by Alexandra Nicole Nuralam

Sabrina Joseph-Tan’s Guide to Style & Glowing Skin

With a love for fashion and style, Sabrina Joseph-Tan (@sabjoseph) decided to pursue it upon returning to Indonesia. The HuntStreet founder, who studied hospitality in Switzerland, created the platform to sell preloved high fashion and luxury items. When she’s not too busy running her business, Sabrina is overseeing the non-profit organisation Catholic Fellowship Jakarta (which she also co-founded) that provides support for professionals to grow in faith.

We hung out with Sabrina in her home as she shares about the story behind HuntStreet, how style influences her work, and some tips for the skincare ritual she always makes time for — dry-brushing.

Tell us more about yourself. 

I grew up in Jakarta, Indonesia, before I went to Switzerland for college. I moved to Singapore three years ago when I got married to my Indonesian-Singaporean husband. Ethnically, I’m Chinese (my mom is Chinese-Javanese, and my dad’s ancestry is from Taiwan). Having lived in both European and Asian continents, while I may be more westernised in certain areas such as fashion, pop culture or cuisine, I am still very much aligned with the traditional Asian values of humility, hard work and honesty. These are definitely values I will want to impart to my son.

As for what I am doing now, I have my hands fairly full now with my 2-year old son; I absolutely adore this stage of his growing up years. I also co-run my luxury fashion marketplace, HuntStreet, that my business partner and I started in 2015. HuntStreet (sg.huntstreet.com for those of you logging in from Singapore!), is now Indonesia’s largest luxury resale platform that is widely recognised as one that provides value, variety and assurance to our clients and consignors looking to buy and resell their preowned designer items.

What’s the story behind HuntStreet?

We actually started Huntstreet out of necessity 5 years ago. It started from a simple need — to rehome some of my things. But at that time, I simply couldn’t find any platform that could give me the fair value that I believe my items were worth. I asked around and realised that many of my friends were facing the same issue — either with pricing or service.

I then mooted the idea to my friend Janice who is now my co-founder and business partner. We did our research and found that the fashion resale market in Indonesia was huge but fragmented. So we decided to fill this gap in the market by creating Huntstreet to aggregate the supply of, and demand for luxury items through an online platform. It took us many months of planning (and sleepless nights!) and in 2015, Huntstreet was born.

We built it from scratch on our corporate (and personal!) values and ethos around authentication, transparency and fair pricing for both buyers and sellers. We try our best to be a fuss-free platform, currently offering over 35,000 designer pieces on our website ranging from bags to clothes, shoes and accessories.

How would you describe your style and how does that aesthetic show itself in your work?

I think my style is practical and bold, which is true to my character. I’m probably more edgy and masculine than I am feminine. I do feel this masculinity and boldness shine through aesthetically on HuntStreet as a brand. And the practicality of my style definitely translates into the company’s values.

Name five must-have items in your handbag.

Phone, wallet, lip balm, Gentle Monster sunglasses, planner (I’m a traditionalist that way). Oh, and these days I should also include a face mask (although it’s on my face so it shouldn’t count as part of the five!).

What’s your approach when it comes to beauty and wellness?

Always hydration first! Well-hydrated skin ages slower. I also believe that a sustainable beauty and wellness ritual is important. It needs to be realistic and doable over a long period of time to show results — as they say, “start strong and finish strong”.

How do you look after your skin?

My daily routine comprises the usual toner, serum, moisturizer and sunscreen. When I’m extra hardworking, I’ll dab on some eye cream (laughs).

My holy grail beauty products: La Mer’s The Concentrate (SGD290), which works like magic to correct all things wrong, and Le Masque face masks, which are bio-cellulose masks made from fermented coconut juice that literally gives me new skin the morning after.

Are you a no-makeup makeup person, or actually no makeup?

No-makeup makeup definitely!

We noticed you have a dry-brush on your counter! How often do you use it?

I love a good scrub! It’s a good way to shed off all the dead skin cells; I dry-brush with a gold sugar scrub from Omorovicza and I try to do it once or twice a week.

What is one mindful practice everyone should weave into their daily life?

I constantly remind myself to try to live in the moment, to intentionally be open, accept and pay full attention to whatever I am doing. And most importantly, to find joy in life’s simple pleasures!

What are your hopes for the year ahead?

I hope to grow my family. Hopefully next year we can have our second child and settle into our new home.

I also wish for bigger and better things for Huntstreet. Right now, we are building our app, which will allow sellers to list their items themselves at the convenience of their own homes. I’m quite excited and hoping to expand Huntstreet into Singapore. Having settled nicely in Singapore over the past year, I’ve come to see how fashion-savvy the women here are and I think having our platform present in Singapore and Indonesia will bring about many benefits for both sellers and buyers in the two markets!

Sabrina’s Beauty Picks
Omorovicza Gold Sugar Scrub, SGD112
Aromatherapy Associates Polishing Body Brush, SGD45
La Mer The Concentrate, SGD290
Le Masque Face Mask, SGD23
Sulwhasoo First Care Activating Serum, SGD118
Natura Bissé Diamond Extreme Eye, SGD277.95
Natura Bissé Facial Cleansing Gel with AHA, SGD83