Tatcha is one of those beauty brands where you’ll find the product packaging as lust-worthy as the formulas.

Inspired by the Geishas in Kyoto, the founder Victoria Tsai took care to develop a range of effective formulas wrapped in beautiful Japanese-inspired gilded and printed paper.

I’ve long heard about its Luminous range, but only got to roadtest it recently.

I was impressed with the products, given that Tsai, an American ex-financier, had zero background knowledge on beauty formulas until she met a geisha in a Japanese beauty shop.

The Luminous Dewy Skin Mist has been raved by beauty YouTubers such as Jeffree Star. It is made with red algae collected from the clear Okinawan waters, which is known to retain moisture in the skin. The mist also contains squalane, panax ginseng, camellia seed oil, and Tatcha’s proprietary complex, the Hadasei-3 made of rice bran oil, Okinawa red algae, and green tea.

Nicknamed the “liquid moisturiser”, this milky lotion worked perfectly as an essence-like skin-softening lotion, as well as a make-up setting spray. It is lightweight but helped to keep my skin supple for longer.

The Deep Hydration Firming Serum is great. This gel-like serum emulsion gave my skin long-lasting moisturisation and made it feel tight and firm, immediately. Made with the Hadasei-3 complex, rice extract, green tea, royal jelly, and hyaluronic acid, it also contains iridescent flecks (apparently fine flecks of 23-karat gold) to give an instant glow without adding any tacky-looking shimmer to the skin. Love.

The Deep Hydration Lifting Mask is an indulgent pampering sheet mask. But unlike the cheap paper masks that dry out easily, this one has a gel-like texture made from coconut fruit biocellulose (so you can imagine that slippery, squishy, and soft material). The masks clings well to the skin and seals in all the moisturising essence. It also stays damp for longer, so you can fall asleep with it (I left it on for 45 minutes, way longer than the recommended 15) and not be afraid that it would dry up along with your skin. After all, the biocellulose material is often used in hospitals as an occlusive to treat the skin of burn victims to speed up healing.

The remaining essence in the mask – containing Hadasei-3 red algae, green tea leaf extract, panax ginseng root extract, royal jelly extract, and thyme extract – is also generous, but note that it is watery, so be careful not to spill it when pouring it out. My skin was left glowing, bouncy and tight. Perfect for repairing and hydrating the skin after too many late nights.

The Deep Hydration Revitalising Eye Mask is made with the same material as the Lifting Mask, except that it is cut perfectly to fit the eye area. It is also made with silk extract, peony extract, liquorice extract, matricaria flower extract, and squalane. Great for instantly perking up the eye area.

These products, all paraben-, mineral oil-, synthetic fragrance and phthalates-free, have turned me into a fan of Tatcha.