Last night, MAC Cosmetics took over a Carnaby Street pub to celebrate the upcoming World AIDS Day. With Terry Barber behind the bar serving pints, 1200 condoms strewn across every available surface, and Dazed Beauty Community member Harry Freegard in his usual resplendent finery manning the decks, however, The MAC Arms was not your everyday local.

Guests such as Ellen Von Unwerth, Maxim Magnus, Gareth Pugh, Munroe Bergdorf and Wilson Oryema mingled and feasted on pub-staple fish and chips while DJs, including Gui Rosa, Reba & Jess Maybury and Kim Turnbull, ensured the music kept rolling and the guests kept dancing.

This coming together to mark World AIDS Day is nothing new for MAC who have long supported those living with HIV/AIDS – a cause close to the brand’s heart. In 1994, founders Frank Angelo and Frank Toskan set up the MAC AIDS Fund, a philanthropic arm of the company financed by their VIVA Glam lipsticks of which all sale proceeds go to the fund. To date, the campaign has raised more than $490 million and every year on December 1, MAC employees participate in volunteer initiatives around the world to support the community.

“With the sales of the VIVA Glam lipsticks every day is World AIDS Day at MAC,” says Senior MAC Make-up Artist Dominic Skinner. “But when it is World AIDS Day we go big, so we have taken over a pub and we are bringing all our friends and family over to really celebrate the occasion and the MAC AIDS Fund.”

Covering the party for us was Dazed Beauty favourite, Maxim Magnus who was sporting a beautiful red lip – courtesy of VIVA Glam 1. “Red lipstick is back. It’s so big, so bold, so chic,” Dominic says. Firm faves include Russian Red, a bright almost orange-red; Ruby Woo, a deep velvet Hollywood blue-red; and VIVA Glam 1 a deep dark Parisian red.

“The thing about make-up is, there are no rules,” says Dominic. “There is no wrong look in make-up. What your idea of beauty is, is the only true beauty. Make-up is purely self-expression, it’s a belief system. There is no right or wrong, make-up makes people look on the outside, how they feel on the inside and create the person they’ve always believed they are.”