After selling their products on the road for years, the pink lips hustlers have moved online.
If you have ever been to Ikeja, 'Ikeja under bridge' to be exact, you would be familiar with the pink lips business.
These hustlers hound thousands of people every day to buy their pink lip products.
"Aunty, pink lips. Bros, fine bros, you wan get pink lips. Pink lips. Pink lips, get pink lips." These are some of the things they say to people from Monday to Saturday.
Anyone who has ever been to this part of Lagos will know these guys. The pink lips boys have become the butt of several jokes in social conversations in Lagos.
In 2013, World Star Hip Hop featured the grimy street trade. Many Nigerians saw the international spotlight as embarrassing.
Most people you ask swear that they can never patronise this business. There have been rumours though that many Nigerian celebrities have artificial pink lips.
A lot more Nigerians are in the pursuit of skin and facial perfection. With this demand, the Ikeja under bridge hustlers have taken their product online. This makes sense as more Nigerians are now active on social media than ever.
Last week, I saw a pink lips ad on Instagram. I thought nothing of it at that time. Today, Tuesday, February 28, 2017, I saw another pink lip advert on Instagram.
I became intrigued and decided to follow the bunny down the rabbit hole. The Instagram account of the pink lips hustler had a WhatsApp number. I reached out to him and he revealed that I could get the pink lip balm for N 5,000 only. Delivery of the balm would be via courier all I had to do was send my bank details.
This is an innovative step from the business that grew under a busy bridge. If a lot of people were shy to walk up to them under the bridge, they can now buy the pink lip balm in private. E-commerce has made this cosmetic patronage discreet.
The hustlers are still under the bridge but some of them are seeing the bigger picture. Nigerians who obsess over beauty can now get pink lips on Instagram with ease.
from pulse.ng - Nigeria's entertainment & lifestyle platform online http://ift.tt/2lSdL4u
via IFTTT
