Is Ube the Next Big Beauty Flavor?
Food-inspired beauty is everywhere, but what happens when beauty brands turn cultural foods into an aesthetic?
In 2026, there are endless parallels between what’s on our plates and what’s filling our vanity shelves. Whether its banana-scented lip balms or mango sticky rice perfume, the beauty category has become especially infatuated with food. Because of this, beauty brands are capitalizing on the trendy ingredients that already exist in our daily lattes.
Once matcha cafes began occupying every corner of downtown New York City, a plethora of beauty brands followed suit, offering green-tinted lip masks and earthy body sprays inspired by the ingredient — and therefore, rebranding an ancient Japanese tradition into a symbol of pilates princess-esque wellness. Similarly, ube, a purple yam from the Philippines, has started following a similar trajectory. In addition to popping up in macchiatos at Starbucks, the vegetable also became the center of an entire Huda Beauty collection and earned a spot in Tower 28‘s lip balm lineup — none of which however, make any reference to its Filipino heritage.
Although less recognizable than matcha, experts say the reason brands gravitate towards ube is because of its distinct purple hue. “Ube’s vibrant purple color helps it stand out in a very crowded market. A product that looks as good as it performs is always going to have an advantage, and ube delivers on both fronts,” Annabelle Taurua, beauty expert at Fresha, tells Hypebae. While this visual-first strategy might’ve served the beauty landscape in the past, it seems to directly clash with the mindset of most beauty fans today — which emphasizes transparency and accessibility above all else.
@kristinarodulfo I’m seeing ube EVERYWHERE from headlines in the NYT and BBC to the Starbucks menu… so it’s only a matter of time before we see it on beauty shelves. Here’s what not to do as a beauty brand when making an ube-inspired product. You can’t separate ube from Filipino culture–it’s not just a pretty purple color. And, if you’re a beauty brand that plans to capitalize on the ube “trend” and care about doing it with intention…CALL ME! Ultimately, the best thing we can do is to support filipino-owned brands like @Filipinta Beauty ♬ original sound – Kristina Rodulfo
Like bananas being flattened into artificial-tasting candies and lip balms, ube’s translation into beauty often lands on massive oversimplifications of its original cultural context. For Filipino beauty fans, ube isn’t just a purple flavoring that smells vaguely like vanilla and coconut, despite the fact that beauty brands often make it out to be that way — rather, it’s a central and distinct part of Filipino cuisine. “[Ube] can’t be separated from Filipino culture because ube is Filipino culture,” beauty editor Kristina Rodulfo says. “In the context of beauty, to get it right, you need to mention the Philippines or Filipino culture when you talk about ube.”
Since we’re yet to see a big beauty brand accurately represent its Filipino origins, Rodulfo finds the version of ube that’s currently being sold in Sephora is diluted beyond recognition, solely for aesthetic purposes. “Foods that are important culturally get flattened into a color story and get stripped of their cultural origins. It [turns] into an aesthetic, and it’s not very intentional or mindful of what its origins may be,” she says.
Although the matcha-ification of ube might be inevitable, Rodulfo says that brands have a responsibility to acknowledge where it comes from. “The right way to do it is to pay homage to Filipino culture. Include it in the storytelling, consult with Filipino creators, have Filipino people involved in the conception — whether it’s photography, artwork or design,” she says. “There are so many ways to collaborate with the Filipino community, and to be thoughtful and intentional about respecting the culture.”
In today’s beauty landscape, blind loyalty is increasingly hard to come by. Instead, consumers seek out products rooted in truth and brands that closely align with their own values. So naturally, when a cultural food is diminished into an aesthetically-pleasing color story, beauty fans are quick to point out the inconsistencies. After all, in an industry that thrives on identity, shouldn’t brands be more transparent about the cultures they’re borrowing from?
