We know what you’re thinking: another week, another celebrity beauty brand. But Georgia May Jagger’s newly-launched skin-care range, May Botanicals, might just be the one you’ve been waiting for. Because the model knows a thing or two about beauty. Not only has she grown up in the industry, having fronted campaigns (hello those enviable red Rimmel lips) and runway shows most of her adult life, but her model mum, Jerry Hall, has raised her daughters with a plethora of beauty tips.
“The best beauty tip I’ve ever been given is probably just to do more things yourself, the less is more approach. Invest in the things that you really love and you know you need, like my mum always does,” Jagger tells POPSUGAR. “She does a lot of her own facials and things like that for herself.” Which explains why the May Botanicals products play perfectly into creating your own DIY pamper session.
“Invest in the things that you really love and you know you need.”
Launched in October, the brand has been five years in the making, proving it’s certainly not a flash-in-the-pan idea. “For me, it was just wanting to get everything right,” she says. “Having it dermatologically tested, wanting to make sure it was palm oil free, the packaging – all of our cartons made from recycled card – and just wanting the formulations to be the best they could possibly be. It’s a lot of back and forth.”
While this isn’t Jagger’s first dip into beauty business – she’s the co-owner of hair brand, Bleach London – skin-care is very much her passion project and it’s the first brand that really is all her. “It’s a big representation of me and I’m putting everything into it,” she adds.
With her career meaning that her skin is constantly subjected to makeup being taken on and off, Jagger was always on the lookout for products to protect sensitive skin. “I can have breakouts or it can be dry, it can be a little bit up and down,” she says. “And I think for years I was trying to use too many things at once. Or being like, ‘I’m having this issue and I need to just get as many new things as I can and try them out.’ I was just finding that that approach didn’t work as well as the approach of just using the same thing regularly.” Having simplified her routine, the three products she can’t live without include moisturiser, SPF (“I never used to wear it and now I’m obsessed”), and lip balm – a woman after our own heart.
The range is currently made up of just five hydrating, eco-friendly products: Clean Slate Cleanser (£45), a Daily Dose Moisturiser (£62), Kelp Seaweed Sheet Mask (£15), Save Face Spot Solution (£22), and Super Balm Skin Saviour (£50). Using organic and natural ingredients rooted in science, the soothing range is just about affordable luxury. Plus, if you’re a sucker for pretty packaging, it ticks that box too. Keen to not make the products look clinical, Jagger sought out sustainable ways of making her products aesthetically pleasing. Teal and gold is the colour scheme, using recycled glass with chic line illustrations by British designer Matty Bovan on the bottles.
“I think to me it was just like a given thing,” Jagger says of the sustainable focus.”It wasn’t supposed to be something as a sales point. We have so many brands out there with so many new brands starting in fashion and beauty and if I’m going to do something, it’s going to have to be done in a slightly different way and be a little bit more conscious.” She even recommends using the glass bottles as vases once the product is used up because they really are too pretty to go to waste.
“It’s a big representation of me and I’m putting everything into it.”
While still modelling, her businesses are keeping her busy which is why she is a firm believer in cultivating a routine to prioritise her wellbeing. “I wake up quite early, I have a face roller I put in the freezer and I’ll do that and then I’ll do my skincare routine: wash my face, do the face roller, have a coffee,” she says. “I’ll walk my dog so I can have like a minute’s breather before I start working. But I think, for me, in the morning, I try to not go straight into everything and have a moment without my phone. That’s what I’ve been trying to do, but it’s really difficult.”
As more of our lives play out on our phones, Jagger is conscious of the role it plays in her life, checking in with herself when she feels like it’s too much. “It’s become a visual tool and an amazing way to find brands and be connected with people and see photos, but it’s also kind of difficult,” she says. “I just try and just take a little bit of a step back from it a bit because I feel myself sometimes getting addicted to it. Then you’re just like, okay, what am I doing? I try and not open it all the time when I first get on my phone.”
May Botanicals has been created to give everyone that little 15 minutes of self-care away from said phone. Do a face mask, cover yourself in the balm, and indulge in the moisturiser, but is it worthy of a place in your beauty cupboard? With impressive ingredients including Prebiotics, natural salicylic acid, and witch hazel, and a focus on organic and certified formulas, this isn’t just another celebrity-endorsed brand, it’s the real deal. It is a little on the pricey side, but you can bet we’ll be using the empty glasses and tubs to fill our flat with cute mini vases this year, too.
