Tea Journey last spoke with luxury Franco-Sino skincare line Cha Ling’s Director of Development Elodie Sebag two years ago about the then-new line’s focus on puer tea as its key ingredient. Here is an in-depth update about the line’s new developments.
Tea Journey: What has been the response to the line since it launched? Any plans to expand outlets/distribution?
Elodie Sebag: Response to the line has been very good, particularly in China and Hong Kong, where we decided to focus the first stage of brand development. We now have three boutiques in mainland China and three in Hong Kong. We also have Corner Cha Ling at Le Bon Marche and Spa Cha Ling @ The Peninsula, both in Paris.
Pu’er tea is known in these markets to be very positive for health and detox. But our know-how in cosmetics has enabled us to extract and concentrate. Our skincare technology, called BD-T complex, has also made it possible to demonstrate its beauty properties.
The use of beauty tools such as the Gua Sha, a ceramic tool that aids product efficacy and skin detox through facial massage, and the Ba Guan, a ceramic cup that helps drain and eliminate fat cells on the body, both of which us acupressure methods inspired by traditional Chinese medicine make our brand a unique alliance of French technology and Chinese ancestral beauty and health know-how.
Tea Journey: What new products have joined the line?
Elodie Sebag: [Among other products, we have added] the Eye Tea Bag, a refreshing eye mask to reduce puffiness and dark circles, inspired by fresh tea bag-based beauty secrets with over 99.5 percent natural ingredients and a 100 percent biodegradable formula. We have added Summer and Winter to our line of facial masks, which draw inspiration from traditional Chinese seasonal medicine, giving skin the nutrients and energy it needs for every change of season. Our Oleo Booster strengthens, energizes and nourishes the skin. A few drops are enough for instant revitalization. And, as mentioned, Cha Ling has reinvented the Ba Guan, or Chinese cupping jar, which is paired with our massage oil to shape and smooth the body.
Tea Journey: Has consumer awareness risen about the benefits of puer tea during the last couple of years?
Elodie Sebag: We’ve benefitted from rising awareness among about the detoxing power of pu’er tea and the virtues of drinking this unique tea. In China, we are totally associated with the “healthy power” as a clear and clean cosmetic brand.
However, some major research reveals that tea in general [can be] very polluted. Pu’er teas [can be] regarded as a solution, as they are mainly pure. We insist on the fact that our tea sourcing is one of the purest. It is organic, and certified from Ecocert certification obtained following a three-year process.
Tea Journey: Are people responding to the line’s focus on mind/body/spirit? How can you measure this?
Elodie Sebag: Cha Ling’s positioning is mainly focused on skincare solutions, bu it also offers a global approach towards beauty through mind, body and spirit, which is, of course, highly in line with global trends.
Globally, we have received very positive feedback on our positioning and proposal. Cha Ling has started to find its customers, a community of people through the world who share the same values and same vision of beauty: beauty which is sustainable and deeply engaged beyond efficacy for a greater purpose.
In our 2017 article, Sebag explained the company’s commitment to helping create a “tea garden” in China:“For three years, the brand has been participating in…Minguo Li Margraf’s Tea Garden Project, even before the brand was born and disclosed to the public.
We are working on 20 hectares of Tea Garden zone, located within the 400-hectare Biodiversity Reserve managed by Minguo Li Margraf. This reserve is in Xishuangbanna, South Yunnan, at an altitude between 1,650 and 1,800 meters, and belongs to the famous Laobangzhang Pu’er Tea designation.”
Tea Journey: Is there an update on the Tea Garden and the work going on there?
Elodie Sebag: 130,000 tea trees have been planted and an 8,000 additional species replanted in the Tea Garden of TianZi.
TianZi tea has also been eco-certified and has the specificity to grow on one of the purest ecosystems and lands of these tea forests. It will be a super high-quality tea. Minguo Margraf, our partner since the beginning of the journey, has now started to build there an extraordinary 100 percent ecological complex, which will be soon ready to welcome visitors wishing to experience an incredible eco-retreat in the heart of tea land. Our ambition for 2021is to have 40 hectares of tea forests replanted.
Learn more: www.cha-ling.com
