Colours tell stories. They reflect cultural shifts, shape creative decisions, and provide a glimpse into the collective mood. For 2025, Mocha Mousse by Pantone and Future Dusk by Coloro and WGSN bring two distinct narratives to life—each with the potential to influence the fragrance industry in unique ways.
Mocha Mousse embodies grounding comfort and tactile pleasure, while Future Dusk delves into introspection, transformation, and bold experimentation. Building on our 2024 analysis, the first newsletter of the year offers a brief exploration of how these hues might inspire fragrance profiles, packaging innovation, and the campaigns shaping the year ahead.
MOCHA MOUSSE - PANTONE
Overview
The Pantone Colour of the Year 2025, Mocha Mousse (17-1230), captures a shared desire for comfort and connection. This rich, grounding brown, inspired by the indulgence of chocolate and coffee, bridges the gap between sophistication and familiarity. It reimagines brown as a versatile and aspirational shade, offering balancing qualities while remaining modern and versatile.
Evolving from the soft, tactile charm of Peach Fuzz (Pantone’s 2024 Colour of the Year), Mocha Mousse deepens the textural narrative, introducing a balanced warmth and airy softness. This nuanced character aligns with our Sensoryscaping trend, which celebrates the blending of experiences, textures, and scents to craft products and environments that feel harmonious and emotionally resonant.
Rooted in the simple pleasures of daily life, the colour invites calm and understated luxury, providing a strong foundation for creating products and spaces suited to a world increasingly drawn to balance and connection.
Ingredients
Mocha Mousse aligns with a shift in gourmand fragrances toward a more refined, culinary-inspired direction. This evolution reflects the fragrance industry’s growing focus on complexity and subtlety, moving away from overt sweetness to explore more sophisticated pairings.
As discussed during our collaboration with Michael Nordstrand at ScentXplore, these gourmet profiles take inspiration from gastronomy, balancing indulgence with refinement. Bitter cacao and roasted coffee gain depth when paired with savoury elements or unexpected notes. Bright citrusy accents introduce freshness, while “new” spices such as Sumac or aromatic seeds like coriander can be explored for a contemporary twist.
Thoughtful, layered scents are poised to gain traction— think daring notes and umami nuances. Creamy foundations provide a velvety feel, echoing Mocha Mousse’s tactile warmth.
Packaging
Mocha Mousse packaging embodies timeless luxury crafted to endure, combining high-quality, sustainable materials with refined, textured finishes. Velvety matte surfaces, soft embossing, and lightly patterned details evoke the tactile essence of the colour, while artisanal craftsmanship ensures a premium look and feel.
Designs should elevate everyday rituals, enhancing the consumer experience through thoughtful features like refillable, keepsake bottles, magnetic closures, or multi-layered openings that build anticipation and delight. Translucent accents paired with metallic highlights can enhance shelf appeal, emphasising luxury and drawing attention to key product features such as ingredient visibility or branding. Incorporating recyclable or bio-based materials reinforces sustainability without compromising elegance. Mocha Mousse packaging invites touch and interaction, blending a sense of comforting familiarity with a modern, elevated aesthetic.
Campaigns
Campaigns for this shade could highlight themes of warmth and connection, presenting everyday moments as an understated luxury. Visual storytelling can centre on personal rituals, tactile experiences, and the simple pleasure of daily comforts, using soft tones and warm lighting.
To deepen engagement, blending digital and physical storytelling can create innovative touchpoints—AR/VR activations, curated soundscapes, or ASMR-inspired videos bring the sensory richness of Mocha Mousse to life, while collaborations with chefs, food artists or cutting-edge culinary platforms could introduce you to a whole new audience.
FUTURE DUSK - WGSN x COLORO
Overview
Future Dusk (129-35-18) by Coloro and WGSN is a deep, atmospheric blend of blue and purple that captures the tension of transition—from dark to light, dusk to dawn. It is mysterious and evocative and offers a modern take on classic dark blue.
Resonating with a growing cultural fascination for darker, gothic aesthetics (we’ve been discussing it on Instagram for months), Future Dusk mirrors a collective turn inward. It invites introspection and transformation, both as a comforting anchor and a portal to the unknown.
Ingredients
Fragrances inspired by Future Dusk explore the intersection of spiritual exploration and mental wellbeing. At ScentXplore, Nordstrand also presented an accord featuring incense paired with an aquatic floral note, somehow blending the restorative power of water with mystical depth and spiritual wellness.
Drawing on our Alchemical Herbalism trend, deeper herbal and mineral facets—such as smoky vetiver, wormwood, or black tea—form an earthy foundation. Resinous notes like labdanum and benzoin, paired with soft, nostalgic touches of violet or heliotrope, add a contemplative depth.
On a more subversive note, Future Dusk resonates with nocturnal energy. Smoky leather, black oud, and metallic accents conjure an underground aesthetic, while bitter nuances like black coffee, liquorice, or absinthe add a darkly sophisticated edge. Icy aquatic notes and airy (or eerie?) ambers create dynamic contrasts, adding intrigue and movement.
Packaging
Future Dusk invites designers to embrace mystery and transformation through bold, unconventional packaging. Experiment with light-responsive elements like lenticular effects or UV-reactive coatings that shift appearance under different conditions, capturing the dynamic essence of dusk. Textural innovations—such as velvety flocking, perforated overlays, or etched metals—can create a tactile connection while reflecting the shade’s layered depth.
To reinforce the theme of transition, consider packaging that physically evolves, such as bottles with removable outer shells revealing intricate inner designs or refillable components with gradient colour fades. Smoked or tinted glass, paired with asymmetric forms or fragmented shapes, can evoke a sense of mystery and otherworldliness.
Sustainability can take on a futuristic edge with materials like bioluminescent inks, upcycled composites, or dissolvable packaging for single-use products. These solutions not only innovate but also resonate with modern consumer values, aligning with Future Dusk’s introspective and transformative identity.
The goal is to create packaging that feels like an artefact of discovery—something that intrigues, surprises, and reflects the enigmatic qualities of this atmospheric shade.
Campaigns
Campaigns for Future Dusk explore transformation, mystery, and introspection. Visuals can contrast shadow and light through cinematic storytelling, while messaging highlights spiritual wellbeing, inner exploration, and moments of quiet reflection.
Pop culture serves as a rich source of inspiration, offering opportunities for collaborations that resonate deeply with contemporary audiences. Partnerships with emerging filmmakers, avant-garde designers, or even influential gaming platforms can create immersive, culturally relevant narratives. Multi-sensory campaigns—such as ASMR-inspired content, AR/VR experiences, or experiential installations—invite audiences to step into the introspective and transformative world of Future Dusk, blurring the lines between reality and imagination.
By drawing from both cultural trends and personal emotions, campaigns can position Future Dusk as a colour that embodies the balance between self-discovery and creative experimentation.
In 2025, Mocha Mousse and Future Dusk offer new perspectives for creative innovation. Mocha Mousse grounds us in tactile refinement, adding warmth and meaning to daily rituals, while Future Dusk embraces transformation and the depth of self-discovery. These hues challenge us to rethink how fragrance, packaging, and storytelling can reflect the emotional and cultural shifts of our time, sparking designs that feel both relevant and resonant.