Almost is never enough, because Ariana Grande's r.e.m beauty may have paid tribute to Mac Miller.
The pop star recently launched a 60-shade sweetener concealer line, a cute nod to her fourth studio album, but it's the name of her lip oil that's piquing her fans' interest. Aside from its unique metal tip applicator, fans have discovered that one of the shade names seems to reference "The Way," the chart-topping track Ari and Mac collaborated on in 2013.
Eagle-eyed TikTokers noticed that the lip oil in "Pickin Petals"—a peachy-pink hue with a rosy fragrance—was a reference to Mac's lyric in the song, in which he rapped, "Picking petals off the flowers like / Do she love me, do she love me not? (love me not)."
As user @kaylie_vazquez captioned her video, "when you get the r.e.m. beauty lip oil in 'picking petals' and realize ari keeps dropping us little reminders of mac."
"and his favorite song from her album was R.E.M," one user replied referencing Sweetener, to which another person added, "its the only reason i bought it."
Other TikTokers noted that Mac, who died of an accidental overdose in September 2018 at the age of 26, also released a soundtrack in 2013 titled, "REMember" off his Watching Movies with the Sound Off album.
Before the rapper passed away, Ariana released "R.E.M." for Sweetener in August 2018.
Although the beauty mogul hasn't publicly commented on whether or not her lip oil is an homage to Mac, she has honored him in the past. Many of her tracks off of her last two albums, Thank U, Next and Positions, include mentions of their relationship, which came to an end in early 2018.
In 2019, the "Just Like Magic" singer told Vogue how the loss of her ex-boyfriend was "all-consuming."
"I'm a person who's been through a lot and doesn't know what to say about any of it to myself, let alone the world," she said. "I see myself onstage as this perfectly polished, great-at-my-job entertainer, and then in situations like this, I'm just this little basket-case puddle of figuring it out...I have to be the luckiest girl in the world, and the unluckiest, for sure."
She added, "I'm walking this fine line between healing myself and not letting the things that I've gone through be picked at before I'm ready, and also celebrating the beautiful things that have happened in my life and not feeling scared that they'll be taken away from me because trauma tells me that they will be, you know what I mean?"