lipstick

Title: Lipstick
Author: Abidoye Kelvin Adekunle
In a city where beauty is a currency, how much are you willing to pay?
Book Description:
Lagos is a city of "The Glow." It is a place where digital perfection hides the cracks of reality and social media likes are the only measure of worth. In Lipstick, the line between who you are and who you pretend to be is drawn in deep, violent red.
Folake is twenty-three, living in a room with a cracked mirror and a water-stained ceiling. She is clutching a dying bank balance while watching influencers unbox the lives she craves. To escape the shadow of her own reflection, she enters a world of high-stakes aesthetic aspiration where the cost of enhancement is measured in more than just Naira.
From the high-pressure sets of Nollywood to the hidden clinics and the "Iron Temples" of masculinity, Lipstick follows an ensemble of characters caught in the relentless mathematics of beauty. There is the aging icon fighting for relevance, the secret life of a man desperate to meet a physical ideal, and the observers who profit from the hunger of others. It is a world where skin is thinned, secrets are currency, and every "after" photo comes with a hidden debt.
Raw, unflinching, and deeply cinematic, Lipstick is a powerful exploration of modern obsession and the commodification of the human body. It is a story of the crushing weight of the Lagos hustle.
In the battle for status, lipstick isn't just makeup. It is armor. And the war has just begun.