Every December, the beauty world eagerly awaits the announcement of Pantone's Color of the Year—a highly anticipated hue that inspires creativity across industries and sets the tone for the incoming year's fashion, design, and beauty trends. For 2025, the wait is finally over: The Pantone Color Institute has just unveiled its 26th Color of the Year, Pantone 17-1230 Mocha Mousse. This soft, versatile brown provides endless opportunities for creativity with its inherent richness, earthly elegance, and comforting warmth. The shade is already inspiring beauty pros, brands, and creators everywhere, from mocha-inspired hair colors to mocha makeup, nail colors, and more.
Ready to bring this trending color to life for your clients in 2025? Read on to learn more about Pantone's Color of the Year and discover seven hair colors ideas inspired by the indulgent essence of this standout hue.
Image: Courtesy of Pantone
What Is Pantone’s Color of the Year for 2025?
The Pantone Color of the Year is meant to capture the global mood, attitude, and collective desire in a single shade, igniting conversations about the relationship between culture and color. While 2024’s Color of the Year (13-1023 Peach Fuzz) reflected our universal longing for closeness and connection, 2025’s Mocha Mousse answers our craving for comfort and warmth. This inviting brown hue taps into the decadent, rich qualities of chocolate and coffee for a soothing yet comforting vibe.
Leatrice Eiseman, Executive Director of the Pantone Color Institute, explains that, “For Pantone Color of the Year 2025, we look to a mellow brown hue whose inherent richness and sensorial and warmth extends further into our desire for comfort, and the indulgence of simple pleasures that we can gift and share with others.”
Image: Courtesy of Pantone
Why Mocha Mousse?
Described as a “thoughtful indulgence,” Mocha Mousse embodies our collective desire for authenticity and the joys of everyday pleasures, making it a universally appealing shade that feels natural yet aspirational. According to Pantone, Mocha Mousse is a versatile color that stands out on its own while serving as the ultimate foundation for a wide variety of color palettes and applications—from intricate designs to minimalist aesthetics.
Mocha Mousse isn’t just a color—it represents a lifestyle centered on embracing personal luxury and intentional living. This “unpretentious classic” encourages us to create meaningful moments of indulgence that evoke feelings of contentment and harmonious comfort throughout the day. Its rich tones are a symbol of approachable luxury, which aligns with the growing emphasis on self-care and inner harmony. Mocha Mousse's warmth and adaptability also make it a standout choice for hair color inspiration, complementing many skin tones and hair types.
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7 Mocha Mousse Hair Colors To Try in 2025
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Toasted White Chocolate Mocha
This chocolate-inspired mocha hair color perfectly captures the spirit of 2025’s Pantone Color of the Year: It’s luxurious-looking with rich, earthy tones that suit a wide range of complexions. To create this trending look, you’ll need warm, chocolate brown roots and high-contrast, bright blonde ends.
Pro Tip: Although this can be a fairly low-maintenance look for your brunette clients, it’s important to send them home with the right at-home color care products to maintain their look (such as Pureology’s Hydrate Shampoo and Conditioner, and Redken Acidic Bonding Concentrate 5-Min Liquid Mask).
Image: Instagram/@lorendoeshair
Mocha Mousse Platinum Money Pieces
Elevate any Mocha Mousse hair color by adding some face-framing platinum blonde money pieces. The contrast between light, cool-toned money pieces and a warm, dark brunette base makes this look edgy yet sophisticated. For the base color, you can consider warm mocha shades like Matrix SoColor Pre-Bonded Permanent Hair Color in 6M Light Brown Mocha, 506M Light Brown Mochada, or 8M Medium Blonde Mocha. Then, add chunky highlights around the face in a cool- or neutral-toned light blonde shade.
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Mocha Mousse Swirl
Ribbons of dimensional, golden caramel and creamy blonde highlights are the epitome of “thoughtful indulgence.” For this look, balayage highlights are strategically placed throughout your clients’ strands in a variety of sizes to create a shimmering hair color with depth, shine, and a sun-kissed glow. This color effortlessly flatters both light and deep skin tones, and looks especially striking on textured hair with natural waves, curls, or coils.
Image: Instagram/hairbyyangie
Dark Espresso Mocha
Deepen the base of your mocha mousse hair color with rich espresso tones to craft a head-turning, sultry look. This dark espresso shade can be extra-flattering on clients with deeper skin tones and adds a touch of drama to any hair color. To recreate this glossy, elegant look, you’ll need a shine-boosting glossing treatment, like Redken Shades EQ Gloss Demi-Permanent Color Hair Toner in 03N Espresso.
Image: Instagram/@_coloraddict
Milky Mocha Balayage
This ultra-dimensional mocha color is inspired by our favorite decadent desserts. It features cool, silvery balayage highlights atop a deep mocha base for a vibe that's equal parts expensive brunette and smoky brunette. To help maintain the look, you'll want to recommend professional at-home toning products to your clients, such as Matrix's Brass Off Blue Shampoo, Conditioner, and All-in-One Toning Spray.
Image: Instagram/@lorendoeshair
Cinnamon Spice Mocha
Trendy brunette clients are likely to fall in love with this low-maintenance copper mocha look inspired by both the cowgirl copper and mocha mousse color trends. To recreate this look, start with a dark brunette base and add hand-painted copper highlights according to your clients' preferences. You can try a copper formula like Matrix SoColor 6RV + 6RC, for example, or Pulp Riot Demi-Permanent Liquid Color 4-5 + 7-4 + 6-6.
Image: Instagram/@glorified.hair
Golden Bronde Mocha
Bronde ("brown blonde") hair is a versatile hair color that sits somewhere between blonde and brown. This gorgeous shade continues to be on-trend and is the ultimate pick for clients seeking a vibrant yet natural-looking hair color. It carefully blends dark and light tones to achieve a sun-kissed shade that gives any client an effortless, lit-from-within glow.
Next Up: How-To: The Sabrina Carpenter Blonde
Header image credit (left to right): Pantone & Instagram/@glorified.hair
