Louise Robert: what the hands see before the eyes

Louise Robert, a facialist, spent twenty-two years in the fashion industry as a stylist and then as a collection director. She therefore worked for many years on image before turning her attention to what lies beneath the surface.

These days, she works on faces. With her hands, of course, but also with everything that can influence how they change: skin, muscles, circulation, habits, lifestyle, cosmetics, and certain technologies. She’s very interested in aging, but much less so in the idea of fighting it.

What she is trying to understand is rather how to preserve the vitality, mobility, and contours of a face that changes over time.

What kind of relationship do you have with your skin?

A much more pragmatic approach than before. I observe it, I listen to it, I take care of it, but I try not to turn it into a daily report on my overall condition.

At 48, I find my skin more interesting than I did at 30. It requires more attention, it’s less forgiving of certain oversights, but above all, it has forced me to better understand how it works. I no longer focus so much on having “beautiful skin” every day. I’m aiming for skin that’s healthy, comfortable, resilient, and capable of aging well. That distinction seems important to me.

What do you notice about a face before you touch it?

First, I look at how the person holds themselves. Long before I notice wrinkles, I look at the contours, any asymmetries, tension, the way the jawline sits, how the neck complements the face, and the areas that seem mobile versus those that are less so. I also look at the skin, of course: its radiance, texture, level of hydration, and any redness.

But what really interests me about my work is precisely the gap between what I see and what my hands will then discover. A face may appear relaxed but actually be extremely tense. An area I thought I’d need to work on may ultimately turn out to be merely the result of tension located elsewhere. Touch often corrects that initial assessment.

What's your current skincare routine?

It's actually quite stable, precisely because I've long had a tendency to want to try everything.

In the evening, I cleanse very thoroughly, using a double cleanse. I then apply peptides and retinol, and depending on the time of year, I add more targeted products. In the morning, I keep my cleansing routine very simple: cool water, toner, followed by antioxidants, moisturizer, and sunscreen, depending on my level of sun exposure.

And I massage my face almost every day, for just a few minutes. Over time, I've come to believe much more in consistency than in sophistication. A fairly simple routine that you actually stick with for years seems more worthwhile to me than a bathroom turned into an experimental laboratory.

The action and the product—how do they work together?

I don't expect the same from them. A cosmetic product primarily acts on the skin and can have very beneficial effects when it contains the right active ingredients in the right formulation. The massage works differently: it stimulates the tissues, relieves muscle tension, supports blood and lymphatic circulation, and also helps maintain a certain degree of facial mobility.

So I’m a bit skeptical of claims that attribute the powers of a cosmetic ingredient to massage, or those of a manual treatment to a cream. They are two different tools. On the other hand, when chosen wisely and used regularly, they complement each other remarkably well.

What does "feeling good about yourself" mean to you?

Maybe I can figure out how to deal with it without spending all my time trying to correct her.

I find it quite overwhelming how many things we’re now expected to keep an eye on when it comes to our faces: wrinkles, pores, dark spots, sagging, facial contours, dark circles, and symmetry. By constantly looking for things that could be improved, we sometimes end up losing sight of what’s actually going well.

So, for me, feeling good about myself doesn’t mean giving up on taking action, nor does it mean pretending to love every wrinkle with enthusiasm. I love cosmetics, massages, technology, and everything that helps us take care of ourselves. But I like that they remain tools—I don’t want them to become a way of spending my life viewing myself as a construction site. In my view, that’s probably where a more interesting relationship with aging begins.