Celeb Facialist Georgia Louise: You’ve Got to Work for Beautiful Skin
Facialist Georgia Louise takes a “more is more” approach to skin care. (Photo: Georgia Louise)
Spend a few minutes with A-list facialist Georgia Louise and you will find yourself second-guessing everything you thought you knew about skin care. For starters, your cleanse, serum, moisturize beauty routine just isn’t going to cut it. “If you want to have beautiful skin, you’ve got to work at it,” Louise says. “If a client comes here and expects a 1-2-3-step program, I send them home, because that’s not my thing.”
For Louise, who treats a gorgeous list of clients including Jennifer Aniston, Behati Prinsloo, Emma Stone, and Linda Evangelista, more is more when it comes to beauty. Clients leave with strict instructions for how to care for their skin and an average of 10 products to use each day. “My whole philosophy with products is about layering. Your skin needs different things seasonally for different areas,” Louise explains. “My clients are always scared at first, so I tell them, ‘Start with four. Come and see me in two weeks, but you won’t be happy; you’re going to want more.’ And they’ll come back and say, “OK, so what’s the next step?” To achieve radiant skin, Louise works with most clients once a month. “I won’t give up until their skin is perfect. I will give them homework to do. I will tell them what products they need to be using. We will follow up in one week, two weeks, and three weeks to see how their skin is progressing. If it’s not progressing, we change the protocol and readjust.”
It’s not a surprise that Louise’s clients come back wanting more. For starters, her new Upper East Side atelier is so beautifully designed, it automatically feels like a space you want to return to. Every room is wallpapered. The treatment rooms include vintage furniture and cozy sofas. Cool art and Georgia’s skin care mantras line the walls. Plus, the Brit beauty guru is a fountain of wisdom on everything from cult brands to cutting-edge treatments. She has such an authority when discussing skin care that you automatically want to heed her advice. Louise’s facials run an hour and a half, but she’s so popular that she’s had to stop taking new clients. In her place are two facialists rigorously trained in her technique. “I’m a stickler,” Louise admits about hiring. “The interview process is brutal. I have them locked up for a year before they can actually start working with clients. I can’t have someone come in and not be an amazing aesthetician — they have to be truly talented.”
Georgia Louise’s spa is homey and inviting. (Photo: Georgia Louise)
Georgia Louise realized the transformative power of beauty at a very young age thanks to her mother, who worked in cosmetic surgery. “I would see these women come round to the house. Whether they wanted a nose job or breast surgery, they wanted to feel better about themselves.” When Louise was 12, her mother introduced her to high-end, natural beauty products and taught her to cleanse, tone, and massage her skin. It all had an impact. As a teenager, Louise resolved to focus on beauty as a career, telling her family, “I don’t want to go to conventional school; I want to go to beauty school. It’s my calling.” Louise credits the European method of teaching for giving her a holistic take on skin care.” In the U.S. it’s six months, a 600-hour training course to be an aesthetician. In Europe, it’s two years, and it’s nutrition, it’s business, it’s body, and it’s skin. You cover everything,” Louise says. “So then you begin to understand, Why is the client’s skin breaking out? It’s not just external; it’s the internal environment as well.”
Louise tailors facials to her client’s needs. Beyond skin care, she has a background in massage (including sports massage) and holistic therapies like aromatherapy. “If my clients have tension, I’m able to work on their bodies, and their faces. People are like, ‘Oh my God, she gets it. She’s working on everything, not just slapping on another product.’ Her facials combine a variety of techniques include microcurrents, LED lights, radio frequency, and her signature lift-and-sculpt massage, which is “20 minutes of actually pummeling and pounding the skin really deep to actually sculpt the face. I actually use my knuckles and I lift the skin.”
Louise promises the results aren’t just temporary — as long as you stick with it. “If you just have a one-off treatment, you’re going to get the results for a couple of weeks. But your muscle has a memory. It’s like going to the gym and you working out your muscles. If you go weekly, you stay firm and tight.” Louise says that the results can replace injectables. “I don’t do Botox or fillers, and I tell my clients, ‘Look, you can really achieve a lot with massage. You’re able to get into places you could never get with a machine. So my clients get long-lasting results.”
As far as the latest cosmetic treatments available to women from their dermatologists, Louise is not a fan. Botox is something Louise advises against. “I think that can actually damage your muscles in the long run,” she warns. “I’ve seen people do Botox progressively for more than 10 years and your face changes shape because your muscles aren’t as thick, aren’t as strong. So if you want to look more natural, you have to give your muscles a break. Doing the microcurrent [treatment] enables clients to cut back on the amount of Botox they’re having.” She also cautions against lasers. “Try not to do too much laser because I think that damages the skin,” Louise says. “It thins the top layer. The more of that you remove, the more hypersensitive you are to sun damage. I actually see more sun damage when people are doing too much laser.” The biggest offender is one of the more popular versions. “I find that people are a little bit OCD on Clear and Brilliant. I hear dermatologists are recommending that as frequently as a facial, which is once a month. And it’s just too much. We weren’t born to have lasers on our skin every day. It’s working on a deep level. You’re traumatizing your skin a little bit too much. Some of the deeper lasers can cause like internal scarring. So, actually, lasers are still a bit of a question mark for me,” Louise muses. “I worry that people are rushing to get quick results without taking the conservative approach of doing regular facials, which can be even more effective.” We’re sold.
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