Pantone has named Mocha Mousse its colour of the year 2025.
The colour authority said the brown hue, also known as Pantone 17-1230, evokes the “delectable quality of cacao, chocolate and coffee” and a desire for comfort.
“Sophisticated and lush, yet at the same time an unpretentious classic, Mocha Mousse, extends our perceptions of the browns, from being humble and grounded to embrace aspirational and luxe,” said Leatrice Eiseman, Executive Director at the Pantone Color Institute.
“Infused with subtle elegance and earthy refinement, [the colour] presents a discrete and tasteful touch of glamour.”
However, social media users have been quick to express their disappointment in the colour choice and the decision by Pantone to allegedly use AI in the video to reveal the shade.
“Finally the color that reflects the world we live in💩,” Stas Shyshkin (@stasonmars), commented in Pantone’s Instagram post detailing the colour.
Katie May Designs (@designsbykmay) wrote: “This is dull, flat, boring, neutral, exactly what we DON’T need going into the new year!!!! And on top of that an AI generated video? Where’s the creativity and passion?”
The online community also felt there was a missed opportunity to tap into the colour green in some form, given its prominence this year through Charli XCX’s ‘Brat’ summer and the movie adaptation of theatre show Wicked.
“Anyone: ‘We want green’. Pantone: ‘that's what you asked for, brown’,” Matteo Mariano (matteo_mariano98) commented.
Mandy Mizell (theflohemian) added: “Huge missed opportunity for emerald green 😂”
Pantone products using the hue
Explained: Pantone’s reasoning for Mocha Mousse
Pantone said Mocha Mousse served as an extension of its previous Colour of the Year choice, Peach Fuzz.
“The colour best able to capture the cultural zeitgeist for 2025 was not going to be a shift in what we were aspiring to, but instead needed to progress and embrace of our Pantone Colour of the Year 2024 Peach Fuzz,” Pantone said in its webinar revealing Mocha Mousse.
Although the colour choice has been criticised, Pantone said it chose the brown shade to match the growing movement to align “more closely with the natural world”.
A statement from the company read: “Characterised by its organic nature, Mocha Mousse honours and embraces the sustenance of our physical environment.
“Imbued with authenticity Pantone 17-1230 Mocha Mousse finds harmony and balance between the demands of modernity and the timeless beauty of artful creation.”
Pantone has also named two beauty businesses the official brand partners for Mocha Mousse.
This includes home fragrance brand Pura, which will launch its hero Pura 4 Diffuser matched to the hue and two custom scents – Mocha Moments and Mocha Suede.
Beauty membership service Ipsy will create an exclusive make-up bag crafted in soft vegan leather, as well as brushes and sponges, in the new colour.
Dsm-firmenich has also unveiled its new Mocha Mousse scent, which was inspired by the new colour.
The perfume blend “opens with cocoa bean, melts into a salted peanut and lingers with vanilla bean”, according to the fragrance maker.
Cosmetics Business has contacted Pantone for comment.
Artwork representing Mocha Mousse
The Cosmetics Business Team weighs in on Pantone’s colour choice
“Pantone’s choice of Mocha Mousse as its colour of the year feels like a grounded, if somewhat muted, reflection of the times.
While I anticipated green to take the spotlight, given the growing influence of bold, rebellious trends like ‘Brat’ and the buzz around the highly anticipated Wicked movie,Mocha Mousse feels subdued, almost a counterbalance.
It is a safe, earthy tone, evoking stability in a world that has felt increasingly unpredictable.
However, some, including me, might find it a dull note to close the year on, lacking the vibrancy that beauty trends often embrace.
Still, Mocha Mousse’s versatility could resonate in cosmetics next year, offering rich, neutral palettes for inclusive and wearable looks.”
Nyima Jobe, Copywriter/Editor
“Mocha Mousse seems to be getting a lot of flack as 2025’s colour of the year, attracting comparisons to ‘mouse’ brown.
Personally, I would have liked to have seen a richer, espresso brown take top billing. It is a shade that translates beautifully to hair colour, nails, audacious lips and – outside of our industry – to interiors’ accents.
Or possibly olive green – olive leather anything is my current obsession.
However, I do see why Pantone has gone in this direction of a warm, comfort-led colour.
The cost of living continues to squeeze, politics has rarely been more polarised and the news feels like one crisis after another, so people are finding cheap comfort in what they can.
If curling up on the sofa with a soothing mug of tea and a slab of Galaxy chocolate had an aura, Mocha Mousse would be it.”
Julia Wray, Head of Editorial
“Pantone’s choice of Mocha Mousse as the hue of 2025 has undoubtedly caused a stir in the industry, with many calling for any shade of green to have taken center stage.
But, the colour giant has missed a trick by not opting for a rich red – a shade it has not dabbled in since earthy red wine Marsala was crowned Colour of the Year in 2015.
Red has been slowly burning in the background, with the ‘burgundy trend’ creeping in as the new neutral in beauty and fashion, while singer Chappell Roan’s drag-inspired glam look has been incorporating rich red at several festivals and events this year.
Plus, social media platform Pinterest has bet on ‘Cherry Coded’ becoming a key theme in beauty and fashion in 2025, with searches for ‘dark cherry red’ up 235% and ‘cherry vibe’ up 325%.”
Amanda May, Acting Editor
“Pantone’s colour choice for 2025 feels too little too late.
We already had our ‘latte girl’ moment back in 2023, and the beauty industry has shown just how adventurous and fun it can be with the rise of ‘Brat’ summer and Wicked greens.
A new take on these verdant shades would have been far more refreshing, and I would have loved to see turquoise or robin egg blue.
Something that evoked the sea or played into something more ethereal and transcendent – moving from this rebellious spirit to something more mysterious and complex.
Instead, Pantone played it safe and ultimately decided to continue pushing its previous colour of the year, Peach Fuzz, again.
Peach Fuzz was not the colour I will remember for 2024, and Mocha Mousse, personally, will become a faded memory for me come January next year.”
Alessandro Carrara, Acting News Editor