Why Everything in Beauty Is Suddenly Named for Food—and What It Means

Food moves into beauty

Food references are showing up in both product marketing and beauty trends. Examples include Rhode’s donut campaign with Krispy Kreme, Tower 28’s Jell-O lip collection and Glow Recipe’s Buldak-flavored lip balms.

Consumers and brands also link food with looks such as jam nails and cherry cola hair. The article notes that this is happening as GLP-1s and diet trends bring food-related concerns into beauty routines.

A taste of indulgence

Food-focused beauty can work through sensory association. The article compares it with mukbang videos, a trend originating in South Korea, where creators film themselves eating and cameras emphasize food’s textures.

A dessert-scented perfume can evoke that experience through smell, while a product name may prompt the association without a scent. Both offer an imagined form of indulgence without consuming calories.

Beauty and eating overlap

Beauty language already borrows from food and drink: skincare is called “food for skin,” skin can be described as “thirsty” or “quenched,” and products are said to “purge.” Lotions, pigments and lip gloss also make direct contact with the body. That physical closeness, the article argues, can narrow the psychological distance between beauty and eating. Lip gloss may even be tasted, though it contains no calories.

The trend’s limits

Food-inspired shades are not inherently problematic, and positive associations with beauty products might ease some people’s aversion to food. The article says there is no reason to avoid matcha nails, milk tea hair or a strawberry glaze lip treatment solely because of their names.

But a beauty look cannot stand in for actual food. As the article puts it, cherry cola hair cannot replace the taste of real cherry cola.