“In fact, none of the products can really be categorized as ube-inspired, as they just turn into a cool pink once you’ve applied it on the skin. My friend Kristina Rodulfo — a Filipino-American beauty editor and content creator — sums it up brilliantly in Pearl, her Substack: ‘Ube in nature has more of a rich, violet hue instead of Huda’s light, pinky-pastel interpretation,’ she wrote. ‘The product description says it’s inspired by Huda’s tradition of celebrating her birthday with an ube cake every year, but it does not mention ube’s origins or the Philippines.’ In a separate Instagram video, Kattan does mention that she was first introduced to ube by the Filipino community in Dubai, but this information is not included in the press release.
