The Lip Bar and Kash Doll Drop Lip Kit

Detroit beauty entrepreneur Melissa Butler has teamed up with rapper and actress Kash Doll for The Last Doll Lip Kit, a limited-edition collection that marks the artist’s first-ever beauty collaboration.

Launched October 15, the $55 set is available exclusively through The Lip Bar’s website. The collaboration has been two years in the making, with Kash Doll personally selecting the shades alongside Butler and the brand’s team.

The collection features three custom lip products: Straight Line Lip Liner in Never Pressed, Long Haul Lipstick in Run It Up and Gloss Up Shimmer Gloss in Shopping Spree. Each product is packaged in a custom marbled pink box featuring TLB x Kash Doll branding.

Designed to deliver a polished lip look, the liner features a precision tip and a creamy, velvet-matte finish intended to provide full color in a single swipe. Its formula includes jojoba oil, aloe vera, coconut oil and vitamin E. The liner is also smudge-proof, water-resistant, vegan and cruelty-free. Kash Doll has named the shimmer gloss as her favorite product in the collection.

For Butler, the collaboration represents another milestone in the journey of a beauty company she built from the ground up. After studying business finance at Florida A&M University and working as a stockbroker on Wall Street, the Detroit native began experimenting with lipstick formulas in her Brooklyn kitchen. Frustrated by the lack of diversity in the beauty industry and concerns about ingredients in conventional cosmetics, she launched The Lip Bar in 2012.

The entrepreneur faced a major setback in 2015 when she appeared on Shark Tank and all five investors passed on the business. Despite being encouraged to give up, Butler continued building the brand, eventually relocating the company to Detroit. Three years later, The Lip Bar secured placement at Target, marking a significant turning point in its growth. The brand has since expanded its retail presence to Walmart and Meijer.

The partnership with Kash Doll also grew out of a genuine connection to the brand. The two had discussed collaborating for years, but a chance encounter at a Detroit Pistons game helped move the idea forward. Butler recalled seeing Kash Doll carrying The Lip Bar’s gloss and immediately recognizing an opportunity to work together.

Kash Doll had already been a longtime customer, as had her mother, who particularly loved the brand’s red lipstick. Seeing The Lip Bar products on Target shelves also inspired the rapper to explore entrepreneurship and build her own business ventures.

For the collection, Kash Doll tested shades in stores, took samples home and shared them with her makeup artist before finalizing the selections. The process was rooted in creating products that reflected her personal style while remaining accessible to the brand’s core audience.

Butler emphasized that the collection was designed with Black women and consumers with brown skin in mind, continuing The Lip Bar’s commitment to representation in beauty. Kash Doll described the desired effect as a combination of confidence and softness—a look that feels both understated and unapologetically bold.

Beyond the products themselves, the collaboration celebrates two Detroit women building businesses on their own terms. Kash Doll also praised Butler for creating a company grounded in integrity, professionalism and genuine care for its customers.

With The Last Doll Lip Kit, The Lip Bar continues to connect its Detroit roots with a broader beauty audience, while Kash Doll takes her first official step into a beauty collaboration with a brand she has supported for years.

Shop the collection at TheLipBar.com.

By Donovan Moore
D.M. Fashion Book

Photos: The Lip Bar/Kash Doll