It's not every day that you get to meet a supermodel IRL – but I am pleased to confirm that up close, Georgia May Jagger looks every bit as enchanting as she does on the adverts. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree – that's for sure.
Famed for her sparkly green eyes and refreshing, trademark tooth gap, the British beauty – daughter of modelling royalty Jerry Hall – has truly struck gold in the genetic lottery.
Clad in a balletic wrap cardigan and a shimmery peach midi skirt, Jagger exudes both poise and passion as she perches on the edge of the sofa in her Mayfair hotel room, telling me about the gap in the organic skincare market, "somewhere between what you would buy in the pharmacy and then a luxury skincare item", that prompted her to take matters into her own hands.
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May Botanicals is the latest celebrity beauty brand to enter the mix, but Jagger appears utterly unfazed by her personal arrival into what seems like an already pretty well-saturated space. She is quietly confident when we meet on the day of her brand launch, and frankly, her luminous peaches and cream complexion speaks for itself.
The supermodel has high hopes for her compact five-piece skincare line, but gives the impression that she is less focused on building an empire, and more excited about launching a chic, selective line-up of natural ingredient-focused products that are suitable for all skin types.
Hello! Fashion's Orin Carlin caught up with Jagger to delve into her beauty habits, personal skincare journey and the story behind her new beauty brand, May Botanicals:
On her all-time favourite beauty icon:
"My mother, because she is so good at doing her own makeup and I just think she’s gorgeous," Jagger says, "She does it so well because I think modelling in the 70s and 80s you had to do it. And the same thing in terms of giving herself a facial – she instilled that concept into me and my sister that you didn't have to go and get facials every week as part of your beauty routine. Even using things around the house, she loves to use olive oil and avocado oil for her skin."
"I'm still trying to learn how to do my makeup as good as she does hers, I'm really not quite there yet. She does this thing where she puts on her liquid eyeliner by putting her whole head to the side and tilting, and I'm like how is that easy for you?"
"It's essentially my goal to be able to one day do my makeup as good as she can do hers."
On her personal skin type:
"I've always had kind of sensitive skin and my sister really got me into organic products. From modelling I’d always travelled a lot and suffered with eczema, skin sensitivity and dryness, having a lot of makeup put on and off."
On the beauty product she can't live without:
"That would be moisturiser because I use that every day," Jagger says. "The prebiotics [in May Botanicals' Daily Dose Moisturiser] are really good for balancing out the redness in your skin, protecting its barrier. I always find, especially in winter, I get a bit drier and need that extra protection. It's also got shea in it and it's super lightweight which I feel was one of the biggest challenges of the collection."
On her everyday skincare approach:
"I like to experiment and bring in some new things like masks, but day-to-day, I like to keep it quite simple and not use tonnes of products. I start my morning routine with the cleanser [Clean Slate] because it's hydrating, but it also makes your face actually feel clean – not that kind of feeling where you wash your face and it just feels really oily. It’s really good for keeping your skin's natural oils and moisture still in while cleaning it."
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On her pre-event skin saviour:
"Save Face Spot Solution contains salicylic acid, tea tree, witch hazel and the base is a green clay and so it helps to draw out any impurities from spots. I really wanted to make something that was kind of classic, you could put it on in the evening for when you kind of have that big thing to go to the next day and you just need something that's kind of like that emergency solution."
On why she created her own brand:
"I started out at the beginning thinking about ‘What are the most simple key products that you need?’ and ‘What are the ingredients that are going to pack that punch?’ but also in terms of being natural, not having bad preservatives and trying to really get that level of organic really high," Jagger says.
"I just felt like a lot of things were more for younger people that were just starting out with skincare, or it was for my mum's age group, looking at this concept of anti-ageing, whereas I wanted to find something that was more about maintaining your skin and making it better every day but without such a notion of it always having to be ‘anti-aging’ because I’m 31. I felt like I was always seeing people younger than me starting to push [anti-ageing skincare products] so that was a big inspiration behind the development of it."
On the future of May Botanicals:
"In terms of adding loads of new products, I didn't want to overload it and it be confusing," says Jagger who proudly tells me that her boyfriend uses the range, "Not all the products, but he uses the moisturiser and the cleanser and it's accessible to people who just want to have a moisturiser and cleanser or if you want to go to that next level and use treatments, they're there as well, but I didn't want to come out with tonnes."
"We're probably going to just make one or two [new products] a year. When I thought about the range, I really wanted to create things that were really fun to use like the seaweed mask. I'm not there yet but I would love to do SPF drops or a natural deodorant, there’s all these kinds of worlds where I'm thinking. Naturally tinted lip balms and things like that I would really like to do in the future."