Beauty Talk: Cinci Leung,
Founder of CheckCheckCin

If you haven’t heard already, it’s beauty month at Lane Crawford. Last week, we asked Dr. Lisa Chan to impart her professional and personal insight on skincare and ways to streamline your beauty routine.

This week, Cinci Leung, Founder and CEO of CheckCheckCin delves into the science of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and how it can help beat the bloat, enhance your energy and restore complexion’s youthful bloom.

A healthy person will have a bright and glowing complexion. According to Chinese Medicine principles, those with a weak digestive system tend to have dull and yellowish skin accompanied by water retention. Your body will feel like it is covered by a heavy wet towel, which causes fatigue and laziness. In order to improve your complexion, you will need to strengthen your gut first, and then bright glowing skin will follow.

Skin conditions do reflect how your body is doing. If you have dry skin, you might be yin deficient; for acne-prone or reddish skin, it can mean you have damp-heat in your body. If skin is dull with dark blotches, it can mean you are qi-stagnated meaning your blood and qi are not circulating properly in your body. If facial complexion is pale, it can mean you are qi/blood deficient.

We treat it accordingly to the causes of the symptoms. Many floral teas like rose and jasmine can improve blood circulation and reduce blood stasis symptoms. Ladies can drink a cup of floral tea 3-7 days before menstruation to improve blood circulation and dull skin. For those with pale skin, try brewing a cup of tea with Chinese black dates and candied dates to replenish qi and blood.

Those with a weak digestive system who wish to improve a yellowish and dull complexion should consume less cold and raw food. Try drinking soup with coix seed, poria, and hyacinth bean, to nourish your spleen and dispel dampness and lessen the burden on your gut. Chinese hawthorn and wolfberry can nourish your kidneys and reduce blood stasis, you can add them to your floral tea or drink it alone to improve dull or dark blotches in the skin.

From a TCM perspective, it is more important to balance the yin and yang in your body and keep the digestive system healthy to absorb necessary nutrients to have a natural glowing complexion. Here are some of the ingredients to look out for:

I am quite busy juggling different roles in my Chinese medicine clinic, office, and home, so I have a qi-stagnated body type. I avoid spicy, cold, and raw food and drink floral tea every now and then to relieve stress and improve my blood circulation. I have been drinking rice water every morning for over fifteen years now, this is to release the burden on my gut to keep it functioning properly.

I have been using CheckCheckCin soap, which is a cold-processed soap (Silky Rose) for my face and body for many years now. It is made with rose-infused olive oil and contains soy milk, almond powder, which is nourishing yet not too oily for my skin type.

This might seem insignificant, but you will see a difference after a week or less by eating less cold and raw food and drinking rice water that’s made with red rice, white rice and coix seed every day.

Shop our edit of glow-inducing essentials below.