When Laura Love recently posted that she’d passed her state board exams to become an esthetician, the comments section resembled an It-Girl roll call. Alexa Chung, Charlotte Ronson, and Jen Brill sent applause emoji; Coco Baudelle wrote “Wow;” and many more begged for the model and dancer’s full skin care list. Love — who’s been into beauty since she was a child watching her mother, legendary editor Lisa Love, go through hair and makeup to appear on The Hills — tells NYLON that a combination of factors motivated her to pursue her license.
“I found myself spending my days giving advice and testing products, and then I … turned 30 and got acne for the first time in my life, which was really stressful,” she says. “I’m really Type A and uptight, and I was like, ‘I need to be legit if I’m giving advice,’” she says. “And beauty school was, honestly, not what I expected it to be, … but I did learn a lot, and I do feel like I can help other people other than myself, which was the ultimate goal.”
Below, Love shares an extended version of the list she first teased on Instagram, with commentary on every single product.
Morning
“Since becoming an esthetician, I primarily use [skin care] as my meditation. So it’s a bit extensive for regular people, but I’m looking for a moment to myself, which is why I’ve added the LED mask in the morning. Other than that, even though it sounds like a pretty long routine, I’m looking for a pretty low-maintenance day. I don’t really want to go out, and I don’t want to put on a full beat. Refreshed and protected is kind of the ultimate goal, so I can just go through the day, reapply my sunscreen, and that’s pretty much it.”
“I really like using lactic acid. It can be quite stripping on the face, but I feel very clean because I always cleanse before I use the LED mask. I put a lot on my face before bed, so in the morning, I do kind of have to cleanse. I was very much a ‘just water’ girl before, and that’s not the case anymore.”
“I love the Aduro. I think everyone else copied them. They have a lot more light settings, so that’s why I use that one. I use 10 minutes of ‘wrinkle reducer’ and 10 minutes of ‘radiant skin.’ … This is very much my meditation time. I like to do it with my legs elevated and just no contact with the world.”
“The point of a toner is to rebalance your skin from whatever is in the water — in L.A., we have terrible water, and that sometimes can have a huge effect on your skin — and to help absorb the rest of the skin care that goes on your face. It’s kind of your first step.”
“And then, because I have very dry skin, I go over [the toner] with a hydrating mist, which sometimes companies say are toners, but they’re just not. It’s an additional hydration boost.”
“If I’m exercising, I’ve been loving Magic Molecule. It’s one of the products that helped my acne. A lot changed like when I stopped dancing. I was sweating so much, and I think you don’t realize how important that is for your skin. It works on bug bites, and it’s really calming. And that’s just nice to have throughout the day.”
“And the SkinCeuticals, I just always go back to it. It’s expensive and it’s a cult classic, and it’s not that I wanted to like it at all. I just find that my skin just looks the best. It’s the protection I need.”
“And I discovered The Ordinary [niacinamide] because I order the hyaluronic acid from them, and it just came with a niacinamide. And I started to notice a huge difference in my skin. And I realized that it was actually the niacinamide and not the hyaluronic that was giving me that even, radiant complexion I was looking for.”
“Hyaluronic acid is my favorite product. It really works.”
“Embryolisse, which I discovered as a model, doesn’t feel super heavy on my skin. I have a tendency to get very greasy, and it also doesn’t pill over the rest of the stuff. My sunscreens work well with it. Makeup works well with it. It’s light and hydrating, and that’s really all I’m looking for in a moisturizer: to seal in all the stuff I just did to my skin.”
“I’ve spent my 30 years of life trying to get rid of my freckles, and I just don’t look good in the sun. So sunscreens have been my best friend. … I really like the SkinCeuticals Brightening sunscreen. I’m wearing it now. I like it because it has kind of a pink tint and a little bit of shimmer. And since I don’t want to wear so much on my skin in the summer, it’s kind of a nice filter.”
Evening
“Night is a little bit more heavy duty.”
“I love the Bioderma micellar water. I use that if I have makeup on.”
“Otherwise, I’ll just go straight into my May Lindstrom oil cleanser. The May Lindstrom line [can] feel very heavy and kind of daunting for somebody with an oilier skin type, but it’s actually specifically for May Lindstrom herself, [who] struggled with really bad acne. It smells like a spa. It’s the only oil cleanser that doesn’t clog my pores or feel too heavy.”
“Her Clean Dirt is kind of like an enzyme exfoliator. I will say that it, one and done, cured my hormonal acne. It is just like a miracle product. I’ve never seen a product like it, and it’s just the best. It kind of burns a little bit. And I usually gua sha in the shower with the oil cleanser, and I’ve been loving doing that, like a lymphatic drainage. I like the weight of this one. … It’s sturdy. It gets in all the areas I like.”
“I do it maybe five minutes, maybe less. I feel it helps my products absorb better. I wake up feeling glowier. I think you have to use it every day, which is kind of a commitment. But I’ve been using it every day for a month now, and I notice a difference.”
“Sometimes I’m ‘OK, I’m over it,’ and I just want to go to bed, in which case I’ll just put on the La Roche-Posay Cicaplast, and that’s it. And I wake up, and I feel amazing. The thing I did learn with that product, though, is it doesn’t really work with anything else. If you’re going to do your vitamin C, hyaluronic acid, or any type of oils under it, it’s going to pill and just sit on your skin.”
“You wake up with the best skin ever, so I would recommend this on a weekend or before a date night.”
“I will not skip a night without my supplements. … I just simply notice that my skin feels plumper and more hydrated when I take it by mouth every night. Zinc, I’ve been taking it for many, many years. When I travel, it’s good for my immune system, but ultimately it’s good for my skin. Maybe it’s mental. And then the magnesium simply just helps me get a better night’s rest.”
