Lunar New Year 2024 Beauty Product & Packaging

Packaging: Dragon motifs appear across product packaging crafted with delicate and striking illustrations. French beauty label L’Occitane’s gift box doubles as a dragon-patterned paper-cut lantern, which can be lit and hung in the home. Fellow French brand Guerlain’s trademark Bee Bottle has been adorned with a dragon crafted by Parisian jeweller Francesco Truscelli with a trail of faceted crystals around its neck. Both Shiseido-owned Laura Mercier and Korean brand Sulwhasoo feature golden dragon motifs on their limited-edition offerings, as does the mirror in Chinese brand Yensa’s gift box.

Floral murals form the focus of UK-based Lush’s reusable cotton Wild Spirit Knot Wrap designed by Hong Kong-based artist Bao Ho, depicting classic Chinese fairy tales containing bold flowers and mysterious dragons. US brand Oribe collaborated with Australian-Chinese artist Chris Chun on paintings of blooming peony roses for its packaging, with rich jewel tones of red and gold intertwined with dancing green wood dragons. Valentino launched a gift box with blooming metal flowers in a tangerine shade to help the packaging stand out, while British make-up artist Pat McGrath’s Luxe Quad: Bronze Borealis New Year Edition eye palette features gilded lotus flowers.

Elsewhere, French fragrance brand Diptyque collaborated with Chinese calligraphy artist Ao Hei on its limited-edition red box decorated with elegant ink strokes and gold foil for its white musk perfume L'Eau Papier. Hei’s design expresses his poetic vision of the world, inspired by the way ink saturates paper and how musk evolves and changes over time.

Festive Spirit: Brands are tapping into the celebration’s joyful festive spirit with bold cosmetic pigments and shimmery finishes. Pat McGrath’s aforementioned eye palette includes four opulent bronze and copper hues with a pearly shimmer, while fellow UK brand Charlotte Tilbury’s Queen of Luck palette offers four shades with multi-reflective pearls for enhanced sparkle. Elsewhere, the classic party shade of crimson is celebrated in French brand Chantecaille’s lipstick. 

Meanwhile, British brand Jo Malone’s new Red Hibiscus fragrance celebrates the new year festivities with red hibiscus, which is believed to bring good luck, joy and fortune.

Reviving Tradition: Lush’s Inner Dragon Bath Bomb takes inspiration from Chinese folklore, where dragons are typically seen holding a pearl in their claw or mouth, representing divinity and prosperity. The bath bomb is decorated with a bold red dragon wrapped around it and scented with neroli and red mandarin.

Likewise, Chinese luxury fragrance brand Documents draws inspiration from dragon mythology with a fragrance diffuser in the shape of a Chinese antique long-necked bottle, with handles moulded to resemble dragon whiskers.

Sensorial Nostalgia: Swedish fragrance house Byredo released a campaign focusing on the warmth, familiarity, nostalgic and emotive smells of homecoming. Alongside this, it presents a series of handcrafted collectibles described as “the symbiosis of olfactory memories and emotional journeys”, such as porcelain objects that pay homage to classical silhouettes while echoing the roundness of Byredo’s iconic perfume bottle.