Fans went into Ariana Grande‘s R.E.M. pop-up shop in New York City thinking that they were just going to get ice cream, but walked out with an even sweeter surprise.
After spending months abroad in London filming for Jon M. Chu’s Wicked adaptations, the 30-year-old pop star made an unexpected stateside public appearance Tuesday (Aug. 29) for her beauty company’s new foundation line celebration at Morgenstern’s Finest Ice Cream shop in Greenwich Village. The star hid behind the store’s counter until fans entered, then popped up to say hi when they were least suspecting it.
“What can we get you?” she says casually to an unsuspecting fan, who lets out a scream, in a video posted to Grande’s TikTok.
“today made my heart so happy,” the singer-actress captioned another TikTok video of her hugging a couple of tearful fans. “i can’t wait to share more soon but for now… just this. i’ve watched 100 times. thank you for coming to our @r.e.m. beauty ice cream shoppe ! it will be open til Thursday !”
Grande also shared a clip of her waving out her car window to a sea of fans on her Instagram Story, writing, “love you please be careful omg i’m sorry i opened window [sic.] i just wanted to say hello”
The surprise meet-and-greet comes in honor of R.E.M. Beauty’s new Sweetener Foundation line, named after the “God Is a Woman” singer’s Grammy-winning 2018 album. At the Sweetener Shoppe, fans were able to have their skin tone matched to a shade of Grande’s foundation, enjoy complimentary ice cream and snag limited edition merch.
The pop-up also comes as Grande continues celebrating the 10th anniversary of her debut album, Yours Truly. In the past week, she’s shared a series of live performances of songs on the 2013 record, old footage and Q&A videos, all supporting the Aug. 25 release of her Yours Truly special anniversary edition.
Watch Ariana Grande surprise fans at her R.E.M. Beauty event below:
