Lollipops, pink champagne and iced biscuits were all on offer for the MAC make-up bash in Brown Thomas on Tuesday night. As it turned out, New York drag queen Ru Paul was the confection the 800 revellers had squeezed into the store to see.
Ru Paul didn't disappoint: he fluffed his lines, getting host Pat O'Mahony's name wrong twice, but with a gravity-defying bouffant hairdo, and a black dress split up to the hip, he merited enthusiastic forgiveness. Almost. "With legs like that, he deserves to be hated," RTE's Brenda Donoghue was heard to mutter.
MAC "all sexes, all ages, all races" was celebrating the opening of its store in Brown Thomas, and also the donation of £10,000 from the proceeds of their Viva Glam lipstick to the Dublin Aids Alliance - thus the presence of an assortment of Irish models wearing lashings of lipstick and very little else.
Enjoying the spectacle was former Head To Toe presenter Barbara McMahon, who dispensed top make-up tips such as "it's all in the application". Designers Richard Lewis and Jen Kelly joined director of the Brown Thomas group Deirdre Kelly in the throng.
Boyzone manager Louis Walsh was seen chatting with a group that included Def Leppard's Rik Savage, Cindy Cafolla, Caroline Downey and Robbie Fox. Louis, it transpired, is looking for someone "really special" to star in the band's new video: lead singer Ronan Keating fancies Cindy Crawford for the job.
Meanwhile, Louis's latest proteges, The Carter Twins, are gearing up for their role in the Mother Goose pantomime at the Gaiety in December.
In another corner of the store, Ru Paul, all 6 foot 5 inches of him, was sharing his thoughts on the death of Princess Diana but couldn't say too much for fear the mascara on his fake eyelashes would run. "Could we change the subject?" he asked plaintively. Later, as the group relaxed in the Eden restaurant in Temple Bar, MAC founder Frank Toskan informed fellow diners he had spent the day searching Dublin's Francis Street for some art-deco booty to decorate his Toronto home. And ensuring at least one more convert, he told On The Town that "Irish girls are so pretty they don't need to wear much make-up."