Maya Jama is a zero filter babes. Whether she's talking about threading her top lip with a bit of old string ("it ripped the life out of me"), or the weird white outline you get around your lips when you've been chatting too much ("whyyyyy"), she's 100% real and unfazed.
Now, alongside debriefing islanders on Love Island, DJing into the early hours of the morning and side-hustling as the founder of her own skincare brand, MIJ Masks, she's got a new gig as Rimmel London’s global ambassador. So we've joined her in a bougie suite in The Shard's Shangri-La overlooking the Thames, to talk all things beauty and wellness – starting with the decision-making behind her latest collab.
“I've loved Rimmel forever," Maya beams. “I feel like they’re such an iconic brand. They make great products and I'm a city girl, very London. It just made a lot of sense.” she says before paying homage to the iconic ambassadors who came before her. ”Kate Moss is a legend. Adwoa is a legend," she nods.
As for talking beauty fails, lazy-girl hacks and fitness routines, she doesn't hold back. “My friends joke that I get my workouts in the club because I’ll be dancing from as soon as I get there until I leave. It's all those twerks.” Yep. Maya Jama is definitely a girl after our own hearts…
Double liner is one of my favourite beauty trends right now…
“Me and Letitia [Sophia, Maya's makeup artist] did a double liner the other day where you just do a wing and then another one that goes straight underneath. It’s hard to get right but I really, really love that, and even the liners that go over the lids. I'm an eyes person a lot of the time, so yeah, I think double liner. I also like the chocolate brown lip liner, overlined, with a lighter beige inner lipstick and then a gloss over the top. Love.
My favourite budget beauty buy is the Scandaleyes liner…
"I'd say the Scandeleyes eyeliner because it's really hard to find a good liner. This one has a really good pointed brush-tip thing that you can easily swipe on in one application. If you’re an eyeliner girl, I think it's the best one."
I feel most beautiful when I'm super rested…
“Like when I've had a long night's sleep and I'm just like not in a rush anywhere. When I can kind of chill with no makeup. Mainly on holiday actually, cuz with a tan it's always better isn't it? Or when I've been super glammed up by magic hands over there [she says pointing to Letitia].”
A bad beauty habit is sleeping with my makeup on…
"Sometimes I really like how my makeup's done that day and I want it to last so much that I'll be forcing it. Like I’ll take off all the skin and try and sleep with the eye, which never works cause you end up with your eyelashes stuck together. I sleep on my face so it hasn’t ever worked for me, but I have tried that a couple of times."
I've found a game-changing long-lasting foundation…
"The Lasting Finish foundation [Maya wears shade 410 Latte]. Just because if I don't have help that day, I like to put my makeup on once and then continue with my day. If I leave in the morning, I'll probably not get back till super late at night, and you want a product that lasts and stays on that you don't have to touch up, that you're just like one and done. And this foundation is that."
Being in the public eye has changed how I feel about myself and beauty…
I used to care loads about what people said about my looks growing up in the industry. It's just knowing so many people are looking. Like on a normal day if you go out and you do your makeup not that good, you're just like, OK, it doesn't matter, no-one's actually paying attention. Then going on telly and stuff and being like, oh people are actually paying attention. "Like ‘why does she do that?’ ‘I don't like her shadow today’ or da da da. Extra opinions do make you a bit more conscious. There's always that pressure for ‘perfect skin’, especially on TV. Even if you have one spot, it stands out and everyone will comment on it. Now, I don’t think about it as much, as long as I feel good, I don't really care about what anyone else says. Although saying this, the last time I did live TV I had a few tweets saying, ‘Oh, Maya just needs to get her teeth fixed.’ and I never noticed my teeth before, but because people were saying that, it did make me feel like what's the thing. Then I just had a word with myself and was like: ‘No, these are your teeth, whatever, you’re not hurting anyone.’”
My signature look is all about the eye liner…
“I would say a heavy wing liner would always be my signature look and I quite like glowy fresh skin. But then I'm also like, I do wear a lot of makeup but I try and make it look like it's not a lot of makeup. So I guess the natural but not natural look. Yeah? Maybe that's it.”
To take care of my mental health I literally switch off my phone…
"It probably gets on everybody else's nerves. But there'll be days when I don't have to do anything and I'll just literally leave it on airplane mode. I’ll watch stuff, eat loads and, just dance around. I love listening to music super loud. I don't know if it's scientifically proven, but as soon as I wake up in the morning, I play super loud music. It gets me out of bed, I dance and then I'm instantly in a better mood. I have three playlists – I have like a romantic slow jammy one. I have a housey kind of upbeat one called Two Stepper, which makes you two step like that. And then I have my daily personal playlist with all my songs. But my favourite ever song to put me in a good mood is Armand Van Helden, U Don't Know Me, just cause the lyrics are great. He's basically saying, who are you to judge me? You dunno who I am, you dunno where I'm from. I'm living my life and it's just, yeah, uplifting."
My fitness routine mainly involves twerks…
"I've started working out more than I ever had, on and off, mainly just for my insides less than my outsides. I just wanted to feel better and I’m getting a little bit older – I’m 28 now – so I’m like, ‘you’ve got to look after yourself a bit more, Maya.’ I work out with a trainer called Woz at the moment. Although, yesterday was my first workout since January. But prior to that it was once a week. But I'm very active in my day-to-day. Like I dance around loads, I run around everywhere. My friends joke that I get my workouts in the club because I’ll be dancing from as soon as I get in there till as soon as the lights come on, and I go for it. So yeah, that's probably a bit of a workout. You wake up and you're like, oh my legs hurt. I was deep squatting last night. It’s all those twerks. But also gym, I try to do gym."
I have a few lazy-girl hacks in my back pocket…
"If you want a lighter shade of lipstick, just putting on a normal lipstick and then dabbing it with tissue, that's a little lazy girl hack. If I run out of eyebrow pencil then I use eyeliner, but super, super light. You gotta be careful with that one though, because we can go too black on the eyebrows. And sometimes with my hairline, if I do like a super slick ponytail and it's gappy, I'll put eyeshadow into my hairline and then that makes you look like you've got thicker hair."
My hair's not in good condition but I make my own hair masks…
“My hair's probably not in good condition because it gets styled all the time. It's fried to a frizzum. But I do loads of home hair masks. So like olive oil, raw cracked eggs, avocado and honey blended up then warmed in the microwave. And then I put a plastic bag on top of my head so it gets all steamy and sweaty. I’ll leave that on for like an hour and wash it out. It does work because it always feels healthier after. It takes a minute to get the egg out though, and it stinks a little bit. You feel like you're cooking an omelette. But, it makes it shiny. Sometimes it's better than the bought ones I think. Or sometimes I use Moroccan Oil and just douse it in that and put my hair in a bun. I’ll put loads of oil in it and just leave it in.”
I've had some beauty maintenance fails…
"Last night I got my top lip threaded and it wasn’t with a proper thread for hair removal, it was with a sewing thread and it ripped the life out of me, but I’ve healed today, so that was a bit radical."
My skin went through stages. When I was a teenager…
“I had a super spotty forehead so I’d always cut a fringe, which actually makes it ten times worse. It was like: spotty forehead, cut a fringe, spots get worse, grow the fringe out, it clears a little bit, one spot comes, so I’d cut my fringe again. I’d cut it myself as well, so one day it would be a good fringe day and the other day it would be all wonky.”
Rabie mouth is probably my biggest beauty disaster…
"Probably when I’ve been talking all day – it doesn’t happen to me any more, I don’t want to speak to soon but – when you get that white rabie mouth and it’s like a white inner liner and it just looks like [pretends to vom]. But yeah, I’ve had that and no-one’s told me before and I’ve looked back and I’ve been like whyyyy I spoke to so many people and I looked like I was frothing."
When it comes to perfume, I’m a one scent girl…
"I just started wearing Mugler Alien which I’m obsessed with. That’s my new one and I absolutely love it. But I was allergic to perfumes for a long time so I didn’t wear any. I just put scented creams on for a while, but now I’m back in my perfume bag."
My biggest clapback against beauty standards would be…
“It’s not your face, so don’t worry about it, and also one shade doesn’t fit all.”
My favourite red carpet look is the recent fashion awards…
“I wore a hat. I’ve never worn a hat on a red carpet before and I felt very va va voom and also old-school Hollywood, slash slash slash, but it was a super snatched dress and the big hat it was quite cool.”
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My overnight glow-up secret? Go heavy on the hair oils before bed, then ice balls in the morning…
“When you’re sleeping, that's your chance to load on every single hydrating product you can find. After a long hot shower, moisturise every inch of your face and body. For me, the key to a good foundation base is a really hot face wash, and then a freeze face wash using either a flannel in the fridge to ice your face or cold spoons first thing in the morning. I’d do anything to give the illusion of smaller pores. I have big pores. You just can't see them on the camera, but that’s probably because they’re iced off most of the time.”
TikTok told me to shave my face, so I did – and now I have fuzzy cheeks every two weeks…
“I’m not really active on TikTok but was into it during lockdown and one of the beauty tips I discovered is that shaving your face is a thing? I did actually shave my fuzzy facial hair with those little scraper things. I saw a tip where this girl put oil on her face and then shaved her whole head and then when she put on her makeup, it was just so easy to put on. So I did it, which was great for a couple of weeks, but now I've got fuzzy cheeks every two weeks because I swear it feels like they grow back thicker and darker. So I have to keep it up. That was the last time I tried something I learned from TikTok because I was a hairy-mallery for a bit, but now it’s just part of my routine. Some days I have a bit of patchy blusher and I’m like ‘ohh that’s the cheek hairs creeping back in, let’s get rid’ - it’s quite funny.”
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Authenticity is key to success…
“Remember that your USP is that there's only one you. So instead of trying to be like the best at this, the best at that, just be the best version of whatever you are good at and whatever you can do, because no one can do a better job of being you. That's authenticity. Also, try to be nice and professional when you can, there's always the potential of people watching you, wanting to work with you, and job opportunities can come from a single interaction. So be good at what you're doing, but also try to be nice to be around.”
My first makeup I bought was probably mascara…
"I didn’t really know how to do much else when I was super young and my mum’s products didn’t match my shade, so it was probably a 99p mascara from the hair shop."
My mum taught me from early how to contour…
“One thing I learned from my mum is the power of bronzer. My mum is a white woman, so growing up I would try and use her products and it just wouldn't hit at all. I couldn't use her foundation or concealer or anything like that, but her bronzer I did use, she had this palette of bronzes that went from light to dark and she would teach me to do like a bridge on the edge of my face from ear to ear, like a big upside-down C. Even when I didn't wear any other makeup, I would have two things - concealer because I was into MAC from early, and bronzer - doing the big C.”
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One concealer is not enough…
“Someone told me that you should only apply one concealer layer for the best flawless finish. I actually use three concealers and that gives me the best result. They're like ‘less is more’, but then if I do less, then I have no coverage. For me, more is better with the concealers. I use a base with an orange undertone to even out the darkness and then another lighter shade to brighten and then a third one closer to my natural skin tone for full and to blend.”
Thin brows may be ‘in’, but they’re not for me…
“The tiny overly threaded eyebrows is a trend I regret rocking. Now they're back in and the girls look great but I used to have just a curvy line and it was terrible on me. I did shave my eyebrows recently when I was doing my fuzzy face. I was aiming for a Zoe Kravitz moment, eyebrows straight and snatched. They ended up bushy and abnormally short, so I ended up penciling them in. I clearly don’t learn. I also want to get them laminated, but one of my friends did it and she ended up with permed, curly eyebrows, it was weird. They started falling out as well and that put me off a little bit too, but I think that was just a bad person doing it. ”
If my beauty cabinet was on fire I would save…
“My MAC concealer, then the Fenty Beauty Gloss bomb needs to come with me. MIJ masks just for hydration, the Scandaleyes liner because the wing is the most important and my Charlotte Tilbury Eyebrow pencil, because these freshly shaven eyebrows without pencil are just s***. Can I take one more? My partner has really been into the Cerave moisturiser, it's super affordable and now I'm hooked."
For more from GLAMOUR's Beauty Writer Shei Mamona, follow her on Instagram @sheimamona
For more from GLAMOUR's Beauty Editor, Elle Turner, follow her on Instagram @elleturneruk
