12 Lunar New Year Gifts From Asian American-Owned Brands
For the nearly two billion people around the globe who celebrate Lunar New Year, there’s no greater excuse to revel with your loved ones while wearing the lucky color red than the turn of another year on the lunar calendar. The multiday celebration begins on January 22, and this year marks the Year of the Rabbit, an ambitious animal that Asian cultures equate with being skillful, witty, and graceful.
Traditionally speaking, Lunar New Year is a time to give presents that symbolize blessings and good wishes for the new year. Revel in the moment by gifting your loved ones (or yourself) products created by members of the Asian community. Read on to discover 12 travel-friendly fashion, beauty, food, and beverage brands who are amplifying the achievements of the Asian American community—and looking good while doing so.
This gallery has been updated with new information since its original publish date.
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Seree Year of the Rabbit jade necklace
Celebrate the year of the rabbit in style with this limited-edition, hand-polished necklace charm that’s carved into the shape of a bunny. It comes from Seree, a jewelry company co-founded by two Chinese-American women looking to modernize and proliferate the wearing of jade pieces. Carrying the fond memories of their mothers and aunties wearing the gemstone—long considered a priceless stone that brings prosperity and good luck to all those who don it—co-founders Chloe Zhao and Eva Zhang created Seree (a derivation of the word “serenity”) to reintroduce a newfound acceptance of jade to today’s jewelry wearers. Minimalist designs and playful interactions between materials like gold and pearl bring a contemporary feel to an ancient stone that has long been revered by emperors, aristocrats, and noble people. Long live jade.
Tea Drunk Year of the Rabbit tea sampler
This New Year, sip and savor some of the rarest teas in the world with Tea Drunk’s Year of the Rabbit Tea Sampler. Tea Drunk, a purveyor of the most authentic and exquisite teas found in China’s prime lands, created a tea collection for the Year of the Rabbit that includes white tea, oolong tea, red tea, and pu’er sheng cha (a coveted varietal used in traditional Chinese tea ceremonies). The curated teas have been specially selected to wish the consumer prosperity and luck in the New Year. Cheers to that.
Wok Star Kit
Chinese–born, Hong Kong–raised, and British–educated Eleanor Hoh is a self-proclaimed “Wok Star” who has been making authentic Chinese cooking more approachable to Western audiences for nearly 20 years. Hoh’s celebrated techniques are now even more obtainable with a special cooking kit that arrives just in time for Lunar New Year. This authentic set includes a traditional cast-iron wok and lid, spatula, wok mitts, caddy organizer, Chinese chef knife, plus a link to her online cooking course that gives step-by-step instructions and recipes for easy-to-follow Chinese dishes.
Shiseido Ultimate Power Infusing serum
Japanese cosmetics brand Shiseido is reimagining its popular face serum, Ultimune, for Lunar New Year by collaborating with Chinese artist Chen Fenwan to design limited-edition packaging for the best-selling product. Shiseido tapped the emerging artist to celebrate the vast East Asian culture with a bold background of red that showcases both a leaping and sprinting rabbit. The serum itself represents a culmination of 150 years of Japanese skincare innovation that allows vital nutrients to flow into the skin to help reduce signs of aging and amplify hydration.
The Met x Junzi Year of The Rabbit Celebration chili oil gift set
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is highlighting its Asian Art collection through a new commemorative chili oil gift box crafted by Chef Lucas Sin, one of Food & Wine’s Best New Chefs 2021 and owner of Junzi, a popular fast-casual Chinese restaurant in New York City. The gift box’s design is inspired by a Qing Dynasty silk embroidery, now on view at The Met Museum on Fifth Avenue as a part of its Lunar New Year exhibition, and captures a white rabbit taking a pause in a landscape filled with colorful rocks, bamboo, pine, rishi mushrooms, and wildflowers, only to look back at the full moon adorned by constellations and golden clouds. Each chili oil set includes two oils created by Sin, including a Year of the Rabbit Celebration chili oil that’s infused with Tianjin chili pepper, red Sichuan peppercorn, and red turmeric.
Lo and Sons Del Mar packable tote
In her mid 60s, after careers in data science and community activism in Boston’s Chinatown, Helen Lo decided it was time to reinvent herself. Years of global travel led Lo to create a collection of bags that are lightweight, fashionable, and conducive for an on-the-go lifestyle. With her two sons at her side, Lo founded Lo & Sons, a bag line designed for the minimalist traveler. The company sells backpacks, weekenders, totes, laptop bags, and more—all designed with sustainability and style top of mind. For Lunar New Year, Lo & Sons restocked its Del Mar Packable Tote (available in two sizes) that comes with adorable figures of zodiac animals printed throughout the bag.
Mount Lai Jade Facial Spa Set for Lunar New Year
Aesthetician Stephanie Zheng knew her family’s ancient Chinese beauty rituals—said to produce radiant, glowing skin—were too good not to share. She founded Mount Lai to showcase products rooted in traditional Chinese medicine practices, like jade rollers, facial oils packed with herbal nutrients, and gua sha tools. To celebrate the New Year, Mount Lai is releasing the Limited Edition Mount Lai Jade Facial Spa Set, with packaging embellished in symbolic colors of luck and prosperity. Plus, every online purchase will come with one free red envelope with a custom sticker sheet (while supplies last).
Spiced Roselle Gin
What better way to celebrate the new year than with an Asian spirit that has a good origin story? Founded in 2018 in Hà Nội, Sông Cái Distillery is Việt Nam’s first gin distillery, created to capture the flavors and provenance of the country’s vast, biodiverse landscape of highlands and deltas. Even its name, Sông Cái, comes from the Vietnamese term for “Mother River,” a nod to the metaphorical belief that rivers represent how all forces of nature, life, and spirituality stem and flow from a holistic river. Drinking the brand’s latest creation—a Spiced Roselle Gin that showcases vibrant roselle flower buds and rose myrtle berries found in Việt Nam—feels like an appropriate way to toast to the Lunar New Year.
Omsom Chef's Knife earrings
Created by Vietnamese-American sisters Kim and Vanessa Pham, Omsom starters—or packets of premixed spices and sauces for specific Asian dishes—allow the home cook to build easy, delicious meals originating from AAPI communities. Fine-tuned by the likes of Filipinx chef Nicole Ponseca and Jimmy Ly of Madame Vo fame, Omsom starters are what the Pham sisters are calling “proud, loud Asian flavors.” For Lunar New Year, Omsom launched a campaign called “Taking Back the Tiger,” celebrating the animal’s joy and boldness by releasing earrings in the shape of kitchen knives, which represent carving out a path as a “third culture” brand.
Dauphinette accessories
It calls itself the happiest brand on Earth, and one look at Dauphinette’s clothing, accessories, and jewelry—like this veggie-inspired paper-clip chain purse—and you can see why. Design savant Olivia Cheng founded the fashion brand to share her perspective as a sustainably-minded, thoughtful zoomer who wanted to marry art and vintage aesthetics. Since her first collection in 2018, Cheng has found a groove in designing fancifully modified vintage or entirely repurposed pieces using recycled leathers and furs. Her collection includes inspirations from her mother’s collection of Chinese and Korean ceramics, as well as Cheng’s hand-painted Fever Print, which features leaping tigers against a bright red background.
Null Wines The Second Release duo
Whatever the reason might be—New Year’s resolutions, pregnancy, health, or otherwise—more and more people are taking a break from alcohol. Longtime friends and entrepreneurs Catherine Diao and Dorothy Munholland noticed an obvious white space in the field of non-alcoholic wines: the alcohol wasn’t there, but neither was the taste. So two years ago, they created Null Wines, a premium label made with award-winning winemakers and top dealcoholization experts in Europe. The brand’s second release features a duo made up of a festive sparkling white wine and single-variety red.
Planeket
The Planeket is the multihyphenate of travel accessories—and while there's no Lunar New Year special, it's a great buy year round. A packable blanket, pillow, phone stand, and storage compartment in one, Planeket was created with the current era of carry-on luggage restrictions in mind, says founder Jen Chin. While typical airplane blankets tend to drop to the plane’s floor (a generally unsanitary location), the Planeket one-ups those other sheets with loops that fasten loosely around the wearer’s neck, allowing the Planeket to stay in place and off the floor.
