Product Pulse: Lunar New Year 2022

Beauty Brands Celebrate the Year of the Tiger

Chinese New Year, also known as Lunar New Year or the Spring Festival, is the most widely-celebrated of the traditional Chinese festivals. It typically begins with the presence of the new moon (which occurs between the end of January and the end of February and lasts about 15 days), until the full moon arrives which coincides with the Festival of Lanterns. The origin of the Chinese New Year festival can be traced back to over 3,500 years ago, as far back as the Shang Dynasty (1600–1046 BC). During the Lunar New Year, business and work essentially come to a halt, with home and family becoming the principal focus. Traditionally, houses are thoroughly cleaned to rid them of “huiqi,” or inauspicious breaths, which may have collected during the old year. The ritual of cleansing the home is also meant to appease the gods who are believed to come down from heaven to make inspections. Lunar New Year is not only celebrated in China, but also in several other Eastern and Southeast Asian countries as well as within Chinatowns in multiple Western countries – all to welcome the new moon of the Lunar calendar. The festival is, for example, celebrated in Vietnam (where it’s known as Tet), North and South Korea (locally named Seollal), and Mongolia (where it is called Tsagaan Sar). 

In 2022, Lunar New Year will begin on February 1 and will welcome the Year of the Tiger. Tigers are the third of the Chinese zodiacs and, according to legend, the tiger was always confident that no other creature could compete with its speed and vigor for the celestial race which would decide the ultimate order of the zodiacs. However, the story goes that when the tiger climbed out of the river, thinking it had won, it was informed that the rat had in fact placed first for its cunning nature and the ox had placed second for its diligence. Despite settling for third place, the tiger boasts admirable traits of leadership, respect, and assertion as well as being courageous, outspoken, energetic, and willing to take risks. 

To capture the traditional essence and joy of celebrating Lunar New Year, beauty brands across the globe are releasing highly-anticipated, limited-edition collections in exclusive and festive packaging. This season, most brands are aiming to spread messages of good fortune and prosperity for the coming new year with products and collections which play on symbolic colors within Chinese culture, such as red (which connotes fire, good fortune, and joy) as well as gold (which signals wealth and prosperity). This year, there are a number of interesting launches from C-beauty brands including Perfect Diary (which is offering its iconic ReadMe Lip Stain in a gold case engraved with traditional Chinese greetings) and To Summer (whose festive launch celebrates traditional Chinese crafts with a collection of personal and home fragrances). Many international beauty brands (including Charlotte Tilbury, Huda Beauty, Estée Lauder, Clarins, and Glasshouse Fragrance) are also paying homage to the Year of the Tiger, embracing it as their muse with various renditions of the animal on their packaging designs across both skin care and color cosmetics collections. Elsewhere, other brands are distinguishing themselves from the rest of the market with less literal designs. While Sulwhasoo’s festive collection is inspired by decorative Chinese traditional knots, M.A.C’s packaging boasts a peony focus and SK-II has dressed its popular Pitera™ Essence in a design inspired by the characteristics of the tiger, which aligns with the brand’s own ethos. Meanwhile, Shiseido has collaborated with Chinese fashion designer Angel Chen to create an exclusive, abstract packaging design for its Lunar New Year Collection.

The following is an excerpt from our Lunar New Year 2022 Product Pulse report. The full content is available on our BEAUTYSTREAMS Premium platform, where you will also find detailed information on these products and many others in our Product Bank, updated daily.