Hailey Bieber’s new lip gloss phone case is a bit… vaginal?

Calling all vagina lovers! Hailey Bieber has just joined a beloved tradition of the beauty industry – releasing a vulva-themed product. This month, Bieber’s skincare brand Rhode launches a phone case that is moulded to perfectly hold its signature Peptide Lip Treatment or Tint. It’s a handy product for anyone who likes to travel light or for when you are just popping to the shops with your phone and lip gloss. It’s also extremely vaginal looking. Made out of “silky silicon”, according to the brand, the case is shaped into protruding lips in which the lip gloss snugly nestles. The effect is, as someone on Twitter says, “vaguely pornographic”. Or as one Dazed colleague put it, “this is body horror”.

In releasing this vagina lip gloss phone case, Bieber follows in the hallowed footsteps of other beauty giants like Gwyneth Paltrow and Erykah Badu. Back in 2020, GP released her now infamous vagina candle. Costing $75, ‘This Smells Like My Vagina’ contained notes of Damask rose, ambrette and bergamot and was described by the brand as smelling like “sophisticated warmth”. Shortly after, Badu went one step further by creating an incense that smelled like her “superpower”, AKA her legendary vulva, and was crafted by burning her own underwear.

Meanwhile, “skin scents” continue to rule the fragrance industry. These perfumes are often described in sensual vagina-esque terms: for example, Glossier’s fragrance You, which smells like “that familiar human-y note” that’s “creamy” and “warm”. Or Escentric Molecules’ Molecule 01, which is described by perfumer Geza Schoen as “one of those skin-sexy scents that makes you want to nestle into it”. Some people have even been taking the idea literally and partaking in “vabbing”, AKA using your vaginal secretions as perfume to “activate” your pheromones and attract your soulmate.

While the Rhode phone case perhaps wasn’t consciously intended to evoke visions of pussies (or fleshlights), there has been a long overdue shift in the way vulvas are discussed in the cultural conversation. The once taboo body part – which many people still feel such deep shame and anxiety around – is slowly beginning to become an acceptable – fun, even – topic of discussion and it’s about time.

Bieber meanwhile continues to prove that she is a genuine marketing genius. After dominating the beauty conversation last year with a stream of food-inspired trends – strawberry girl make-up, cinnamon cookie butter hair, the sugar plum fairy look, etc – she has once again sparked a viral beauty moment. The reaction to the phone case has been overwhelmingly positive, with people desperate to get their hands on the cases when they launch to the public on February 27. If you do get your hands on it, you might have to wait a while until you can fill it up as the Lip Tints are currently sold out.