While celebrity make-up collections are ten a penny these days, there aren’t many beauty brands fronted by a famous face who is also the business owner.
But then Kora Organics isn’t your average skincare company.
Founded by model Miranda Kerr in Australia in 2009, when she couldn’t find organic skin products despite supermarkets being full of pesticide-free produce, the range includes oils, cleansers, masks and mists, that all contain only certified organic ingredients.
Kerr, 35, has been approached by would-be investors throughout the years but decided she wanted to self-fund her passion project – which she saw as having more longevity than modelling – and retain control of the company.
"I wanted to make sure I was a responsible parent," she tells me on the phone from her home in Los Angeles, where she lives with husband Evan Spiegel and her two sons, Flynn and Hart.
"At the time, I only had Flynn [her now-eight-year-old son with former husband Orlando Bloom], and I was like, ‘I want make sure I’m not just blowing money away’, because obviously with businesses, it takes a long time to grow."
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And grow it did. Kora Organics sales have tripled, Kerr says, and the brand has just launched in the UK at Space NK.
"People are absolutely loving the skincare, they’re getting the results they need because the products are super-powerful," she says, her Aussie accent inflected with a slight American twang.
Getting to this point has involved a lot of hard work, the mum-of-two admits, but Kerr is nothing if not organised, which becomes ever more evident when I enquire about her morning routine.
When we speak, at 10am LA time, Kerr has already been up for four-and-half hours and ticked off a to-do list that would take most mere mortals several days to complete, encompassing meditation, whipping up fresh juice, getting the kids ready, and even some skincare and make-up me-time.
Here’s what an average morning looks like for model, mum and beauty mogul Miranda Kerr…
Meditation and stretching
"My husband wakes up every morning at 5.30am without fail – 6am on weekends.
"At 5.30am, he’s up and in the shower, and at this point the kids are still sleeping so that gives me time to myself.
"I’ll do a 20-minute meditation and some light stretching before the kids wake up, and make sure that I don’t turn my phone on otherwise I’ll be stuck in emails – I always sleep with my phone on aeroplane mode."
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Skincare
"Then if the kids are still not awake, I have time to quickly get some ice, put it in the sink and use a cloth and put it on my face.
"Then I have my Rose Quartz Gua Sha [a traditional Chinese skin ‘scraping’ tool], which we make at Kora. Sometimes I keep that in the fridge as well, so it’s extra cooling on my face in the morning."
"The Turmeric Brightening and Exfoliating Mask, I’ll put on my face as a mask so it acts like a mini microdermabrasion scrub. You know you’re getting the benefit of the natural enzymes and the peppermint to wake you up. I’m obsessed with that."
"I do my whole cleanse, mist, moisturise routine, and when I’m moisturising my face, I mix the Noni Glow Face Oil and moisturiser then rub it in with the Gua sha so it stimulates the circulation.
"Because I generally wake up with quite a puffy face, I need some cooling and massage techniques to get that down."
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Make-up
"Then I’ll put a little bit of RMS concealer on. I use shade 22 and what I do is, I mix one drop of the Noni Glow Face Oil into the pot, mix it in with my brush, and put that all over my face as foundation.
"RMS also has incredible Lip2Cheek stains – I put on a little bit and then that’s pretty much it in the morning, it’s pretty simple."
Breakfast
"I’m loving celery juice in the morning on an empty stomach. I have 475ml, Flynn has a little shot glass full and Hart has a little bit – we all love the celery juice.
"For me, I’m so used to drinking healthy things, so it’s quite palatable. It’s really helped me with digestion, clarity, I just feel healthier and energised on it."
"At the moment, for breakfast I’m loving gluten-free bread with banana and honey on top. And some freshly cut apple and a lemon balm tea.
"And then we also do a shot of turmeric, orange juice, ginger and garlic. Flynn and Evan and I do that, I make it in the cold press juicer."
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The school run
"I get the kids ready, get them both fed – we do school drop-off and then I come back home, put the baby to sleep for his nap, and then have meetings.
"Everything is scheduled around school drop-offs. I like to always be there when my son’s with me and he’s not with his dad. My 10-month-old has his regular nap times now, so I can book meetings around that. And sometimes he’s in meetings with me as well.
"I’m very lucky and grateful that I can have him around when I’m working. We have a very baby-friendly office – I like to promote that because I feel personally, I relax more when my children are around than not around."
