Celebrity Life

Here's our pick of the best Chinese New Year skincare collections and limited-edition releases for 2022.

Start the new lunar year with your best face forward — we've rounded up all the lotions and potions, creams, balms (well, the serums and essences and moisturisers!) to get your hands on for spring. All packed up in regal red and gold, these limited-edition Chinese New Year skincare releases will ensure good luck, and good skin.

The Best Chinese New Year Skincare Releases 2022

Chantecaille

The bestselling Bio Lifting Mask from Chantecaille is getting a little facelift of its own, with a supercharged new formula and festive red and gold packaging. The Bio Lifting Mask+ (note that plus sign!) is packed full of botanicals and peptides that reduce the look of fine lines and visibly contour the face, while a new lifting agent smoothens and moisturises. With this product, the brand continues to support the SUJÁN Tiger and Leopard Conservation Project in Rajasthan, India. And, complementing the mask, is a limited edition ruby red lipstick — the nourishing and super-emollient Lip Veil.

Chantecaille's Lunar New Year-edition Bio Lifting Mask+ and Lip Veil (Ruby) are available to purchase online.

Charlotte Tilbury

To celebrate Chinese New Year, Charlotte Tilbury has released its award-winning Magic Cream moisturiser in a limited-edition casing, a glorious red tiger print lid. Pick it up on its own, or in a duo (with a LNY lipstick of your choice) or in a makeup kit with a LNY lipstick of your choice and a limited-edition version of the Airbrush Flawless Finish pressed setting powder.

Charlotte Tilbury's limited-edition Lunar New Year Magic Cream is available to purchase online.

Clarins

This exclusive limited-edition of Clarins' bestselling Double Serum features the same potent formula in the same innovative bottle — with a stunning tiger illustration for the new lunar year. Delivering made-to-measure dosage with a rotating push button, the serum combines 21 effective anti-ageing water and oil-soluble ingredients for regeneration, nutrition, hydration, oxygenation and protection. A set includes the Double Serum (Tiger Limited Edition), an Extra-Firming Neck & Décolleté Care treatment, and an Extra-Firming Treatment Essence.

Clarins' Double Serum (Tiger Limited Edition) is available to purchase online.

Clinique

To celebrate the Year of Tiger, Clinique's bestselling powerful serum for dark spots and discolouration and cult-favourite dermatologist-developed face moisturiser now come in limited-edition red and gold packaging. We especially like the look of the lotion (that lucky tiger head lid!), and its silky, easy-to-absorb formula is a winner.

Clinique's Limited Edition Even Better Clinical™ Radical Dark Spot Corrector + Interrupter and Limited Edition Jumbo Dramatically Different™ Moisturizing Lotion+ are available to purchase online.

Fresh

Fresh is collaborating with Canto-pop artist Alfred Hui for a special Chinese New Year collection of skincare favourites. Choose from bestsellers like the powerhouse antioxidant Kombucha Facial Treatment Essence, and the black tea complex-packed Firming Peptides Serum, Firming Corset Cream and Instant Perfecting Mask — all designed to keep your skin moisturised, and luminous-looking.

The "Fresh x Alfred Hui CNY Edition" is available to purchase online.

LA MER

Celeb-favourite skincare brand La Mer has released this limited-edition Hydration Adventure Collection, so you start the new year fresh and rejuvenated. The five-piece set comes with The Concentrate, The Eye Concentrate, The Hydrating Infused Emulsion, bestselling Crème de la Mer, and this vibrant red and green tiger print pouch!

The La Mer Hydration Adventure Collection is available to purchase online.

L’Occitane

For a little bit of indulgence, look to French brand L’Occitane's Chinese New Year offerings — limited-edition versions of rich and moisturising products from its almond line: the sweet almond oil-enriched body wash and the nourishing almond milk concentrate body lotion.

L’Occitane's CNY Almond Shower Oil and Almond Milk Concentrate are available to purchase online.

LUSH

Lush's Year of the Tiger collection includes everything from bath bombs to bubble bars, face masks, foot scrubs, shampoo bars and even (cotton) gift wrapping — we love the super cute jasmine Lucky Cat Bubble Bar and the Lunar New Year Knot Wrap. Browse the whole collection online or in-store.

Lush's Lunar New Year 2022 collection is available to purchase online.

Origins

Origins' super-soothing water-like treatment lotion is getting dressed in red for the new lunar year. The Mega-Mushroom Soothing Treatment Lotion harnesses the power of nutrient-rich super foods used in traditional Chinese medicine, like reishi mushroom, sea buckthorn and fermented chaga, for supple, soft and healthier-looking skin.

The Dr. Andrew Weil for Origins™ Lunar New Year Mega-Mushroom Soothing Treatment Lotion is available to purchase online.

Shiseido

Perhaps the most stunning bottle on this list yet, Shiseido's Lunar New Year offering is not just limited-edition packaging but a reformulation. Its Ultimune Power Infusing Serum now has muGenerationRED Technology™, which is a very long way of saying you're getting a potent blend of everything you need for radiant-looking skin. Star ingredients include fermented roselle, heartleaf, reishi mushroom, and iris root.

The Shiseido Ultimune Power Infusing Serum is available to purchase online.

Sulwhasoo

We love Korean beauty brand Sulwhasoo at the office. For the new lunar year, three bestsellers are getting a little red-and-gold makeover — 'Lucky Knot' editions of the anti-aging serum-essence, and the ginseng-infused renewing cream and renewing serum.

The Sulwhasoo Lucky Knot Collection is available to purchase online.

Tatcha

Packed with Japanese superfood ingredients like Akita rice, Okinawa algae, and Uji green tea, The Essence from Tatcha is exactly what you'd need in that skincare transitioning stage between a harsh, cold winter to a (hopefully) gentler spring. The limited-edition bottle doesn’t hurt either. It's available to purchase at Lane Crawford.

(Hero image courtesy of Tatcha, featured image courtesy of Clinique)

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During the winter months when bitter winds can wreak havoc on our skin's own ability to repair and rejuvenate, we require a bit of extra help to revitalise and mend the damage done. Clé de Peau Beauté's SYNACTIF range puts the power of skin purification and regeneration first, targeting skin problems such as wrinkles, fine lines, and sagging from within to give restore skin to its former glory – or even, reveal a better self.

This belief in the power of mending and revealing beauty once again in something that was considered broken is ingrained in Clé de Peau Beauté's philosophy and resonated in the traditional Japanese craftsmanship of Kintsugi.

Kintsugi is the ancient Japanese technique of pottery repair that utilises gold lacquer to mend and give broken porcelain objects a new lease in life. Ashikaga Yoshimasa was the 8th shogun of the Ashikaga shogunate and was said to have been disappointed by how a broken tea bowl was returned to him disfigured with metallic rivets. Determined not to give up on the tea bowl, he asked his artisans to repair the bowl again, this time using gold lacquer. The beauty of the ware was thus not just restored, but given an additional artisanal touch. This ethos strikes Clé de Peau Beauté deeply; not only does its SYNACTIF range, through lymphatic vessel activation, help to refine contours in the skin but it takes it one step further to power the skin's ability to defy age.

The SYNACTIF range, born in 2004, was the result of long-term studies conducted by Clé de Peau Beauté on the relationship between the lymphatic capillary lumen and the skin, done in collaboration with the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

The brand's next-generation SYNACTIF Neck and Décolleté Cream and Eye Cream are the pinnacle of luxury for the brand, representing a holistic regimen that's inspired by the most luxurious of spa experiences and backed by extensive research. The formula targets one of the skin's most vulnerable areas – the eye, neck, jawline, and décoletté, which are most susceptible to signs of ageing, sagging, wrinkling, and dullness.

People tend to forget to take care of these vulnerable areas, but the newly reformulated SYNACTIF regimen has been designed to work synergistically with the various products in the SYNACTIF line to improve the skin's existing conditions.

Much like how powdered gold is used in Kintsugi to restore broken porcelain in ways that go beyond glue, clay, or casting molds, SYNACTIF is also proved to have a profound effect on improving skin tone and texture beyond just cleansing and hydration. The SYNACTIF Neck and Décolleté Cream further comes with an Essential Flow Massager that can help promote lymphatic flow, with proper usage, you can achieve a more youthful, firm, and defined facial outline.

The SYNACTIF Eye Cream features a high concentration of Purifying Beautifier, which delivers fast and deep absorption and a lightweight texture that's gentle on the eyes. Daily use of the product also boasts a more well-rested glow and plumpness, allowing the delicate skin around the eyes to look more youthful and smooth.

For best results, the whole SYNACTIF collection should be used together in seven synergistic steps. Kintsugi is not a simple art form; and neither should you take your skincare regimen lightly. The SYNACTIF range can make a clear difference in improving skin texture and tone, through using its Soap and Lotion to improve on skin tone, its Day- and Nighttime Moisturisers to improve on texture, and lastly its Neck and Décolleté Cream and Eye Cream to contour and combat fine lines and dullness.

Learn more about the Clé de Peau Beauté SYNACTIF collection here.

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Christine Hau is a co-founder of the Hong Kong-based architecture and design practice Lead8, which in just seven years has rocketed from start-up to the ranks of the world's leading firms. She tells us about its remarkable success and her own contribution towards it.

For an architectural firm founded just seven years ago to vault into the ranks of the world’s largest practices seems an achievement so remarkable that it’s frankly unbelievable. Yet that’s exactly the feat that Lead8 – a Hong Kong-based architecture, urban-masterplanning, interior-design, graphics and branding company that set up shop in a modest Quarry Bay studio in 2014 and now has offices in Shenzhen, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and London – has managed to pull off.

Not only does it currently rank in 53rd place among the globe’s leading architectural firms – with major projects ongoing in the Greater Bay Area as well as further afield, and a team of more than 250 in five locations around the world – but Lead8 also walked away with five 2021-22 Asia-Pacific Property Awards for its large-scale projects in Shenzhen, Nanjing and Chengdu, as well as a pair of Gold Stevie Awards recognising business excellence. Although continually engaged in the visionary exercise of re-imagining urban and interior living for a future that seems especially challenging, surely such an astonishing degree of success must have been beyond the wildest dreams of the company’s founding partners?

“When we set up Lead8, we’d already worked alongside each other for many years, and we shared a passion for creativity and excellence in design,” says Christine Hau, one of Lead8’s co-founders and executive directors who form the company’s global leadership team in Hong Kong. “We all wanted to bring about change, introduce new ideas to the industry and give back to our cities and communities through resilient, meaningful and impactful design. Setting up Lead8 gave us the platform to do that, so this has been a natural progression for us.”

At Lead8, Hau oversees the company’s business, financial, legal and operational sides, as well as leading its marketing, communications, branding and social responsibility activities. Born in Britain and one of the eldest daughters of constantly travelling parents from Hong Kong, her businessman father expected she’d work as his apprentice until an interest in design spurred her to study in that area, later combining it with management.

“You can put on a nice dress or jacket and it’s individual,” says the effervescent and engaging Hau, in an accent that bears no discernible traces of her Scottish birthplace, “but I feel building design – architecture and interiors – is for everyone. I’m captivated by the beauty of forms and details in buildings and cities, so I studied subjects that united my passion for design with my affinity for business – with business providing the means of turning creative visions into reality.”

After completing university, she began her career in the UK, and eventually made the decision to head to Hong Kong. It wasn’t simply a matter of having strong family ties here; she also felt this was a place where she could take her career to a new level and possibly a new direction. “This is a fast-paced place and an international hub, where there are opportunities both here in Asia as well as connections with the West.”

In any case, Hau was already accustomed to an international way of life. “We moved around and travelled a lot,” she says, “so my childhood was quite adventurous and exciting – a mix of cultures and experiences – which is partly why I’ve always believed we should explore opportunities as we go along.

“Learning isn’t just about formal education and books. Experience is also very important in life, which is how I’ve brought up my children. It also probably explains why I’ve persistently changed course in life, grasping opportunities to study and change direction.”

After spending time at other international design practices, where she gained further experience in areas such as finance, corporate law and governance, strategy and operations, Hau took the plunge and joined a group of architects and designers she’d worked closely with to found Lead8. The team moved into its first studio in Shipyard Lane, literally around the corner from the much-expanded premises on King’s Road that the company occupies now. “The move into this new studio was a defining moment for us,” she says. “It marked a step in our evolution from start-up to international design brand and set the scene for our next chapter.”

While the company’s meteoric growth is beyond impressive, it must surely have something to do with the sheer physical scale and breathtakingly imaginative reach of many of its projects, in which every detail – from the macro to the micro – is considered, and natural elements and the latest technologies both form integral parts. Yet for all the size and scope, Hau insists that much of Lead8’s work is underpinned by “design that understands people – and the urge to push the boundaries to deliver destinations and experiences unlike any other” in their respective locations.

Typifying this approach is the vast Hubei Coordination Urban Renewal Scheme in Shenzhen, due for completion in 2024, which conserves and protects a historic 500-year-old village, yet does so in the context of a dazzling and forward-looking 21st-century urban development. Another major undertaking in the Greater Bay Area is New World’s 11 SKIES at Chek Lap Kok, which will be Hong Kong’s largest hub for retail, dining and entertainment, in a development adjoining the airport terminals, along with grade-A office towers, immersive educational experiences and even an indoor/outdoor karting track.

For sheer imaginative bravura, however, it’s hard to beat HarbourLoop, a Lead8 social-responsibility case study that proposes a 23km-long walkway and cycle track encircling Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour, with two elegant infrastructure additions linking the two sides and a series of community, culture and commuter hubs along the way. “We did it to show the possibilities of urban design thinking for Hong Kong – a zero-carbon network that unites both sides of the harbour,” says Hau. “As a design firm, we’re in the fortunate position of driving and sparking conversations about the future, which is what influences change.”

As for her own role within the firm, Hau says she uses design thinking to inform the way she oversees Lead8’s business, financial, legal and operational activities. “It offers me and my team the opportunity to manage and build a design firm differently, and to help our team of designers do what they do best – which is to create designs that are positively giving back to our communities. We create the platforms on which our global team and operations can function, and we nurture, support and empower our teams – we’re passionate about our people.”

Asked about her experiences as a female in her industry, Hau says she believes that “when it comes to work, women have traditionally been conscious of their gender, but this is changing – and I see the younger generation of women and men active in this shift. But I’ve always had strong female leaders in the industry to look up to and my own experience has been that gender hasn’t limited my opportunities.

“No matter what your gender is, leadership is about more than just being a boss. It’s inspiring, motivating and empowering those around you. Just as design inherently gives back to the cities and communities it touches, at Lead8 we have a deep commitment to the next generations through mentoring and learning opportunities, and we’re equally dedicated to supporting causes that help to build a brighter world.”

And if you were wondering how – with eight projects nearing completion in the next year and several more about to kick off – this working mother manages to find equilibrium between office and home, Hau says there’s always a connection between work and life. “I’m fortunate to have a supportive circle of family and friends, which helps ease the pressure in challenging times. In any case, instead of separating, I prefer to balance these parts of my life, as I’m passionate about Lead8 and the firm we’ve created. Each day is different – and I don’t count the hours at work, but the results we’ve achieved.”

PHOTOGRAPHY KINWAI CHEUNG
STYLING TASHA LING
MAKE-UP KAREN YIU @MAKEUPBEES
HAIR GLOOMY KWOK @MAKEUPBEES
PHOTOGRAPHY ASSISTANT STEPHEN CHENG

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