Lauvée L1: Rethinking Where Skincare Actually Starts
*LAUVÉE
*LAUVÉE
Cleansing is supposed to be the simplest part of a routine. It is also the step we compromise first. Lauvée, a young Paris‑based beauty tech brand, starts there. Instead of adding another corrective layer, the L1 device asks a quieter question: what happens if we fix the way we cleanse before trying to fix everything else?
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Cleansing is rarely discussed as a system. It's described as a step, sometimes as a gesture, almost never as a condition. Yet everything in skincare depends on it. Before actives interact with receptors, before formulations diffuse, before any performance claim can make sense, there is a surface state. A level of clarity. A degree of receptivity. Skin that is either prepared, or not.
Lauvée builds its entire proposition around this threshold: not cleansing as removal, but as preparation. Contemporary skincare culture has moved upward. Value concentrates at the top of the routine: serums, devices, treatments, protocols. The higher the step, the more language, expectation, and desire it carries. Cleansing, by contrast, remains largely unexamined. It's assumed to be stable, universal, solved. Lauvée challenges that assumption.
The brand doesn't ask how to clean more. It asks how to clean better, more precisely, more consistently, in a way that respects skin as living tissue rather than a surface to be stripped. This shift matters because cleansing isn't neutral. It modulates the skin barrier, influences inflammation, and affects how evenly products spread and how deeply they penetrate. It shapes the skin's immediate response to everything that follows.
Founded by entrepreneur Tengfei Han and dermatologist Dr. Noël Schartz, Lauvée sits at the intersection of two skincare traditions. French dermatology has long prioritized tolerance, barrier integrity, and long-term equilibrium. Asian skincare cultures, particularly in Japan and Korea, have developed a deep understanding of preparation, cleansing as a repeated, structured ritual that conditions the skin before treatment.
Lauvée operationalizes this duality. The result is a functional brand, an object designed to make a foundational gesture more reliable. The L1 is a compact, hexagonal cleansing device made of antibacterial silicone. It relies on high-frequency micro-vibrations, the brand's DMC system, to detach sunscreen, pollution residue, and excess sebum. The action is even and controlled. No rotation, no scraping, no mechanical aggression.
This matters because friction has a cost. Over time, aggressive cleansing contributes to barrier disruption, micro-inflammation, and reactivity. Lauvée's approach aligns with a more nuanced understanding of skin physiology: efficacy without trauma.
What defines the L1 isn't only how it touches the skin, but how it structures time. A two-minute guided cycle introduces duration. Automatic stop introduces limits. Waterproof design integrates the device into existing habits. Extended battery life removes maintenance friction.
The silicone picots are extremely fine and flexible. Contact remains uniform across the face. The sensation is continuous and soft, closer to massage than exfoliation. Skin is increasingly understood as tissue with memory, not a surface to be corrected. Pressure, rhythm, and repetition matter as much as ingredients.
The L1 includes a second mode inspired by kobido facial massage, focused on microcirculation and lymphatic flow. It's framed as stimulation and drainage, a way to support fluid movement and reduce stagnation. Again, the logic is preparatory.
The benefits? Reduced pore appearance, improved serum absorption, increased skin softness, and complete makeup removal under test conditions.
Skincare routines have become increasingly complex. Layering is normalized. Actives are stacked. Devices promise professional results at home. The L1 doesn't replace serums, treatments, or procedures. It supports them by stabilizing the environment in which they operate: water, cleanser, movement, time. These aren't new elements. But the way they're combined, repeated, and respected determines everything that follows. The L1 doesn't promise to change skin on its own. It makes skin more available to change.
