What I Put On My Face
All skin is good skin, which is why good skincare is more of a journey than a destination. We all love a one-off tip—but, at Byrdie, we’re more interested in how our skin evolves over time. The product we’ve used for a decade, the ingredient cocktail that made us glow, the step we never skip, and all the advice in between. This is the stuff that makes a real difference. With What I Put on My Face, we’re bringing you the rituals, recommendations, and failed experiments (we’ve all had them) straight from celebrities, founders, and influencers who’ve gone through it themselves.
I was a little nervous to meet Georgia May Jagger in the flesh. I’ve admired the model’s vintage-inspired style and trademark tooth gap since high school, and brought photos of her to more hair appointments than I can count. But despite her iconic parents (dad is Mick Jagger and mom is Jerry Hall) she was just as chill as her signature style—when I ask what lip combo she’s wearing (Victoria Beckham Beauty Lip Definer in 2 and Rom&nd Glasting Melting Balm in Veiled Rose, you’re welcome), she literally dumps out her makeup bag for me.
I wasn’t there to talk about makeup. Instead, the purpose of our chat was in honor of her skincare line, May Botanicals, which finally made its debut in stateside on July 31. The line is a curated collection of plant-based products made for Jagger’s sensitive skin, including a milky cleanser, a prebiotic moisturizer, a multi-use balm, a spot treatment, and a kelp-based sheet mask, all housed in luxurious deco-inspired glass bottles.
“I really wanted to make a line of products that was more fun and luxurious for someone with sensitive skin,” she tells Byrdie, noting that she’s struggled with eczema for years. “I wanted to also make the range very easy to use for people who maybe don’t know all the steps, or don’t want to have too many things in their routine because I found for me, layering way too many new things was always something that made my skin change or be reactive. So I like to keep it quite simple.”
But simple doesn’t mean boring, and Jagger has plenty of fun add-ons like luxurious jade rollers and a Jerry Hall-approved face mask she’s been using for years. Ahead, the model and founder shares her entire routine, her pregnancy essentials, and the best beauty advice she’s ever gotten.
About Her Skin
“I’m the most sensitive. I’m the the guinea pig [for the line]. And there were some things that I tried to do, products that I wanted to make that just didn’t quite work for my skin. We had May Botanicals dermatologically tested obviously, but I had a big group of friends and family that were my testers for months when we were developing the products, and I find myself to be the most reactive out of anyone.”
How She Got Into Skincare
“I think I’ve always been obsessed with it. But really, it was my sister, who is eight years older than me. She’s one of those people that just has so many products and is always trying new things, and always knows what the new thing is, so she really inspired me.
“It was actually when I first started visiting her in New York when I was a teenager that I started getting more into the natural skincare world, because we didn’t have those products or those kind of lines [in the UK]. Seeing what the lines were that were in the US, like Simply Divine Botanicals, Living Libations, and they had serums and things I hadn’t seen in the natural world before. It got me really inspired, and I wanted to make something that was kind of my own take on that. It just started with that inspiration from my sister and my mom.”
Her Morning Versus Night Routine
“In the morning, I do the Clean Slate Cleanser. It’s a creamy, red clay-based cleanser, and it’s got natural salicylic acid in it, which is the exfoliating element. It’s got poppy seed oil, rose water, and it blooms lightly when you add water to it. The quality of ingredients in it are all the same quality as a moisturizer, so it makes your skin feel clean but without stripping away the natural oils.
“Then I do the Daily Dose Moisturizer, it’s a prebiotic moisturizer. It’s got shea butter, it’s got poppy seed oil. The prebiotic inulin, which is actually from chicory roots, just really, really helps any redness and helps your skin microbiome—the redness was always a problem for me. I really wanted to make an organic moisturizer that wasn’t oily and was light enough for daily use. And then I do the Super Balm.
“Evening would be the same kind of routine, but I would do the Kelp! Seaweed Sheet Mask in between and leave on that serum. It’s a collagen-boosting serum, it helps your skin with any redness, it’s really nourishing and rebalancing super hydrating. And then if I have a breakout, I would the spot treatment last. And that’s the basic routine.”
Her Favorite Tool
“I’m very into gua sha. I have to say, I’ve [tried] everything, and I actually really like a roller that I put in the freezer the most. I just find it the easiest. The one that I use is from Angela Caglia. I’ve had different things like the Nuface, but I feel like you have to do that everyday, and I prefer the roller. I’ll do that everyday. And I love things that are cold, I like to put the mask in the freezer, just to get everything a bot cooler. I like to try other things, and makeup artists always like to try things on me like the red light one. I did buy a LED mask, but I’m not incredibly techy. I’m more into trying new products.”
The Skincare Step She Never Skips
“Moisturizing. And it’s quite a boring thing to say, but just have to. I have quite dry skin and I don’t even know what would happen if I put on makeup without moisturizing.” [Editor’s Note: These tips are super helpful to getting most out of your moisturizer.]
How Her Routine Has Changed Over Time
“Since I’ve been developing the products, it’s stayed pretty similar. I would say that it’s actually gotten a little bit more simplistic, I was definitely trying too many things. And now if I use a serum I’ll just do one and the moisturizer, but I’m not doing too many steps.
“I was doing a lot of chemical exfoliating, but I have sensitive skin and would get dry skin. So I was like ‘let’s scrub this all off’ and it would make everything worse. So I’m less focused on that, and only exfoliate if I really have to.”
The Best Skincare Advice She’s Ever Gotten
“It’s just to wear SPF. Because I didn’t wear it when I was younger, and as we’re getting older it’s definitely something that you have to be a bit more cautious about. That’s a big one for me and also the facial massage techniques as well. There’s a makeup artist called Mackey who does all these videos with the massage, and she showed me how, and it makes a big difference.”
Her Pregnancy Favorite
“On my bump I’ve been using the Super Balm. I can’t use some of the oils people suggest for me, they make me reactive where I have a rash. So I’m not trying loads of new things on my bump either, which is a whole new part of me that’s getting as much attention as my face, if not more!”
The Product She’s Been Using the Longest
“Probably the Eve Lom Rescue Mask. That’s probably the first mask I used as a teenager, and I’ll still use that one sometimes if I need like a really deep cleanse, it’s a clay one. It’s probably the first mask I ever tried because my mom had that. It smells nostalgic to me.”