Kitchen To Vanity: Why Your Skincare Suddenly Smells Like Your Breakfast

“I don’t know who needs to hear this, but if your serum doesn’t have Vitamin C, honey, coffee, then…” wait, what? You’ve probably scrolled past reels like these, where an influencer rattles off a perfectly memorised script about how this ingredient you were happily sipping at a cafe has suddenly become their holy-grail skincare product. But why and how does it really happen? And can we say that everything eventually trickles down from the kitchen to the vanity, and does it even have to?

From what I’ve observed, it’s cultural diffusion — a concept introduced by Leo Frobenius in his 1897-98 work Der westafrikanische Kulturkreis. In simple words, it’s the process of cultural change where elements of one culture (say, the food and beverage industry) get adopted into another (like beauty). But the real question is that why does this adoption feel so much more intense right now?

Part of the answer lies in what’s called the Health Halo effect, where marketing gives an impression that an ingredient is inherently good for you, even if there’s little to no scientific evidence backing it. The claim could be weak, but, for example since we’ve grown up hearing how, say haldi is great for our health, we automatically believe it must work wonders for our skin too. Add to that the sudden boom in wellness trends and, of course, the megaphone of social media (where most of this frenzy begins) —and you’ve got the perfect recipe for kitchen ingredients making their way to your skincare shelf.

The Menu Adoption Cycle (MAC) actually has a lot to do with this whole kitchen-meets-beauty phenomenon. While the cycle originally explains how foods become trends through menus, it fits surprisingly well into how the beauty industry picks them up, too. Here’s how it goes:

- Inception: Chefs love to experiment — they mix, match, research, subtract, and basically do all the math to come up with something they hope and manifest will be loved by us all. That sudden appearance of ingredients like activated charcoal, vanilla, rosemary, blueberry, or yes, matcha, is where it all begins.

- Adoption: Adoption today looks very different from a decade ago. It’s a blend of offline and online, but now, what social media embraces, the world embraces. These ingredients may first pop up on restaurant menus, but soon enough, they’re splashed across Pinterest boards before they ever hit billboards.

- Ubiquity: This is the stage where the ingredient is everywhere. It’s loved, critiqued, repurposed, even hated —but it’s undeniably present. Suddenly, skincare aisles are overflowing with Vitamin C serums, matcha masks, rice water cleansers, and beetroot lip balms. Coincidence? Not quite. That’s just MAC in action.

- Proliferation: Finally, the ingredient goes mainstream. It’s no longer just a passing trend—everyone knows the name. From here, it either cements its place for good… or gets forgotten (maybe also for good).

Coming back to wellness — it’s not just a lifestyle anymore, it’s a full-blown trend. And honestly, who didn’t want that? Looking happy, healthy, wise, and bright has become the new craze. Take matcha, for instance (yes, again). It’s been around for centuries, got its big break in the U.S. years ago, and only now are we in India truly catching up. Sure, many complain it tastes like grass, but hardcore matcha lovers will insist on trying ceremonial, pure, authentic matcha made the right way.

Now, while health culture and social media are the obvious drivers of this popularity, there’s another factor at play: sensory marketing. It’s where flavours turn into feelings. Suddenly, sipping something green isn’t just about taste—it’s about the emotion it represents. And thoughts like “if everyone else is into it, who am I to dismiss it?” creep in more often than we admit. 

And since we’re talking social media, let’s not forget the role of aesthetic amplification. The glorification of everyday products— the dreamy “just stirring my glass” reels, the sunkissed GRWMs, the close-ups of fruity, chocolaty, lemony products — all add to the hype. Ironically, many of these “trending” ingredients are the same ones we’ve been happily consuming at our local cafes all along.

There’s a lot happening at the intersection of economy, psychology, food & beverages, and beauty — but what really makes you stop and think is when one ingredient suddenly pops up everywhere. You’re drinking it, you’re applying it, it’s in your kitchen and on your vanity. One minute your favourite chef is whisking it into your latte, the next it’s listed on the back of your toner.

With home remedies, at least, we know what we’re mixing into our face packs. But with the beauty industry, that’s where it gets murky, sometimes; Are these ingredients really coming straight from the kitchen — or is it just clever marketing? And most importantly, how much of the ingredient actually goes into the product compared to how loudly it’s advertised?

Those are the questions worth keeping in mind for consumers like us.