9 Food-Inspired Beauty Products That Are (Almost) Good Enough to Eat
When you wander through a mall, chances are, one of the first things you notice are the smells designed to lure you into each store. Since scent is the most powerful of the human senses, and research shows it's most closely linked to memory, retailers commonly use a practice called scent-marketing to make their products more memorable.
Beauty companies have long used this practice with body scrubs and lotions, but now more makeup brands are doing the same, creating products that take on the smell and/or the appearance of food. To take it one step further, some companies are even creating vegan products that are solely made of organic materials, utilizing those strong scents, and in some cases, flavors that are safe enough to eat. Although we don't advise actually consuming them, here are some of our favorite food-inspired beauty products.
1. TooFaced Sweet Peach Eyeshadow Palette
This versatile palette features 18 pigmented shades of brown and peachy hues. Fun fact: Each shade is intended to represent the different layers of a peach—nectar-filled center, fuzzy ombre skin, and everything in between. To make things even sweeter, the shadows actually smell like peaches—one bold reviewer even said it tastes good, becoming the first literal “consumer” of this product.
2. Bath & Body Works Gingerbread Latte Super Smooth Body Lotion
Between its candles, soaps, and lotions, Bath & Body Works is probably the grandmaster of mouthwatering scents. Gingerbread Latte is a seasonal favorite and contains a blend of tantalizing smells, including warm spiced gingerbread, frosted pear, and brown sugar.
3. Lush Cup O’ Coffee Face and Body Mask
Need a kickstart to your day? This face and body mask is made entirely from freshly ground coffee beans, so you can trust that sweet roasted cocoa aroma is 100 percent authentic. The mask also contains kaolin, a naturally-occurring clay, which cleanses beneath the surface level of pores for a deep clean. One application will leave your skin bright, smooth, and glowing, which is how most of us feel after that first cup of morning coffee.
4. TooFaced It’s Bananas! Setting Powder
This pressed powder is bananas, inside and out. Part of TooFaced’s Tutti Frutti collection, the banana-scented powder is yellow in color (which neutralizes redness on fair skin), and features actual bananas on the outside of the compact and in the powder itself.
5. Sinful Colors Sweet & Salty Nail Polish Collection
This savory limited-edition collection features six nail polish colors that look and smell like their food inspirations. Take Taco Tuesday, which has a golden base and flecks of red, green, white and yellow. There’s also Cheese Puff, which is, you guessed it, flaming orange. Chocolate Cake and Cookies & Cream are followed by Donut Even and Pizza Party, all which represent its respective food pairing honorably.
6. 100% Pure Fruit Pigmented Lip Gloss
100% Pure creates products that are made solely from food products—meaning you can actually eat them, and when you do, they taste good. This Fruit Pigmented Lip Gloss is made with restorative vitamin E and real fruit pigments, so instead of a generic “berry” flavor lip gloss, it’s made of actual berries.
7. Lush Honey Trap Lip Balm
We all know we’re not supposed to eat our lip balm, but there’s just something so satisfying about applying a lip balm and having it taste good. This honey, white chocolate, and vanilla-filled lip balm is formulated with cocoa and shea butters for a hydrated (and delicious) pout.
8. 100% Pure Fruit Pigmented Ultra Lengthening Mascara
Mascara probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when you think of food-inspired products, but this waterproof mascara uses natural pigments from black tea, berries, and cocoa to help you achieve luscious lashes. Even the four shade names are food-inspired: blueberry (denim blue), black tea (midnight black), blackberry (deep neutral purple), and dark chocolate (deep cocoa brown).
9. Edible Beauty Essentials Set
Edible Beauty’s approach to age-defying skincare uses edible ingredients, because as Edible Beauty Australia founder Anna Mitsios says, “You absorb 60 percent of what goes on your skin.” This ideal starter set includes a cleansing milk, serum, and night cream, all of which are completely vegan and organic.
