For many in Malaysia, Lunar New Year is a time to celebrate, get together with loved ones, and look forward to the year ahead. It’s also a time to look your best, not just for the photos and visitations, but to fend off the inevitable comments for our dear elders. Picture this: the look on Auntie’s face when your skin is absolutely skinning. Imagine her frustration when she can’t say you look tired or like you’ve been eating too many heaty foods. With more than a month to go before your best red outfit is steamed and ready, are you using your time wisely to look your best?
At this point in the year, pre-CNY beauty isn’t about a drastic transformation. It’s about consistency, calmness, and a game plan for a lasting glow to see you through to Lantern Festival. And with the cultural context of cleaning, clearing, and preparing before the new year, what better time than now to get your beauty game to top-tier level. By the time you receive your first ang bao, you’ll thank me. Let’s begin.
The Goal: Gag-worthy Glow
Aside from skin and hair so radiant that you reflect the glow from all those oranges, the goal for pre-CNY beauty is simpler than you might think. Afterall, red is only a lucky colour when it’s not from your face. Your skin should look rested, not recently attacked. You should be hydrated and glow from within, without looking shiny. Your hair should be lustrous, and your body should be smooth and hydrated. You should be calm, confident, and ready to focus on other things, like why you’re not married or a millionaire yet. That involves a strategic timeline of in-office treatments and/or good old-fashioned daily rituals to have you glowing like a gold ingot from head to toe.
The Timeline: Planning For Perfection
Your pre-CNY beauty timeline shouldn’t be complicated, but it should be specific. Best thought about in separate chunks, you have just over a month—which is more than enough time—to book in your appointments and start applying your lotions and potions consistently.
Week 4 & 3 (28-14 days out): Consideration & Correction
If you’ve been considering in-office treatments, now is your time to get them in the calendar. Pico laser, skin boosters, radiofrequency, and microneedling all need their time to work and for your skin to fully recover without risking redness and irritation. You don’t want to spend Reunion Dinner slathered in ointment, looking like the skin of a suckling pig. Speak to your aesthetics provider about down time, after care, and what results to reasonably expect within 1 month. And honestly, if you can stack the treatments at the same time, go wild. Any later than this is a recipe for anxiety and embarrassment, which is not the vibe for the year of the horse.
Week 2 (14–7 days out): Repair & Resilience
The only procedural treatment you should be investing in from this point is neurotoxins—most commonly known as Botox. Full results can be seen in 2 weeks, so any later than this and you won’t achieve the goal you’re looking for while you’re tossing the yu sheng. After that, focus on barrier repair, hydration, and inflammation control. Ingredients like cermadines, panthenol, niacinamide, and peptides should be at the top of your list for skin—both face and body— and for hair, have repair, strengthening and shine in mind. Now is the time to bump up your use of Olaplex, K18, and other bond repair lines. This is not a drill.
Think supportive, not corrective. Your skin should feel comfortable by the end of this period, not tight, not reactive, not ‘tingly in a way TikTok promised was normal’. If it stings now, it will betray you later. Your hair should feel soft and shiny, without being weighed down or adding build-up. Pause any use of new actives, strong exfoliation, aggressive devices, or at-home treatments and products you haven’t tried before. They’ll all be waiting for you at the end of February.
Week 1 (7–3 days out): Refine & Brighten
Once your skin is stable, you can gently nudge it toward glow. This doesn’t mean go back in and nuke your face, but baby your skin into what you want. Gentle enzymatic exfoliants or PHAs will help slough off that final layer of dead skin, but should only be used once or at most twice. Milky toners and hydrating essences will be your best friend, and glow serums that prioritise hydration over sparkle. Keep it consistent, but aim for day zero perfect skin.
For hair, this is the time to get into the salon for your last-minute root touch-up, perm refresh, or keratin treatment, to have you looking like a bombshell as you indulge in a pineapple tart. It’s also the time for eyelashes, nails, and waxing, as leaving these to the last 48 hours can risk irritation, delayed appointments and underwhelming results.
Final 72 Hours: Maintain & Protect
This is not the time to experiment. At all. Put down the bubble rainbow unicorn mask and step away from the walnut scrub. The rules are no new products, no ‘just one more’ treatment, and no panic purchases. Even if your skin is freaking out, consistency will win over novelty every time. Take it steady, trust in your products, and the rest will take care of itself.
This is also the window to focus strategically on hydration to have your skin and hair bouncy and supple. For your face, nothing tightening, stripping, or promising instant life. Just stick to hydration. For your hair, hydrate, hydrate, hydrate (without overdoing it) with oils or silicones to protect shine and lustre between those final washes. Then sleep, hydrate internally, and be mindful of excess sodium—unless facial puffiness is the aesthetic you’re going for.
The Results: Final Thoughts
Looking your best this CNY won’t take drastic measures, but a little bit of coordination can go a long way. Glow is the goal, and following this timeline will get you there. But don’t forget, the real goal of the season is enjoying yourself, spending time with your family, and taking part in traditions that bring generations together. The perfect hair flip and flawless skin shouldn’t be your priority, but it definitely won’t hurt. As we say goodbye to the snake, shed the skin of whatever is holding you back—be it beauty or personal—and prepare yourself for one stallion of a year in 2026. Now start planning and go for gold. The Year of the Horse is almost upon us. Giddy up.
This story first appeared on GRAZIA Singapore.
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