Model Georgia May Jagger Shares Her Beauty Secrets
Before I declared new Rimmel Wonder'lash the best drugstore mascara I'd tried in years, I was introduced to it by Georgia May Jagger.
Yes, that Georgia May Jagger. The youngest daughter of Rolling Stones legend Mick Jagger and model Jerry Hall has has been one of the faces of Rimmel London since 2009 (when she was just 17 years old!).
Now 23, her career is soaring. She was named Model of the Year at the British Fashion Awards in 2009 and last year graced Models.com's list of the world's top 50 models. Besides Rimmel, she has appeared in campaigns for Chanel, Versace, Hudson Jeans and Thierry Mugler, and graced the covers of British Vogue, L'Officiel and ELLE France, to name a few.
Georgia was in Toronto recently for the Wonder'lash launch, and we got to sit down for a chat about all things beauty!
Georgia May Jagger at a 2011 Hudson Jeans photocall.
ACE Pictures
What are the beauty products you can't live without?
Moisturizer. The one I like is really light and natural. I basically like colour, bright makeup, so I don't like just organic makeup. But my [skincare] products are very natural. So moisturizer I have to have because I've got really dry, English skin.
Mascara I have to have because I can't go out without wearing mascara.
The other one would be a great matte red lipstick. I prefer an orangey-red and super, super matte. I like the In Love with Ginger which is one of the Kate Moss ones.
Rimmel Moisture Renew Lipstick in In Love with Ginger.
Also the Show Off Matte Lip Velvet.
Rimmel Show Off Matte Lip Velvet.
I love eyelash curlers.
A great exfoliating product. I have this thing called the Cure at the moment that I bought. It takes off the dead skin without using the beads. It's not an acid. I don't know how it's exactly doing it. It's got alcohol in it, I think. It's not super-natural, but it's not like a chemical-peel type thing. It's just taking that first layer of residue off your skin. It's quite good.
Cure Natural Aqua Gel.
And I really like Tracie Martyn face products.
Tracie Martyn Complexion Savior Mask.
What's your maintenance regimen?
I get my hair done every three months. I go for facials, like, twice a year. I'm not really a facial person. If I'm going to get a treatment, I'll get a Shiatsu massage. I just had acupuncture for the first time. It's amazing. I didn't think I believed in it, but I'm really converted now. I was asleep instantly. I like to go to places like Space NK in London and Liberty's beauty department and try out all the new things. I think part of being in this industry and getting to talk about new products all the time has made me go from someone who only used one eyeliner to being this person who has so much stuff. I don't even use it all, but I just love to try new products.
What is your beauty trademark?
Red lipstick, probably.
What's the best beauty tip you've learned from makeup artists over the years?
I learn lots of great tips all the time and I try to pick up on all of them. But I always say don't get stuck in your routine. I like to have fun. I like to try new colours, especially eyeshadows or lipsticks. So I would say don't get stuck in one look—experiment.
How will you switch up your makeup for spring?
For spring, I suppose I go more into doing things as tints. In winter, I really like having bright makeup, like a bold red lip or something, because I find when the weather's really dreary, it's quite nice to have something with a bit more colour. For spring, I would do more rosy colours—more light pinks. Instead of putting on the whole coat of it, I'd work it in with my fingers and dab it as a tint, and then do a bit on the cheeks. Sometimes I'll even use something like a gloss on my eyelids, which sounds really weird. Not a really sticky one, but more like a shiny, natural look.
Do you have any tips for how you like to apply your mascara?
For every day, I'll just do one coat. I'll dab the end of the wand where it usually gets a bit of extra mascara on a tissue, because it stops it getting so much in the inner corner. I tend to use it going [the horizontal] way for the inner corner, and then the long way. If I'm going to do it for evening, you can sit it in the root and then move it around a little bit, so you get a thicker coating on the roots but still fanned out at the tips. I only put a little bit on the bottom lashes.
How long have you been working with Rimmel and what made you decide to partner with the brand?
Four years. But it was the first ever casting that I did, when I was 15, but I was too young at the time. They didn't hire me until two years later. Obviously in England, it's such a big brand for us. It's everywhere in all of our Boots, which is our version of CVS or whatever. So I've grown up with it, and seeing Kate [Moss] so much my whole life. So it's like, yeah, obviously I was going to say yes.
Growing up, did you always feel comfortable in your own skin—or if not, what was your relationship to beauty?
I would say more on the not. I wasn't really allowed to have proper grown-up makeup 'til I was 13. So my relationship with it was more one of glitter, and kids' kind of makeup. It's always been a fun relationship I've had with it. I started off wearing crazy colours and stuff. As I'm working with different makeup artists, I started to learn how to do that stuff in a quasi-grown-up way rather than my version of it when I was younger.
Did you ever sneak some of your mom's makeup?
Yeah. She had a whole dresser of lipsticks. It was always the packaging—the ones with the shiny gold packaging—that interested me the most.
Who are your beauty icons?
I love the old Hollywood makeup look. People like Veronica Lake, even Mae West's sassy approach. My mom and other '70s models, people like Lauren Hutton and Grace Jones. Angelica Huston. Lupita [Nyong'o]. She does amazing things with her eyeshadow. I'm super-jealous and wish I could look that good in orange eyeshadow.
Is there any beauty technique you would love to improve on?
I think doing a smoky eye with powder is quite difficult and that's actually a real makeup skill. Eyeliner, sometimes I get it really right and sometimes I just don't and it takes me a couple tries. So I'd like to be able to do that in a second. Like my mom can do hers really well. So I'd like to be able to figure that out one day.
When do you feel most like yourself?
I suppose just at home. When I'm staying with my mum, when I'm out with my dog in Richmond [London]. Just not wearing anything fancy or really much makeup at all. It's annoying because the more you model, the less you want to actually wear high heels or stuff like that.
If you could go back to your teen years, what beauty lessons would you like to tell yourself?
Don't wear too much makeup. Don't worry about it. Be different from other people. I think that's one you forget because when you're a teenager, you just want to be the same as people you see, or pop stars or whatever. Then as soon as you get older, you want to try different things and you almost feel like it's too late. I don't think it's ever too late, but I would say march to the beat of your own drum.
How do you think modelling in our Instagram-obsessed age is different from modelling in your mom's time?
Everything's very interconnected. You're getting it immediately. I think it's quite hard in a way, because it loses its element of surprise. Unless you were there to see the show, you wouldn't know about the clothes until the campaign came out. Now it's all instant. So in a way, it takes away some of the magic. But I do still enjoy seeing everything on Instagram. I'm a very digital person. I like all the photos and prefer it over Twitter or other social media that's just written stuff.
What's your message to young women who look up to the "perfect" models they see on social media and in magazines?
It's hard for people to realize when they see pictures like that. I think people know about Photoshop now, but there's all this other stuff that goes into it. It's not necessarily like you wake up that morning or every day and you're like that. Girls who are models, they are naturally skinny and they have naturally good skin. But to be honest, I've seen girls with huge acne breakouts and all kinds of skin problems. Girls are human. It's not as they imagine it to be. It's a lot less glamorous.
Do you have any thoughts for or against Photoshop?
I think there's a way to do it in a normal way and then there's a way to do it that's strange. Sometimes if you have a zit and stuff, it's like you can't win nowadays. If you were putting out makeup ads and I have a big zit there, but everything else is fine, the only thing they're going to re-touch is the zit. You'd kind of be like, "Why am I looking at a foundation ad with someone who has a zit in it?" In that way, it's part of the industry because they're creating an image that's not necessarily completely always realistic. There's a makeup person, a hair person, there's a wind machine, there's lighting, there's all these things that go into it. It's in a way make-believe, even though we're selling real products and real looks.
My thing would be, it's strange when people take [off] parts of you, like when they take off your mole. That's the thing that I find weird, if I see a picture of me and someone's taken off a freckle. Not everyone's some smooth piece of skin with no freckles or anything on it. But that's sometimes what ends up happening. You can't distort all your features. When you're a well-known person anyway, people will notice. If I suddenly don't have a gap in my teeth when you see a picture of me, you're going to be like, "What is going on there?"
Georgia's Makeup
Here's what Rimmel makeup artist Vanessa Jarman used on Georgia for the event:
- Foundation: Lasting Finish 25 Hour Foundation in 200 Soft Beige
- Powder: Stay Matte Pressed Powder
- Eyeshadows: ScandalEyes Eye Shadow Stick in Bluffing all over the lids; a blend of Glam'Eyes HD Eyeshadow in Brick Lane and ScandalEyes Eye Shadow Stick in Naughty Navy at the lash lines; then Glam'Eyes HD Eyeshadow in Purple Crown to smudge the lash lines
- Mascara: Wonder'lash With Argan Oil
- Lipstick: Moisture Renew Lipstick in 700 Nude Delight
