Words by: Tanya Singh
Photo Credit: Lify Wellness

Born from the idea of "making wellness accessible", Lify Wellness marries traditional knowledge with science for healthier lifestyles all around.

Co-created in 2017 by sisters, Connie and Mazing Lee, Lify Wellness is an award-winning wellness technology firm based in Hong Kong with a purpose to integrate traditional herbal wisdom into everyday life. The brand's goal is to increase awareness around balanced living and use their beverages to make a healthier lifestyle more accessible.

Lify Wellness founders, Connie and Mazing Lee.

How did it all start?

"We come from different backgrounds – brand management and industrial design. The two of us ran a design consultancy before getting into the wellness industry, working with large corporate firms designing consumer products. That was how we identified a gap in the market for wellness products. We were particularly inspired by coffee beverage systems and how they were created.

Even in our personal lives, we were both interested in exploring what wellness means for the modern people. (Mazing actually studied Traditional Chinese Medicine to learn how the body, mind, and other organs work in an integrated way. She wanted to know how to create the balance between body and mind to achieve true wellness.)

It was at this point that we started toying with the idea of using technology to reinvent traditional wisdom, which is usually quite difficult to practice in everyday life. Our first product was the Single-Serve Brewer, which delivered herbal beverages in a matter of seconds. Our latest venture is the ready-to-drink sparkling tea tonics (Recover Tonic, Radiance Tonic, Energy Tonic and Unwind Tonic) that pack a ton of health benefits in one canned, carbonated sugar-free beverage. We started Lify Wellness in 2017 with the idea of making wellness accessible to everyone and have worked towards that goal since.

We used our experience in designing consumer products to develop this wellness venture. Lify stands for "life is healthy" and we want people to consider us their wellness companion that gives them recommendations on achieving more balance in their life."

Left to right: The Radiance Collagen Tonic and Recover Collagen Tonic by Lify Wellness.

Lify Wellness is a marriage between science and traditional knowledge – could you talk about how the practical application of this marriage actually works?

"When developing our products, we always go back to our ethos as a brand – reinventing traditional wisdom with technology. We try to find ways for a modern user to integrate traditional wellness tonics or concoctions into their lives with ease. Our Smart Herbal Brewer, for instance, works with capsules that are formulated using herbal ingredients to brew health-benefitting beverages in just 40 seconds, as compared to the traditional method of boiling and steeping the herbs for hours.

The development process involves lots of market research on specific wellness needs. For example, in Hong Kong, a very large number of people are suffering from stress and sleeping problems. We take statistics like these and explore our herbal library, that we have developed over the years, for solutions – usually multiple herbs – that can tackle these symptoms. We also work closely with traditional Chinese medicine practitioners and advisors to gain validation on the active ingredients present in each formula. This is important because each herb has different characteristics and the goal is to create the perfect balance, or solution to the problem. Additionally, we also look at the scientific side of things. We have herbal scientists from the USA and tea masters from Europe that help us with researching and creating the right taste profile for each formulation. The process is a best be described as an east meets west method backed by science.

We currently have three types of blends: oriental, western-inspired, and special collections, like collagen-induced beverages and the CBD series."

The Smart Herbal Brewer delivers health-inducing beverages in just 40 seconds.

Can you let us in on the patented technologies Lify Wellness has developed?

"We currently have three patented technologies: the Smart Herbal Brewer, the Capsules that it uses, and the Recommendation System used in our mobile application.

The Smart Herbal Brewer that is fitted with a high-pressure infusion chamber, which differs from a regular coffee machine. The infusion chamber allows for a specially designed pre-infusion process – when you insert a capsule or disc into the machine, it soaks the herbal ingredients at the optimal pressure before delivering the beverage.

The Capsules are made from compostable material produced from multiple plant-based ingredients. It is also specially structured internally to allow maximum circulation of water. It allows the water to be evenly distributed and the herbs to expand as needed. This is very different from a uniform coffee capsule because herbal formulation vary in size and character – each blend may consist of flowers, fruits, stems, and leaves that expand at different rates.

Our mobile application is equipped with a bespoke Recommendation System that gathers data from customers on their lifestyle habits and suggests beverages according to their specific needs."

Connie and Mazing Lee at the Lify Wellness Pop Up Store in Hong Kong.

How do you navigate being sisters and business partners? What are each of your strengths within the company?

"We have been working together for over 7 years now, and we've been very lucky in finding the perfect business partner in each other.

Connie is the Chief Innovation Officer and all the research and development, product innovation, and production management is taken care of by her. Mazing is in charge of the business-related strategies, operations, and everything else. We often brainstorm and work together on creating the best user experience we can offer to our customers."

Any traditional medicine gems you would like to share with our readers?

"The most helpful discovery we made in our quest to understand traditional medicine was that all our organs are inter-related and respond to emotions that we go through in our daily lives, which is especially true for women who tend to be more sensitive to such feelings. For example, feeling sad can affect your liver and how you digest food. And therefore, wellness should always be considered from a holistic point of view. It is all about creating that balance inside and being in harmony with the environment."

From one women-run business to another: what in your opinion makes businesses like ours stand out?

"Women always come from a place of compassion, whether it is in creating a user experience or leveraging professional relationships. We tend to value long-term relationships and ensure that the relationship is always mutually beneficial. We are always seeking synergy.

Our wellness workshops, for example, have to be designed from a user-centered approach – from building content that is relevant to the particular audience to selecting the right blends for the tasting sessions. It helps when you are already coming from a place of compassion and willing to give attention to all the details when implementing those. Unsurprisingly, our workshops surrounding the topics of self-care, mindfulness and mocktail making almost always receive more interest from women because they are also more open to creating relationships with us as a brand."