The Story Behind Those F*ck Trump Lipsticks All Your Facebook Friends Are Talking About

We suddenly had tons of people who were excited and waiting for the product — so I actually needed to make the product. I Googled "how to make your own lipstick," and lipstick manufacturers popped up. I requested samples to test everyone's formulas. I found one that I liked and that's when I said, "I'd like to place an order with you guys. This is what I want on the tube and this is the color that I want and here's my design for the box."

For the color of the lipstick, I wanted to pick something that would be wearable for a lot of different people, so I picked a middle-ground pink. Obviously, no one color can look good on every person, but I wanted it to be as wearable as it could be.

As I was figuring out the design for F*ck Trump, I went to Sephora and looked at all the lipstick boxes they had. A lot of them were glossy, black, simple, and elegant, and so I decided to go away from the muted black boxes that everyone else was doing.

I said, "I want to do something bright. I want to do something loud and exciting. I want the box to be something people care about and think is funny and exciting. I want bright blue." Then I did some pop-art Trump on the side, because I'm inspired by a lot of feminist graphic design and artwork from the past.

Once I placed the order with the manufacturer, I got a thousand boxes of lipstick delivered to my house, and then I had to buy a thousand envelopes and a label printer. I filled all the orders at once — all 1,000 of them. My friends helped me, but I had to take a week off from school to fill them all . . .

Seeing the orders flood in — it was so exciting. It was amazing to see how many people wanted to come together and make a tangible impact together.

It was also overwhelming. I managed my last year of college by ditching class — a lot. I mean, I finished my degree. I passed. But I was not quite as involved as I had been pre-Lipslut. I just knew this was what I needed to do, to inspire action and maybe change the world through these products we're selling.

We always wanted to be involved with current events and help raise money for things that people care about in the moment, so we're looking to everyone in the Lipslut community for ideas. What we've been doing is illustrated by listening to our customers, seeing what they want, seeing their suggestions, and trying to build that for them. That's how the F*ck Hollywood ($20) and Notorious R.B.G. ($20) came to be, by trying to make things that reflect what they're passionate about.

That's been one of the most rewarding things for me, seeing the community grow on Facebook and support itself and support each other. We're making an actual impact on the things that they care about because that's what I'm setting out to build. And also in there, people are always throwing out new ideas for products.

Last summer, we did a fundraiser for families separated at the border, and we got a lot of press for that. Obviously, when you get a lot of press, you also get some pushback. But in the pushback from that campaign, someone emailed us and called Lipslut a bunch of names but with no spaces.
It was "Leftylibglobalistsantifacommiesocialisthollyweirdopigs" — all these words strung together with no spaces, and it was pretty funny.

I posted a screenshot of the email on our Instagram with the person's name and email blurred out, and then everyone started commenting, "Make this your next shade. Make it the next color." So we did it. We made a limited run of this color, and it's actually coming back in late March.

I'm working on Lipslut full time now. When I graduated, I was really excited — like, Now I can finally spend all my time doing the one thing I care about the most. My biggest goal for the future is to continue creating a community of women who can come together and make tangible impacts on current issues. Moving forward, that looks like more products, expanding our offerings beyond lipstick, and building out that community even more.

I hope we can change the cosmetics industry and inspire brands to care more about what customers actually care about and not be afraid of getting involved. Don't be afraid to take real action — rather than just stating your support — for fear of alienating your customers.

There are issues going on in the world that are so huge and so important and on people's minds every day, and if you want to connect with people buying your products, don't be afraid to bring it up.