Men tend to think that, like wine, they improve over time. But unless you are George Clooney or Patrick Dempsey, this isn’t really true. To help men be at their best, American actor Rob Lowe has just launched his own skincare line, Profile 4 Men. The “Parks and Recreation” star, who belies his 51-years, has been putting his well-manicured hands to his line of “gentlemen’s grooming products”, for the last six years. We speaks to Lowe about his five-piece range – priced between $24 and $59 – why men are getting into grooming and his top tips for younger looking skin.What made you want to launch your own skincare line?
I’m getting to a certain age where I look around and see people who look at their best, and others who don’t. I’ve been trying to figure out the difference. And one of the things I realised is that taking care of your skin when you are a man is really overlooked. It’s something that I’ve been doing forever, and I wanted to share it with other men.
How did you imagine the line?
I started in show business when I was 15, and since then, I have learnt from the best experts in the world about how to look my best. Like most guys, I didn’t want to do it myself, I had no interest in it and I wanted other people doing it for me. My idea was to make a line of products that were hassle-free, really simple and which brought great results for guys. I didn’t want it to be just repackaged women’s products, but products that were specific to men’s skin. It’s the bare minimum every guy should be doing if they want to look their best.
What was your input in the line?
I built it from the ground up. It’s been six years in the making and I’ve been doing everything from choosing the lab, working on the components, formulas, designing the packaging, building the website from scratch and overseeing the finance.
It’s like your baby…
Exactly! I didn’t just put my name on it. For me, it’s like a dream. If this line had existed, I probably wouldn’t have done it.
Who is it for?
Men start losing their collagen at the age of 20. But 20-year-olds don’t care about anti-aging, and neither should they. They should care about puffy dark circles, or lack of sleep from having too much fun the night before. On the other side, guys in their forties, fifties and above want to maintain and look rested. Everybody needs something – that’s what I learnt from years of having experts take care of me. There is no free lunch.
What makes modern men more into beauty and skincare than older generations?
I think part of it is how we refer to it, with words like beauty and skincare – it’s a turn off… even for me! I don’t want to look beautiful, and skincare is what my mother and my grandma did. What is different now is there are products for men, which are sold to them in a way that men relate to, and prove themselves efficient. What men are interested in is looking healthy, rested, youthful, vigorous, and groomed – it’s about the terminology that one uses. You see it in all areas of modern men’s lives: they are fit and getting more concerned with what they eat. There are men out there who don’t care about how they look. I haven’t met very many of them though! [laughs]
Have you always taken good care of your skin?
No, I haven’t; I had people doing it for me. I have literally almost forty years of people taking care of my skin for me. First thing you do when you show up on a set is you go to makeup: they moisturise you, they do all tricks a regular guy will never ever do or wouldn’t know how to do. Then, I reached an age where I wanted to take care of it myself.
What is your daily beauty routine?
I keep it very simple. In the morning, I wake up, jump in the shower, I use my Hydrating Cleanser and I moisturize. I do surfing, so I’m outside a lot and the salted water and sun are brutal. Often when I work I’m wearing prosthetic makeup with glues on my face, so I really need to take care of my skin. I use the same regimen in the morning and at night before I go to bed. I carry my Revive eye serum with me. You know, guys don’t have any fun: We don’t have lipstick, and there aren’t many choices for us… you know what I mean? So I think it’s fun for dudes to have a little cool eye cream to pull out of their pocket and use under their eyes.
What is the biggest mistake men make when it comes to their skin?
The biggest mistake is to think they don’t need to start a regimen. At a certain point in your life, you are going to see the negative effects in your face, without a doubt. If you look at anybody who looks youthful, those people, for the most part, are doing something. If you look at people in movies and television, they have the pros doing it for them. How can guys expect to look good if they don’t do anything to take care of themselves?
Apart from skincare, what do you do to remain young and healthy?
I’m very active. I’m blessed with a ton of energy. I’m either working, or doing something outdoorsy. Yesterday I was on a fishing boat for twelve hours, the day before that I was in the gym, and before that I was surfing for four hours… that’s a big part of it. When you look at children and when you look at old people, what’s the main thing kids do that old people don’t? They run, they jump, they play. I try to do something like that every day. I love to eat, I had a gigantic chocolate milkshake last night and I don’t think it’s on the movie star diet, but you know, every once in a while…
