With Sephora Canada’s fifth iteration of its Lunar New Year campaign in full swing, we chatted with Canadian collaborators Brigitte Truong and Angel Zheng, both of whom are being featured on Sephora Canada’s social media channels to share what Lunar New Year means to them. —Vita Daily
Q&A With Brigitte Truong
Hi Brigitte! Please tell us a bit about yourself to start!
Hi Vita Daily! My name is Brigitte Truong, and I am a first-generation Chinese Canadian, multimedia host, producer and content creator from Toronto with a passion for music, documentaries and female autobiographies.
How did you hook up with Sephora for the fifth iteration of its Lunar New Year campaign?
Sephora Canada put out a casting call through an agency. My manager caught wind of the opportunity, sent over my information, and things quickly took off from there! When I got the email confirming that Sephora Canada was interested in collaborating with me, I may or may not have thrown on Aretha Franklin tunes and aggressively danced around my apartment for 10 minutes—OK, I totally did! It was the most exciting news I had received in a while.
This year’s campaign is centred around honouring one’s heritage while reimagining traditions; that said, what does Lunar New Year mean to you, what cultural traditions do you keep, and do you put any personal twists on the holiday when celebrating today?
Simply put, Lunar New Year means family. This is a time my immediate family and extended family come together for big dinners that may only take place one other time over the course of the year. Some cultural traditions that I was raised with are still carried through today, like visits to the Buddhist temple, exchanging of lucky money in red envelopes, the hanging of decorations and the honouring of late ancestors and deities. It’s important to my parents, aunts and uncles that the younger generation upholds these traditions, and we’re happy to do so of course. But in the past couple of years, I’ve put a twist on things by giving my mom “lucky red lipstick” on the first day of Lunar New Year. She seems to be very pleased with this new tradition we’ve got going!
In fact, your mom, Michelle, is featured with you in the campaign! What does honouring family mean to you, especially at this time of year?
My mom is indeed in the campaign, and she is now the talk of our neighbourhood! I couldn’t have imagined a better way to honour our family and our cultural traditions. To have our faces, traditions and stories showcased on this scale is beyond humbling. The older I get, the more I value our family and cultural roots. This has also been a remarkable way to honour our entire community. It’s really special.
Sephora also means to highlight the beauty of East Asian women at every age via this campaign; what’s your personal take on that?
In my opinion, intergenerational campaigns are the most meaningful ones, especially when they highlight all facets of beauty. It’s 2021; in my community, we don’t all share the same features, sense of style or journeys, but we do uphold similar values and traditions. In turn, those values and traditions would not be possible without those who came before us. As a society, we’d be remiss to continuously shine a spotlight on one generation vs. another. It’s time we eliminate the narrative around beauty standards and start celebrating all forms of beauty that are found at every age.
It’s the Year of the Ox! Under what zodiac/animal sign were you born, and what are your hopes and wishes for the year?!
I was born in the Year of the Rabbit and, according to many Google searches (because online predictions are my guilty pleasure), this year I will dare to bring more attention to myself and have a greater desire to create. So far, we’re getting tonnes of attention with this campaign so I think the Internet gods are onto something! Much like every year, I also hope for good health, valuable work opportunities, and a greater sense of self-fulfillment.
Finally, of the many limited-edition Lunar New Year products available at Sephora this year, what’s your absolute fave, and why?
There are so many beautiful products this year! If I had to choose I’d say the Dyson Supersonic Hair Dryer Limited Edition Red Gift Set; the sleek design and rich red are gorgeous. The Charlotte Tilbury Lunar New Year edition lipsticks are also stunning! There is something incredible about a bold lip, that stuns and speaks powerful words at the same time!
Q&A With Angel Zheng
Hi Angel! Please tell us a bit about yourself to start!
My name is Angel Zheng, I’m an Instagram influencer and YouTuber from Vancouver, Canada. I also work as a marketing director at a software company full time.
How did you hook up with Sephora for the fifth iteration of its Lunar New Year Campaign?
I actually got to partner with Sephora Canada last year to showcase their Lunar New Year product offerings. It was great to reconnect with them this year and continue to represent this huge holiday on my platform.
This year’s campaign is centred around honouring one’s heritage while reimagining traditions; that said, what does Lunar New Year mean to you, what cultural traditions do you keep, and do you put any personal twists on the holiday when celebrating today?
Around this time of year, we usually have huge gatherings of family and friends where we’re able to catch up, think back on the previous year, and look toward the new year. Typically, it is the one holiday during the year when ALL of our family and friends make time to get together, so it is a very special holiday for my family and I. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic and social and travel restrictions, my parents are actually stuck in Asia, so I’m just celebrating with my younger sister this year. Given we both grew up in Vancouver, my sister and I definitely heavily depended on our parents to teach us how to carry on our cultural traditions, such as celebrating Lunar New Year. Although we don’t have them around this year, we’re making a conscious effort to celebrate our traditions ourselves by doing some of the things that we’ve loved to do with them throughout the years. It’ll be fun this year making traditional Lunar New Year food ourselves (we’ve grown to LOVE cooking since quarantine) and to try to create more virtual opportunities to catch up with our loved ones.
Sephora also means to highlight the beauty of East Asian women at every age via this campaign; what’s your personal take on that?
All the women in my family have been huge fans of Sephora for a long time. My sisters, mom and I represent four different age groups (with very different skin types) and we solely shop at Sephora for all of our beauty and skin-care needs. I think that Sephora highlighting the beauty of every age group is a wonderful way to make women feel more beautiful and included, no matter what stage of life they’re at.
It’s the Year of the Ox! Under what zodiac/animal sign were you born, and what are your hopes and wishes for the year?!
I was born in the Year of the Pig! My hopes and wishes for the year are that my family and friends continue to stay safe and healthy and that we can continue to build on this “new normal,” so we come out stronger and better than ever.
Finally, of the many limited-edition Lunar New Year products available at Sephora this year, what’s your absolute fave, and why?
I’ve always loved the Sulwhasoo products for my skin and their Lunar New Year-inspired packaging is always stunning. Also absolutely loving the limited-edition red Dyson hair tools this year!
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