This article first appeared in Harper's Bazaar Singapore, the leading fashion glossy on the best of style, beauty, design, travel and the arts. Go to harpersbazaar.com.sg and follow @harpersbazaarsg on Instagram; harpersbazaarsingapore on Facebook. The April 2021 issue is out on newsstands now.

Lawrence Wong's career has been going great guns in the past few years and, now, he is branching out.

His success seems heady, but it did not come overnight.

The actor has been a steady presence in the local entertainment industry for over a decade, first with a breakthrough role in the 2010 telemovie The Promise (for which he nabbed his first Star Awards nomination) and then with supporting roles on hit TV dramas such as 118 (2014 to 2015) and Three Wishes (2014).

But it took a gamble on his career and leaving the country for the Malaysia-born actor to finally hit the big time.

Wong, 39, left Singapore for China in 2016. And in that much more competitive and crowded field, he managed to nab a role as a palace guard-turned-military general in the imperial drama Story Of Yanxi Palace.

The rest, as the saying goes, is history. The show was one of China's biggest modern television successes, streamed millions of times around the world.

After Yanxi Palace, he returned to Singapore to take on the lead role in romantic TV drama My One In A Million (2019) before headlining the Chinese production, Girlfriend (2020).

He will next be seen in this year's supernatural drama The Ferryman: Legends Of Nanyang, for which he spent a chunk of last year filming in his home state of Johor.

The pandemic had scuttled his plans to return to China after the last Chinese New Year to resume work, so he spent most of the past year here in Singapore and Malaysia.

While others baked, cooked and crafted up a storm, Wong used the time to develop and realise an idea that had been brewing in his head for years: a botanical skincare line.

The results were recently unveiled, the first product being the Do-It-All mask under his newly launched Grail brand.

What was the past year like for you?

It was weird. We've all had to make a lot of changes to our lifestyles, but I think a lot of people discovered that they were actually able to do a lot of things.

I think everyone learnt that when humans are put into certain circumstances, we can actually accomplish a lot.

For example, during the circuit-breaker period, I had to do promos for Girlfriend and I realised I can actually do my own lighting, record my own stuff, style my own hair - which I haven't done in the longest time.

It was a period of rediscovering myself as well as new ways to make things work.

Why have you decided to launch a skincare brand?

I've always had problem skin since I was young. After my acne cleared, I developed really sensitive skin. It acts up if I use the wrong make-up, if it's dusty or even if I scratch it just a bit.

So I thought, why not formulate my own product that works for me and also a majority of people?

What other products do you have in mind?

I'm coming up with a pure-soya candle.

It's cheaper to do a regular candle, but I insisted on pure soya. There will be amethyst crystals in it as well because I'm a firm believer in the power of crystals.

You don't have to have crystals because they add to the cost, but I have very particular ideas of how I want things to be.

What are your thoughts on the entertainment industry, having been part of it for over a decade?

I think there's a vicious circle here in Singapore. It's sad but the fact is that we're losing audience share.

It's because we're not doing good shows, but that itself is also because of many things: budgets, the limitations our TV station faces, the lack of talent to produce programmes that are comparable with those done overseas.

It's sad because we do have talent in Singapore, but talent - actors, singers, make-up artists or painters - need to be in the right environment to blossom.

And at this moment, the arts aren't really being nurtured here.

What would be a dream role for you or something you want to do that people might not necessarily associate with you?

I'd like to do art-house films. I've always wanted to do that, but firstly, I haven't come across a good one and, secondly, my management company always says that movie actors don't earn much.

As for roles, there are still so many characters I haven't had a chance to portray, so I can't say for sure. Ask me again in 10 years?