Exclusive: Georgia May Jagger launches skincare brand May Botanicals

Georgia May Jagger knows a thing or two about beauty. Having spent half her life working as a model, she’s learnt from the best. She’s also picked up a few tips from her mother, Jerry Hall, one of the world’s most celebrated beauties. “She was always doing things that would seem kind of crazy; she would put olive oil all over her body and in her hair,” Jagger recalls. Then there’s cult hair brand Bleach London, where she’s spent the last few years as a co-owner, helping to oversee the brand’s marketing as opposed to being merely a face of it, which is what first sparked an interest in the business side of things. Fast-forward to today and Jagger is sharing all of that industry know-how in the form of her very own organic skincare brand, May Botanicals.

A longtime skincare devotee, the brand was born out of frustration with the current organic skincare on offer, which Jagger either found to be overcomplicated, ineffective or unsexy. Instead, she wanted something that looked good, felt good and was good for the planet too. So she decided to do it herself.

The result is a five-piece collection of high-performance, dermatologically tested products made from ethically sourced, natural ingredients. There’s a cleanser, moisturiser, spot cream, balm and sheet mask, all of which come in recycled packaging with illustrations from British designer Matty Bovan. “I wanted something that fit in with everything that I loved,” she says. It also speaks to her passion for the environment. Beeswax in the Super Balm is sourced from the London Honey Company, and a percentage of sales from key products will be donated to the global environmental charity WWF.

Here, Jagger tells Dazed Beauty all about May Botanicals, her skincare journey, the beauty lessons she has learned from her mum, and how she reconciles promoting ageing naturally with selling skincare products.

You’ve been involved with quite a few beauty brands, mostly as an ambassador but also as a co-owner and investor at Bleach London. Why did you want to launch your own beauty brand?

Georgia May Jagger: I’ve enjoyed doing Bleach so much and so I wanted to have something else that I enjoyed doing. Because, to be honest, I didn’t expect to still be modelling. I started modelling when I was 14 and I’m now 31. I’m still modelling but I wanted to do something different and more on the business side of things. It’s nice for me to go to meetings and have my voice heard and not have it only to be about my face.

I’ve been working on this since the very beginning. I’m not just showing up and modelling. I got to art direct the shoot and hire everyone and come up with what I wanted for all the concepts and the set and hire the photographer. It was an amazing experience for me. To get to make the decisions is very scary, and I’m nervous all the time about how it’s going to be received. But I’ve seen everything Alex [Brownsell] has done with Bleach and it’s inspired me to make my own company. And now it’s just really been my obsession for the last few years.

So tell me about the brand…

Georgia May Jagger: The concept came from the fact that I wanted to myth-blast the idea that organic products don’t really work. A lot of people think that you have to use synthetic ingredients to get science-based functionality, but it can be the opposite. So we are launching five products, they are all organic, soil-certified and dermatologically tested. Anyone can use them, but they are mainly for people with sensitive skin.

I wanted them to be simple because overloading your skin with lots of different products has always led to allergies in the past for me. I’ve had periods where I’ve had really bad eczema and psoriasis and I would buy loads of creams to fix it but it really just made things worse. I also always found that organic products looked very homemade; they didn’t look the same as when you think of a really beautiful product.

Why did you choose skin and not make-up or hair care?

Georgia May Jagger: I would love to go into the world of organic make-up one day, like RMS or something. I’m hugely inspired by that brand and I’ve been following it right from the beginning, but I felt that like this is what I knew more about. Obviously, I have my make-up done a lot but I wouldn’t know where to start with formulas and I have been obsessed with finding the right skincare products over the years; I felt I had educated myself so much about it, it felt like it made sense. 

In the past, whenever I have been down or depressed, I’ve never wanted to dress up or put on a full face of make-up, but having a routine – even if it’s just washing your face – has been really important. There’s something nice about the idea of taking ten minutes out of everything else I’m thinking about and just doing my skincare routine and repeating it every day.

What was your earliest encounter with beauty?

Georgia May Jagger: My mum getting ready to go out. She would often do her own hair and make-up, and she would do it so well. She’s also a big champion of natural beauty; she’s never had any surgery. I’m not condemning anyone that has, I just think that there’s so much pressure on us from society to look like Instagram filters to the point where people tell me all the time to get Botox and filler, but I’m just like, ‘What if I don’t want to?’ It’s fine if you want to do it but it shouldn’t be something that we are all expected to do. My mum is very naturally beautiful and embraces ageing and that’s always been something that has been really inspiring to me.

How do you reconcile wanting to promote ageing naturally and having a skincare brand?

Georgia May Jagger: That’s why I don’t like to advertise any of the products as ‘anti-ageing’. It’s great if they help your skin, but the idea that we’re going to reverse time and that that’s what we all want to do is just a cultural premise that’s been invented. None of it is actually going to make you younger. I’ve never fixed my teeth and people always bring that up, and it’s been a constant thing that I’ve been bullied for over the years, so it would be crazy if I got a facelift and didn’t fix my teeth as well. I think you should do whatever you want, as long as it makes you feel good and happy. But it just shouldn’t be something that we all have to do.

Everyone knows you as the face of something, but beyond that they don’t know that much about you. How does it feel to be putting something out into the world that’s incredibly personal to you?

Georgia May Jagger: I mean, it’s insanely nerve-racking and when I first came up with the idea of this brand, I didn’t imagine myself in the pictures. And then when it came to doing the shoot  I realised that obviously it’s my brand, so I have to be in it. This has been something that I have been really obsessed with and really believe in and hopefully because that’s all true, that will come across to anyone who wants to use it.

Have there been moments where you haven’t felt beautiful?

Georgia May Jagger: I felt that all the time. I’m pretty insecure. That’s why actually having this skincare routine is so important because I feel like over the years I have had such disassociation with myself and my image. Over the last couple of years, I think that having my feet a bit more on the ground and knowing what I really want to do moving forward and feeling very supported here and in that work environment has made me feel a lot more secure, not in my looks but in everything else. In modelling you have to dissociate a bit from your outside body, because you’re kind of just constantly getting these things done all the time. So I would say yes, all the time.

If you were going to give advice to the younger generations about how they can feel confident in their own skin, what would it be?

Georgia May Jagger: Don’t compare yourself to anyone. That would be the one that I wished people would’ve given to me. I feel like as women we find that very difficult, because we are always like ‘Oh, she’s so much more beautiful than me’. I feel like when you’re more mentally happy and happy in your life, it makes you feel better about everything. Your own individuality is something that is very beautiful. It’s very difficult when we’re in this world consumed by social media, I just try and step away from it. You’ve got to do your own thing. And once you do that, everything else falls into place easier.

How do you hope the brand will evolve?

Georgia May Jagger: To be honest, now that I am putting it out there in the world, I’m just hoping that people are going to like it. I think for people to receive it and for people to like it, even if it’s just one person, will be really exciting for me.