot pink lately.
Kylie Jenner had her Barbie-themed 21st birthday, and before that Tracee Ellis Ross showed up in an off-the-shoulder, outrageously pink Valentino gown at the 70th annual Emmy Awards. And because no Barbie is complete without her sports car, we’ve had plenty of maximalist automotive inspiration, beginning with the OG pink Corvette queen Angelyne and now, of course, our current pink-car goddess.
The new hot thing? Matching your Lambo to your Lip Paint.
