Beauty: Lucia Loves | Lane Crawford

With a job that requires testing and curating Lane Crawford’s beauty and wellbeing lineup, Lucia Lee knows the industry from the inside out. Here, we discover the products that’ve won a place on her bathroom counter, what’s flying off the shelves and what she has gleaned from hanging out with the best and brightest.

What does your role as Head of Beauty and Wellbeing entail?

Personally, I think this is the best job ever. My main task is to make sure we have the best beauty collection in the market. This requires some balance between having mainstream brands that people are familiar with, and spicing things up with niche brands that we feel are bringing exciting new things to the industry. After we launch them, we work closely with brands to help them grow. It’s a collaboration to bring customers the products they need, as well as the best shopping experiences.

What are some of the brands you’ve introduced at Lane Crawford that customers have really responded to?

Angela Caglia has been a great success. It debuted last September during our Beauty Heroes campaign when we flew Angela in to do facials and masterclasses. We just fell in love with her and the brand. She is so genuine, hard-working and generous. Her products are all about efficacy and pampering yourself; you can get simple things like a rose quartz roller all the way up to top-of-the-range LED masks. I’m currently using her rose quartz gua sha in the morning and it helps so much to decongest and de-puff.

Another brand we’re super proud of is Tatcha. Founder Vicky Tsai presented to us last year and we were so touched by her story. There is so much love and wisdom in the brand. The attention to detail is beyond what we usually see in the industry and I’m sure that customers will have a really heartfelt experience. I’m currently using The Rice Wash and The Essence and I love the fact that the products smell super nice and are all natural—no fragrance added at all. Augustinus Bader is another amazing brand we launched at the end of 2019 that has a huge following. In fact, our counter at ifc was the first counter worldwide!

You try so many beauty products in your line of work. What are your holy grail products and the tried-and-tested formulas that you come back to over and over again?

There are always new brands or products, and R&D (research and development) is so dynamic that there are breakthrough discoveries or ingredients every couple of months. It’s hard to be loyal in beauty, but there are a few products I always come back to. I started using Crème de La Mer about four years ago when I got pregnant. My skin was super sensitive and dry, and I could not use any of the mainstream brands that have tons of fragrance and emulsifiers. I use the SkinCeuticals CE Ferulic in my morning routine, and it just works wonders. It brightens and makes my skin glow, especially after the summer. It’s great to even out skin tone and plump things up.

Another go-to product—the one thing I would really splurge on—is Guerlain’s Orchidée Impériale Black cream. I use it sparingly when my skin is fatigued, dull and stressed (like after giving birth!). You can see visible results in just a few days. Globally, Lane Crawford was the first to launch a new limited-edition packaging this month, and it’s really quite beautiful. I also use shu uemura’s brow:sword. It’s just great and easy, and for the last eight years I haven’t used any other eyebrow product.

How do you tell if a product is working for you? What's the best way to switch products in and out of your regime?

If your skin has a reaction, stop immediately. If not, I suggest using a product for over a month to see results after a whole skin cycle. If there’s a particular skin concern that you want to resolve, start a whole routine in one go versus only changing some products so that you have a clean slate and can make a better assessment of the before and after.

Another great piece of advice from Barbara Sturm that I learned during her masterclass last month is that you shouldn’t mix too many brands in your routine. You never know how some ingredients or formulas could react to each other.

Lane Crawford's wellbeing offering has really broadened in the last couple of years. What are some of the cool finds that fall into this category that you want us to know about?

This is my favourite category at the moment. I think wellbeing products are so important to support our busy and hectic lifestyles. This year we brought in a lot of fun and effective beauty supplements like IVYBEARS vitamins to help you sleep, Beauty Bar Chocolate with CBD, and Sundaily gummies that protect you from sun damage. Guilt-free sweet treats with a beauty benefit are a hit!

We’ve also introduced a modern Ayurveda brand called Purearth. It’s still very small, but we were so impressed with the values and the mission of the founder. The brand is all about ethically-sourced, environmentally-conscious, socially responsible and clean ingredients. The Kwansha Facial Beauty Coin and the Mitti Raw Honey Mask are must-tries.

In November we’re bringing in a full lineup of CBD products that are mind-blowing. We have tinctures, vapes, sticks, roll-ons, bitters and tampons; it’s CBD in all formats and shapes to suit your needs and style. It couldn’t be a better year to launch. The world has turned upside down and people are stressed—we all need a little help from Mother Nature.