Doja Cat Takes a Bite Out of Beauty: Inside MAC’s Edible Lipstick Campaign
- Jomanda Heng
- Sep 17
- 3 min read
When Doja Cat strolled down the 2025 MTV VMAs red carpet, nobody expected her to turn a lipstick into dessert. Yet that’s exactly what happened. In front of flashing cameras, she twisted open a fiery red MAC lipstick, pressed it to her lips… and then bit into it. Fans gasped, social media lit up, and the beauty world collectively wondered: was that real?
Turns out, it was and it wasn’t. The lipstick in question was an edible replica of MAC’s iconic Lady Danger shade, carefully crafted from chocolate and caramel by Amaury Guichon, the world-renowned chocolatier known for sculpting hyper-realistic confections that blur the line between food and art.
This wasn’t a random snack moment. It was a carefully staged stunt to launch Doja Cat as MAC Cosmetics’ newest Global Brand Ambassador, and it worked like magic.
Doja Cat: Beauty With a Bite
The edible lipstick instantly became the most talked-about beauty stunt of the VMAs. On a surface level, it showcased Lady Danger from MAC’s Silky Matte Lipstick line. But more importantly, it positioned MAC as a brand willing to push the boundaries of beauty.
Doja Cat is no stranger to theatricality, her performances often mix provocation, art, and humour, so pairing her with a literal “forbidden bite” made sense. It told the audience: makeup isn’t just about looking polished; it’s about play, risk, and storytelling.
For MAC, a brand long associated with artistry and self-expression, this moment reinforces its DNA. Instead of traditional product placement, they delivered a cultural spectacle, one that went viral across platforms and beauty blogs within hours.
The Sweet Genius Behind the Illusion
The secret weapon of the campaign was Amaury Guichon, a pastry chef whose Instagram-famous chocolate sculptures have earned him millions of followers. Known for building edible masterpieces, from life-sized dragons to intricate watches, Guichon was the perfect collaborator to engineer an edible lipstick so convincing it fooled even those a few feet away.
By bringing him into the fold, MAC blurred the boundaries between industries: beauty, food, and performance art collided in one bite. It wasn’t just lipstick, it was luxury marketing in 4D, tactile, edible, and unforgettable.
Culture Meets Commerce
From a cultural standpoint, this campaign reflects where the beauty industry is headed: spectacle over subtlety, conversation over convention. Today, attention is the most valuable currency, and MAC earned it by staging a viral red-carpet moment rather than a traditional ad roll-out.
The collaboration also speaks to a broader trend of cross-disciplinary partnerships. Just as fashion collabs with gaming or sneakers collab with fast food, here beauty collabs with haute pâtisserie. It’s proof that brands are looking outside their categories to surprise and delight audiences who’ve seen it all.
Doja Cat, with her unapologetic approach to self-expression, makes the perfect cultural conduit. She embodies the idea that makeup is more than a routine, it’s performance, armour, even rebellion. MAC is betting on her to lead them into a new era of boundary-pushing beauty.
For Beauty: It shows how far brands will go to turn product launches into moments, not just advertisements.
For Marketing: It’s a case study in virality, blending celebrity spectacle, artistry, and an edible twist no one could ignore.
For Culture: It’s a snapshot of how industries overlap in 2025. Beauty doesn’t exist in a silo anymore; it shares a table with music, food, and pop culture.
As for Amaury Guichon’s edible creation? It may never hit MAC counters (regulations aren’t ready for “chocolate makeup”), but it doesn’t have to. The point was to remind us that in today’s beauty landscape, sometimes the sweetest payoff is the story itself.
The Uncommon Breed
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