A stock split is simply an increase of shares outstanding (shares that can be traded by the public + restricted shares for insiders/executives) by a specific multiple that is made possible by a company pulling additional shares from their treasury stock and/or voting to authorize more shares. 10-billion outstanding shares at a price of $20 = 20-billion outstanding shares at a price of $10...aka the market cap is still $200 billion.
But is a stock split simply cosmetic? Well...in terms of market cap a stock split is cosmetic. However, a stock split increases the liquidity of the stock as it becomes more affordable in terms of price, which tends to facilitate more people to enter the market...and facilitates current holder to sell some shares in order to enjoy some of their gains without losing significant positions.
So NO...a stock split is not lipstick on a pig. From a company perspective a stock split can unlock value of a stock because the liquidity leads to more trading which may raise the share value, and hence raise the market cap. A stock split from an investor's perspective is simply cooking a pig...splitting it up in to pieces...and possibly selling some of the pig you are willing to do without in order to see an immediate cash benefit.
