Georgia Louise On Treating Your Skincare Routine Like Your Gym Routine
Georgia Louise at The AllBright West Hollywood Grand Opening Party
TOMMASO BODDI/GETTY IMAGES FOR ALLBRIGHT
A version of this story first appeared on Forbes.com
Skincare is bigger than ever these days, but with so much incredible social media marketing (that can sometimes over-hype products that aren’t actually effective) it can be hard to discern what skincare products, trends, and treatments are actually worth the investment.
To get more clarity on the world of skincare in 2019, we spoke with celebrity facialist Georgia Louise. Louise has helped celebrities like Emma Stone, Cate Blanchett, and Jennifer Anniston achieve gorgeous skin, and she recently opened her latest atelier at the AllBright West Hollywood, where she’s ready to spread her skincare expertise to a new city.
We spoke about her signature treatments, how she got her start in the beauty industry, and where the skincare industry is heading in the next decade.
SIMPLY: How did you get your start in the skincare industry?
GEORGIA LOUISE: My mother was very into her beauty regimen at home, and from when I was a young girl I would watch her do things like double cleanse her skin with oils and make masks from ingredients in the kitchen. It was just incredible to see that, and she has the most amazing skin, so it was natural for me to join her and cleanse my skin and moisturize too. So I knew from a very young age that I wanted to be a skincare expert, and I enrolled in a beauty college at a pretty young age.
I started my business when I was just eighteen. I opened my first studio, and then I bought a shop in New York, and I’ve been in New York for nine years now.
SIMPLY: That’s amazing! And how did the partnership with AllBright come about in opening your West Hollywood location?
GL: [AllBright co-founder] Debbie Wosskow has actually been a client of mine for over a decade; she was one of my original clients in London. We kept in touch, and last January she called me and said she’d just launched AllBright in London, and that they were looking to launch overseas in the US and asked if I would be interested in partnering with them.
I immediately thought this was a great opportunity. The club is stunning, and to partner with someone who I know and trust, and whose career I admire so much, it just seemed like a natural step. I couldn’t resist!
SIMPLY: We love that a relationship that started so long ago turned into this great business opportunity.
Moving more in depth into skincare, what do you think are some of the most common misconceptions or misunderstanding about skincare and anti-aging?
GL: It’s such a horrible word, isn’t it? “Anti-aging”, it just sounds so ugly. I think what’s happening is that we’re already reversing how we look by all the things that we’re eating and doing. And I think anti-aging means different things to different people. It could be what you eat and drink; it could be what injections you’re having done; or it could mean what you do from a holistic standpoint to make yourself feel better about your appearance and what your skincare goals are.
I’ve been giving facials for over 25 years and have had clients that have followed me throughout their career and say they look better in their 40s than in their 30s. Then when they are in their 50s, they say they look better than they did in their 40s.
It’s all about having a balanced lifestyle, finding the right diet, and keeping fit, but you also need to be using the right products for your skin with active ingredients. You should be using machines that do the heavy duty stuff, such as microcurrent and radio frequency to tighten and lift the skin, and light therapy too.
So for me, anti-aging is about that balance, and that requires you to be diligent and think of your skincare habits as a lifestyle decision. The more hyaluronic acid you put on your skin, the tougher your skin will be; the more antioxidants you eat, the better you’ll be able to preserve skin cells. Prevention is always better than a cure, so the better you keep up with these lifestyle habits, the better your skin will look in the long term.
“At the end of the day, it isn’t about the branding or the marketing, it’s about what’s inside these products.”
Georgia Louise
SIMPLY: One thing you mentioned briefly was the microcurrent treatment, which is one of the signatures of your facial treatments at AllBright. Tell us a little more about how microcurrent works and what the benefits are.
GL: Essentially it’s like taking your face to the gym. Microcurrent energy instantly goes to the core of your muscle and tightens it up.
Initially microcurrent was used for body treatments and rehabilitating muscle injuries, but now it’s being used for facials to rehabilitate and strengthen your face muscles. The idea is that if you went to the gym and did weight training, you would feel your muscles get tighter and stronger the more you worked out. Microcurrent works the same way. The more you do it, the more results you’ll see. You can really get a surgical face-lifting result without the surgery.
Of course, we realize that not everyone has the money to have these amazing services on a regular basis, so I recommend using a microcurrent device at home. The NuFace device is my favorite for at-home use that you can use for everyday, and then every so often you can come see us at the AllBright or another location. To continue with the gym analogy, our services are like personal trainers for your skin because we can get way in there and give a deeper treatment than you can at home.
SIMPLY: In the past few years, skincare has really taken off as a thing people are really conscious about and trying to be more knowledgeable on skincare. As we close out the 2010s and head into the next decade, where do you see skincare going in the next 10 years?
GL: My main word of caution is be careful. There are a lot of social media brands that are jumping into this category, but they aren’t really skincare experts. They are social media experts, and it’s all about trends. That won’t work in the long run, so be careful with what you see on the market.
I also think you are going to see a lot of companies change their packaging to be green and eco-friendly.
Another big trend is that you’re going to see a big wave of skincare devices become accessible for home use. People will realize how easy it is to use these machines and it will start to become the norm.
SIMPLY: We completely agree that there are so many new brands popping up that have great marketing, but we’re not totally sure what’s in them.
GL: At the end of the day, it isn’t about the branding or the marketing, it’s about what’s inside these products. That is what’s important. You want to know what you are using, so if you see beautiful packaging but can’t read the label or identify the ingredients, I would hold off on using that product, because it could be quite harmful to your skin.
To learn more about Georgia Louise, visit georgialouise.com.