From cranberry makeup to latte undertones, food has been used to describe color palettes and skin tones in beauty all year long. And, while the price of beauty products, and food, increases, brands and influencers—like Rhode Skin’s lip balm-adjacent cinnamon roll tutorial and Nara Smith making moisturizer from beef and beeswax—are using our unscratched grocery items to market to our hunger. But we’re craving more than just food.
To appetize the (almost) edible beauty trends, the Pantone Color Institute announced Mocha Mousse, a rich, brown hue with warm undertones, as Color of the Year for 2025. “[The color] nurtures with its suggestion of the delectable qualities of cacao, chocolate, and coffee, appealing to our desire for comfort,” writes vice president of Pantone, Laurie Pressman.
Each year, Pantone’s winning hue represents the current relationship between culture and color, spanning every industry including beauty. “Underpinned by our desire for everyday pleasures, Mocha Mousse expresses a level of thoughtful indulgence,” says color expert Leatrice Eiseman, Executive Director at Pantone.
More than just our desire for food and beauty, the color, numbered 17-1230, satiates our thirst for shade-inclusivity in an industry which often deserts darker skin tones. Mocha Mousse can be seen as a response to 2024’s Peach Fuzz shade, which received backlash for the obvious resemblance to white skin.
“A light shade of orange, with an evocative name that immediately recalls human touch (in perhaps a too specifically white skin range), has been chosen to represent the desire of meeting in real life,” wrote Vogue India in 2023. Meanwhile, a number of comments on Pantone’s social media announcement called the peach hue “tone deaf” and an “out of touch color.”
Now, the deep, natural shade of Mocha Mousse represents the inclusion of brown as a form of sustainable beauty. Selected to extend our perception of browns, the color’s rich, creamy hue is meant to be an “unpretentious classic” and “tasteful touch of glamor” spotted throughout fashion month’s spring/summer 2025 season.
So, with 2025 a few weeks ahead, closing the year with your best chocolate and coffee-toned beauty looks should be on your “in’s” list for the holidays.
