UltraLuxe 2025: Live the high life with exclusive whisky, heritage craft and wellness products

SINGAPORE – What makes a life luxurious? Scottish whisky priced at $8,000 a bottle, Japanese Matsusaka beef, heritage craft and never looking your age, apparently.

This is the blueprint for the high life proposed by VerveArte, a new sub-event at the fourth edition of home-grown luxury festival UltraLuxe. Part experience, part showcase, it runs from Oct 2 to 4 at the Tent@Ngee Ann City in Orchard Road, transforming the 875 sq m lot into a four-room gallery of more than 30 brands.

Each room is devoted to a different plank of modern luxury.

In Eternia is a curation of treatments and products that promise an extension of beauty, or what might be referred to as one’s good years. Festival founder and chief executive Angela Loh, 59, calls it “agelessness”.

Here, visitors can sample treatments from the likes of wellness studio Avantir Wellness, with its signature red light and hyperbaric oxygen therapies; and skincare clinic Rexults, where a pulsed electromagnetic field therapy is the speciality.

Haar, short for hair anti-ageing research, brings its bottles of scalp treatments; and weight-loss kitchen Reculture Life presents its multipronged approach to shedding fat. Hint: homeopathic remedies, oil-free meals and mindfulness.

Style Inc brings together established names in local fashion and jewellery, like 48-year-old Meiko Tailor and cheongsam authority Laichan, in a short tour of Singaporean workmanship. Peranakan kebaya by Raymond Wong – the modiste of hit local drama Emerald Hill (2025) – and Kebaya by Ratianah are in the mix too.

Haute is a catch-all room for leisure. Guests can nibble on Matsusaka beef – one of the rarest wagyu – served three ways, with a choice of Yamazaki and Hibiki whiskies. The tasting is accompanied by art from Yang Gallery and a video preview of the new Elle Resort & Beach Club in Bali that is seeking investments. Buy-ins start at $50,000.

Spiritium is the whisky den. It houses just one brand, BitCask, a Singapore-based Scotch investment and bottling house that has curated a selection of limited-edition whiskies.

In its loose aim of inducting visitors into the “art of living”, VerveArte is something of a detour from the festival’s usually jewellery-heavy bent.

UltraLuxe, which received about 11,000 visitors in 2024, grew out of jewellery event JeweLuxe. Established in 2017, JeweLuxe remains the festival’s free-to-enter tentpole event and will run for a week from Oct 6 to 12 at the same venue instead of the usual 10 days.

VerveArte is ticketed at $180 for a 90-minute experience that Ms Loh pitches as a “race to discover”, riding on the hype of the concurrent Formula One Singapore Airlines Singapore Grand Prix weekend on Oct 3 to 5.

Of UltraLuxe’s break from tradition, Ms Loh says: “People are looking for new activities, new hobbies, new adventures.”

This fresh tangent has also called for fresh architecture.

A corridor leading into the main area doubles as an exhibition space for 60 noteworthy local brands, spanning advocacy (like ocean conservation non-profit International SeaKeepers Society), industry (non-fungible token marketplace Mintable) and even Singapore’s first women’s supercar club (Supercars Ladies Club).

Three out of the four rooms have bars.

Ms Loh, a former marketing professional, has planned for copious sipping. It starts with a welcome drink of bird’s nest milk at the door, a personal favourite of hers. “It keeps me mentally centred,” she says. Also available for order at Eternia, the supplement by bird’s nest nutrition brand Glyken is billed as 200 times more potent than cooked bird’s nest.

Visitors can then wander the rooms with beverages in hand, if they like. No more than 80 people every hour will be allowed in to keep the space uncrowded.

Ms Loh says: “I didn’t want this to be a boutique-style showcase but a social lifestyle exhibition.”

With Eternia, she also expands the fair into age-stalling technology – a field in vogue with the wealthy.

China’s President Xi Jinping and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin were caught on a hot mic musing about immortality at a Beijing military parade in early September. American centimillionaire Bryan Johnson has notoriously dabbled in taking blood transfusions from his teenage son, popping 111 pills a day and eating his last vegan meal of the day at 11am.

These vampiric pursuits skirt the limits of respectable science. But then, Ms Loh is less concerned with longevity than looking good.

She says: “Nobody should be able to guess my age. This is a time when we have the science, the technology and the financial capability to achieve our goals of no longer being defined by our age, to be vibrant and productive even when we’re older.

“Looking our age is simply not fashionable.”

By her estimation, vanity is not so much frivolous but empowering.

She says: “I’m almost 60, but I live the lifestyle of a 30-year-old. I wake up early and jump into the gym. By 9am, I’m having a wonderful breakfast that my helper prepares, with Michelin chef-worthy presentation, but it’s actually just hard-boiled eggs with black coffee.

“I also have different supplements, from my pineapple-flavoured glucosamine to my bird’s nest with sugar-free soya milk.”

It is a lifestyle she is hoping will resonate with her target audience of “high- to ultra-high-net-worth” individuals. Goods, services and investment opportunities on display range from the low hundreds, like $120 for haircare products, to $100,000 for fine jewellery to potentially millions in investment.

About 80 per cent of VerveArte’s available slots have been reserved, mostly by those with liquid assets of above $5 million, says Ms Loh.

People with $30 million liquidity make up about 10 per cent of current sign-ups.

But those of more common means are not sealed off from the buffet. Free-of-charge walk-ins are accepted daily from 11am to 2pm and they get the full run of the place, save for Haute and Spiritium, for which the standard fee of $180 applies.

For an annual membership fee of $600, those looking to live luxe can sign up for UltraLuxe’s latest offshoot, UltraClub. It is an app touting savings of more than $2,000 on select dining, lifestyle and cultural appreciation events.

Fuel up at these VerveArte pit stops

Mitsu Boshi

In the Haute room, Japanese Matsusaka beef distributor Mitsu Boshi is serving the wagyu raw in nigiri sushi, torched to a medium-doneness tataki and simmered, sukiyaki style.

This coveted beef has a limited annual production of some 7,000 heifers from about 80 ranches and its export is restricted.

Matsusaka cattle must be accredited and follow stringent breeding conditions. Only virgin heifers are raised to become Matsusaka Ushi (Japanese for cattle).

They are bred in the designated Matsusaka region in Mie prefecture.

And, unlike most other wagyu cows that are fed for around two years, they are raised for a minimum of 32 months. Top-grade Matsusaka heifers can reach 42 months of age.

The longer slow-feeding period is meant to give the beef a much more developed flavour and better marbling.

Mitsu Boshi wagyu comes from Ito Ranch, which was thrice awarded the Grand Champion Cattle Prize at the annual Matsusaka Beef Carcass Contest.

It has a silky mouthfeel, says a company spokesman.

Founders Mark and Hiroki Ito took nine years to persuade the “extremely guarded” Matsusaka Beef Council to grant them export rights.

Says the spokesman: “Even with the support of the Mayor of Matsusaka City, we were rejected.”

Somewhat coyly, they chalk up their eventual success to “a combination of factors”, mostly sheer perseverance, sincerity and patience.

Mitsu Boshi is accepting pre-orders for a curated Ito Matsusaka Ushi set at $230 a pop, good for two to three people, as well as Christmas pre-orders at VerveArte.

Laichan

A never-before-seen cheongsam from the namesake label of local fashion designer Laichan Goh – the late godfather of the modern cheongsam – is on display in the Style Inc room.

It is plucked from a private trunk and can be purchased, with its price to be disclosed on inquiry.

Since Goh’s death in April at the age of 62, his younger brother Eddie has helmed the Laichan brand, purveyor of Goh’s cult favourite cheongsam pieces – figure-skimming with contemporary touches.

Its current catalogue comprises the final designs of the couture master, sketched in the last phase of his life, says a brand spokesman. He adds that these are “unreleased pieces that reflect Goh’s most refined ideas”.

“It feels meaningful to showcase these works now as a tribute to his artistry and vision. People are always moved to see his creations in person.”

Prices range from $2,000 to $9,000, depending on material and craftsmanship. Expect European lace, Japanese kimono silks, batik fabrics, intricate embroidery and unique cuts.

Some dresses feature updated collar styles or sculpted details that show how Goh constantly evolved tradition with a modern touch, added the brand spokesman.

BitCask

At Spiritium, Scotch investment firm BitCask, established in 2022, is serving five whiskies bottled from its private collection of casks. These are for sale only at UltraLuxe, for between $238 and $358 a bottle.

A “barrel-to-bottle” bar experience gives guests the chance to try whisky straight from the barrel.

The event also sees the global launch of BitCask’s SG60 whisky.

Sixty bottles of the weightily titled Elixir, a 30-year-old full port cask maturation whisky from the renowned Springbank Distillery in Scotland, are available. Each bottle comes with a different matching work by local artist Andre Wee, ranging from local myths and legends to flora and fauna. Prices are tiered depending on the bottle art and numbering, and start at $8,888.

BitCask is also selling Elixir as a collectible – a drop of it is packaged in a compact, wearable leather case crafted by Singaporean artisan Shaun-Joel Liew. Sans the case, a 20ml bottle of the drop costs $288. With the handmade leather case, the same bottle is going for $488.

Avantir Wellness

The wellness clinic brings its NeurVi Brain headphones and Avantir red-light therapy to the Eternia room for visitors to experience.

According to a clinic spokesman, the headphones use specially designed audio frequencies to enhance focus, ease stress and promote relaxation and deep sleep.

The Avantir red-light therapy device delivers red and near-infrared light said to support cellular repair, reduce inflammation and improve circulation.

Avantir Wellness’ speciality is a professional-grade, full-body red- and near-infrared-light therapy system called NovoTHOR, which will not be on site at UltraLuxe.

According to the clinic, unlike smaller or localised devices, it delivers full-body coverage for all major muscle groups and organs to “benefit simultaneously”.

It is recommended for athletes and active people aiming to enhance recovery and performance.

Individual sessions start at $150.

Book it/UltraLuxe 2025

Where: Tent @ Ngee Ann City, 391A Orchard Road
When: Oct 2 to 4, 11am to 8pm
Admission: $180 from

str.sg/qCLg

; free entry from 11am to 2pm daily
Info:

www.ultraluxeglobal.com