Photographed by Joe Salazar. Courtesy of Loida Nicolas Lewis
Photographed by Joe Salazar. Courtesy of Loida Nicolas Lewis
While visiting the Filip + Inna studio, author, lawyer, and businesswoman Loida Nicolas Lewis chats with Vogue Philippines about beauty, her latest book, and life.
As Loida Nicolas Lewis enters the Filip + Inna studio, she exclaims in delight. “Len, this is so beautiful!” she says to the designer Len Cabili, admiring the locally-made furniture, artwork, and collections that line the porch. Over and over again, she compliments the craftsmanship of everything she sets her eyes on: the chairs, the ceramic figurines, even the garden, despite the gloomy weather that the amihan season brings. Suffice to say, Lewis has an eye for beauty.
And she sure keeps busy. The lawyer, businesswoman, and author had just spent the past few weeks promoting her new book, Look Younger When You’re Older, a guide to the beauty and wellness she’s kept over the years. The idea originated during her previous book tour for Why Should Guys Have All the Fun?, where people would often be surprised that Lewis is in her eighties.
“While I was promoting my book, I was met with shock and awe every time I revealed that I am 80. I have been so frequently asked about what it is that I do differently that makes me look the way I do and have the energy that I have at my age. I would answer briefly, as much as a typical Q&A would allow, but there was so much more that I could think of sharing,” she shares in a press release.
The book’s tagline is “No Botox, No Surgery,” which doesn’t come from a place of judgment, but rather a desire to remind people that beauty doesn’t have to come at a hefty price. “I want to let people know who cannot afford Botox, or even if they can afford Botox, that it’s possible to look good even up to 80,” she says. “As I say, this is what 80 looks like.”
It’s quite a refreshing statement to make, as the world is increasingly becoming more accepting of cosmetic procedures. According to a global survey by the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, 38 million procedures were performed in 2024, representing a 40 to 42.5% increase since 2020. While most focus on the external, Lewis looks inward, nurturing her spirit and letting it come through on the surface.
“Choose joy, choose kindness. Don’t be grumpy, and everything will come to you,” she says. A wellness practice she shares in the book is journaling, a practice of gratitude and reflection that keeps her energy youthful. It’s a mindset she adapted from The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale, which she read as a teenager. “Positivity is already written in our DNA. If something is not alright, it’s not the end,” she says.
She also wants readers to know that the best time to start looking younger is now, and that you can start at any age. In fact, several of Lewis’ beauty and wellness advice came much later in life: she began exercising at 45 years old and discovered her moisturizing routine in her fifties. At 84 years old, she also credits her beauty to the influence of her friends, who also have their own tips that they shared in the book. “We meet each other, we inspire each other, because birds of the same feather flock together,” she says. “You influence each other.”
For a conversation that’s meant to be about beauty practices, she spoke more about nurturing the spirit. A sentiment that is driven by the aim of the book: “This book is for those who are seeking ways to truly give the kind of care to themselves that makes for long, healthy, and joyful lives,” she says. Lewis is indeed living a long and meaningful life, yet you get the sense that she has many more chapters within her.
In this chapter, she’s devoted to a life of service, to her family, and to others. Just a few days before her Vogue Philippines interview, she visited Amerasian children, the unacknowledged children of U.S. military men. It’s an advocacy that she’s currently actively involved with, and one of the many things that fill up her days. But in this moment, she’s at the Filip + Inna studio, eating pandesal and talking about craft on a fine Monday morning.
