Rihanna Lipstick Causes Herpes, Claims Starkeema Greenidge Lawsuit

Lipstick-lovers, beware! Starkeema Greenidge, 28 year-old waitress and Rihanna enthusiast, is filing a lawsuit in Manhattan Supreme Court claiming that she contracted herpes from a promotional tube of MAC lipstick being sampled at a May 7 Rihanna concert.

Greenidge is now seeking damages for the “mental anguish and emotional distress” she incurred, as reported by the New York Daily News. The line in question, MAC’s sold-out “RiRi Woo” lipstick, was being sampled by MAC representatives at a pop-up store at the “Diamonds World Tour” concert held at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center. Greenidge found a sore on her lips a few days later — it remains to be seen whether any other unfortunate RiRi testers contracted herpes at the venue.

This is somber news for fellow lipstick samplers, as the tricky virus can be easily spread across any publicly-distributed oral object. “This is going to happen over and over again if nothing is done,” Greenidge says, speaking out to prevent further careless stick passing. “I wasn’t able to work for two weeks. It cost me a lot of money.”

Lawyers fault MAC, claiming its representatives weren’t properly trained and that sanitary procedures weren’t properly being exercised. MAC “should have known [they were] exposing patrons to possible spread of disease,” they write.

“[She] didn’t use a fresh or new lipstick tube, but rather one that had been used for other patrons.”

It remains to be seen how much Greenidge is asking for in damages. In the meantime, those looking to get their hands on some of that red-hot RiRi Woo will just have to wait until it comes back in stock — or, perhaps, grab a communal tube at the nearest “Diamonds” gig.