Running, sweat, and lipstick: Inside SUGAR’s unscripted marathon test

What if I told you to run a full 42 km marathon wearing a lipstick that promises not to smudge? Well, well, well… SUGAR just went ahead and did it.

Four days before the Tata Mumbai Marathon, a simple but uncomfortable question surfaced inside Kaushik Mukherjee, co-founder and COO of SUGAR Cosmetics' mind: What does “long-lasting” really mean? Not under ring lights or controlled shots, but in 84% humidity, sweat-soaked kilometres, energy gels, salt, oranges, and four hours of continuous movement.

Instead of turning it into a campaign, the brand decided to test the truth of its claim quietly.

Vineeta Singh, SUGAR’s co-founder, wore the lipstick herself while running her 15th Mumbai Marathon. No filters. No touch-ups. And crucially, no guarantees.

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“We weren’t trying to prove anything to the world,” says Kaushik Mukherjee, co-founder and COO. “We just wanted to see if it would actually last.”

Not a campaign. A curiosity

The idea wasn’t born overnight. For over a decade, SUGAR has optimised its formulations to suit Indian conditions, including heat, humidity, long commutes, and public transport. 

Smudging has consistently emerged as a consumer anxiety, whether it’s lipstick transferring onto a coffee cup or makeup fading midway through the day.

But a marathon felt different. Brutal, unscripted, and unforgiving.

The thought had briefly crossed Mukherjee’s mind during HYROX Mumbai last year, a high-energy fitness event with strong female participation. He parked it until the marathon loomed closer. Just 96 hours before race day, the conversation resurfaced.

Vineeta was sceptical. “She said it would be a mess,” Mukherjee recalls. “Sweat, biting lips, drinking gels – it's chaos.” The response was simple: if it fails, it fails. But what if it doesn’t?

The product head on SUGAR’s founding team was quietly confident. That confidence tipped the scale.

No influencers, no brief, just runners

What followed was less marketing planning and more gut calls. With no time—or intent—to run a traditional influencer play, Mukherjee reached out directly to women from the running community via Instagram DMs.

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The task was disarmingly honest: This is a little crazy. Vineeta is running. Want to try this with us?

They said yes.

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Within days, nearly two dozen women signed up across distances—10K, 21K, and the full marathon. Some even joined on race morning after spotting the group. Makeup was applied. Then came the run.

They showed up.

They ran.

They were sweating.

They finished.

And when they crossed the finish line, the makeup was still on.

Did this really work?

There was no official marathon partnership. No branded arch. No content checklist. And that’s precisely why the moment resonated.

In an industry that still largely positions makeup as “glam-first”, this experiment reframed it as life-first, everyday, functional, and confidence-led. Not reserved for occasions, but built for movement, ambition, and active lives.

“For the first time, it really hit us,” Mukherjee reflects. “Can SUGAR be part of someone’s journey, not just their look?”

How SUGAR is playing in the sports arena

This wasn’t SUGAR’s first brush with sport-led communities, though the approach has evolved. In May last year, the brand partnered with Nike for the After Dark Run in Mumbai, a women-only 10K night race that leaned more formally into fitness and participation. 

By contrast, the marathon experiment was informal and largely unscripted, signalling a shift in how SUGAR engages with sporting moments. 

Instead of branding-heavy associations, the brand appears to be testing a more incidental presence, showing up where its users already are, rather than building a campaign around the event itself.

The LinkedIn post documenting the experiment struck a chord because it didn’t feel manufactured. It felt like a brand letting real life test its promise and being okay with whatever the outcome was.