If your skincare shelf has been all about Korean glass skin and French pharmacy staples, it might be time to make room for a new category: Japanese upcycled beauty. Enter HAKOME by umabi, a rice fermentation skincare line that draws on centuries-old Japanese food culture to deliver deeply hydrated, “just-steamed-rice” dewy skin with barrier-supporting care. After digging into the brand’s philosophy and testing the logic behind its formulas, here’s why this collection deserves a spot in your routine — and why the story behind it might matter just as much as the results.
What Is HAKOME, Exactly?
The name HAKOME is a portmanteau of two Japanese words: HAKKO, meaning fermentation, and KOME, meaning rice. Together, they capture the entire philosophy of the collection: take one of Japan’s most revered culinary traditions — fermentation and rice — and translate its skin benefits into a modern skincare routine.
Anyone who has spent time in Japan may have heard that toji, the master brewers of sake, are known for their remarkably soft, smooth hands, thanks to years of working closely with fermenting rice. It’s a charming piece of folklore, and fermented rice by-products are known to contain amino acids, vitamins, and other moisture-binding components, which is the inspiration behind HAKOME. The line is specially designed for hydration, working to help support the skin’s moisture barrier, so it stays comfortable against everyday external stressors, from dry air-conditioning to hazy days. The payoff, according to the brand, is plump, dewy skin that looks (and feels) like fluffy, freshly cooked rice.
The Brand Story: Beauty Born from “Umami”
To understand HAKOME, you first have to understand umabi, the brand behind it. The name umabi is itself a fusion — combining “umami (旨味),” the savory essence of flavor prized in Japanese cuisine, with “bi (美),” meaning beauty. That fusion isn’t just a clever naming trick; it’s the entire mission statement condensed into one word.
umabi describes itself as a made-in-Japan upcycled skincare brand, initiated in Singapore, with a mission to share “the delicious and beautiful aspects of Japan” with the world. The brand practices upcycling in the truest sense: giving overlooked materials a second life as skincare with real, added value. Instead of sourcing brand-new raw ingredients, umabi looks to Japan’s food industry for:
- Vegetables, fruits, and flowers considered imperfect or unmarketable to sell
- Nutrient-rich byproducts left over from food processing and manufacturing
From these overlooked materials, umabi extracts nourishing components for the skin, closing the loop between Japan’s food culture and its beauty industry. It’s a rare kind of sustainability story — one where the “waste not, want not” ethos of Japanese cooking is applied directly to skincare formulation.
This upcycling philosophy extends beyond the formulas themselves. umabi’s full-size packaging uses kome-kami, an upcycled paper made from inedible rice, chosen as a more sustainable alternative to conventional packaging. That same eco-conscious approach carries through to the smaller sizes, too — mini packaging is made with a separate eco-conscious paper containing bagasse pulp, a fibrous byproduct of sugarcane processing that would otherwise go to waste. Whether you’re picking up a full-size bottle or a travel-friendly mini, the packaging in your hands is built from agricultural leftovers rather than virgin plastic. Even the visual identity leans into ingredients like sake kasu (fermented rice lees), rice bran, and other traditional byproducts, referencing the Japanese culinary heritage the brand pulls from. The result is a brand built around its own take on sanpo-yoshi, the traditional Japanese merchant philosophy of “three-way good”: good for your skin, visually beautiful, and kind to the planet.
Ingredients: Fermentation Meets Hydration Science
Unlike many brands that keep formulas vague, umabi is refreshingly transparent — publishing the complete ingredient list for every HAKOME product directly on its site, with upcycled and ethical ingredients bolded so shoppers can see exactly what they’re paying for.
Rice Ferment Hydrating Jelly Cleanser is built on water, butylene glycol, and Saccharomyces/Rice Ferment Filtrate as its top three ingredients — meaning the rice ferment is one of the most concentrated ingredients in the formula, not just a marketing footnote. It’s rounded out by 3 rice-derived ingredients (including Oryza Sativa Rice Lees Extract and Oryza Sativa Rice Bran Extract) and 7 upcycled/ethical ingredients sourced across Japan, such as Citrus Nobilis (Mandarin Orange) Peel Extract, Perilla Frutescens Leaf Extract, Hibiscus Esculentus (Okra) Fruit Extract, and Aphanothece Sacrum Polysaccharides — a moisture-binding ingredient derived from a rare freshwater algae native to Kyushu, prized as a delicacy since the Edo period and known for its remarkable water-holding capacity. The formula is free from 7 common additives and its full-size box is made from kome-kami (upcycled rice paper) packaging.
Rice Ferment Multi-Tasking Watery Cream follows the same philosophy at a richer level: water, then Saccharomyces/Rice Ferment Filtrate, sit as the top two ingredients. The cream layers in 7 rice-derived ingredients — including Oryza Sativa Rice Lees Extract, Oryza Sativa Rice Bran Extract, Glucosyl Ceramide, and Alpha-Glucan — alongside 6 upcycled/ethical ingredients such as Molasses, Prunus Lannesiana (Cherry Blossom) Flower Extract, and the same Aphanothece Sacrum Polysaccharides. It’s also built with a five-ceramide complex (NG, AP, AG, NP, EOP), squalane, and sodium hyaluronate for barrier support and moisture retention, and is free from 8 common additives.
Both are vegan formulation, patch-tested, and roughly 95%+ naturally derived per ISO16128 standards — a level of ingredient transparency that’s genuinely rare in the “clean beauty” space.
The Real Draw: A Story You Can Feel Good About
What sets HAKOME apart from the sea of “hydrating rice cream” products already on the market isn’t just the formula — it’s the traceability of the story behind it. umabi isn’t borrowing rice imagery for aesthetic appeal; it’s using literal food industry byproducts that would otherwise be overlooked, and channeling the proceeds toward ingredients tied to environmental initiatives. For beauty consumers increasingly fatigued by vague “clean beauty” marketing, that level of specificity is refreshing.
There’s also something quietly compelling about a Japanese-rooted, Singapore-launched brand bridging two beauty markets that both prize glass-like, hydrated skin as the gold standard. HAKOME doesn’t try to reinvent skincare; it takes a genuinely Japanese cultural touchstone — fermented rice — and builds a focused, two-step hydration ritual around it.
Who Should Try HAKOME?
This collection will likely resonate most with:
- Anyone whose skin tends to feel unsettled with changes in weather, stress, or seasons, and who wants a gentle, hydration-first routine to come back to
- Fans of Japanese and Korean fermented skincare (think sake-based or rice-water formulas) who want to try a next-generation, upcycled take on the category
- Sustainability-conscious shoppers who want their beauty purchases to reflect their values without sacrificing performance
- Anyone chasing that dewy, “just had 8 hours of sleep” glow without heavy, greasy layers
Final Thoughts
HAKOME by umabi is a rare case where the ingredient story, the sustainability story, and the actual product experience all point in the same direction. It’s rice fermentation skincare done with intention — sourced from Japan’s food industry, packaged in upcycled and eco-conscious paper, and formulated around the time-honoured Japanese tradition of fermented rice.. If you’ve been searching for a hydrating, barrier-supporting routine with a genuinely sustainable backstory, HAKOME is worth adding to your cart.
※This post is in collaboration with umabi. Products were gifted; all opinions are my own.