6 Beauty (and Life) Lessons I Learned From the Highest Paid Male Supermodel
When you are as freakishly good looking as David Gandy, strangers will want to take photos with you; it's an occupational hazard. But the male supermodel hates taking selfies more than anything. "Why can't we just enjoy the moment and not have to capture it and show it to people?" Gandy asked when we caught up recently in Capri, the scene of his first major fragrance campaign for Dolce & Gabbana Light Blue.
It's been a decade since Gandy appeared in the now iconic Light Blue campaign, and the 36-year-old still looks photo-ready even off-camera, as though he were designed in a lab, except he's completely self-made. He doesn't work out without a trainer or see a nutritionist and the only member of his glam squad is his best friend slash hair stylist Larry King (not that Larry King). Here for the launch of Dolce & Gabbana's new Light Blue Beauty of Capri fragrance, the super-hot, super-smart, supermodel teaches us how to live in the moment, take care of our skin, and so much more.
Put your phone away
I was reading this thing the other day about the 5:2 diet. Where they'll do technology five days a week and then on the weekend they'll put down their mobile phone and try to enjoy those two days. I thought that was a brilliant idea, and enjoy family or friends or a partner. The world will still go on, it's just that we're all involved in our phones now. I have started at dinners, just not taking my phone out. Just enjoying the people I am being around.
Live in the moment
When I bought my house a couple of years ago, I went to Uganda and had no signal whatsoever. Now, normally I would have been worried–did everything go through? The bank? I couldn't do a thing and I didn't know what was going on. But when I got back everyone had sort of done it and there was a bit of sorting but it was okay. When we were trekking for gorillas a few years back, I was manically trying to get pictures, and so one of the guides just grabbed the lens of the camera and said 'Enjoy it.' You're not going to do this again, and you're seeing it through your camera lens and not just taking it all in. I though that was a good bit of advice. Enjoy being in a situation that is astonishing without having to take pictures of it.
Maintain an air of mystery
I think that if you are in the public eye, there's a class to not putting your whole life on social media. Look at Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz–they're people that I didn't even know got married. They avoid paparazzi. They do their films and publicize them, and then they do good causes and then they disappear. I don't really get why people put their whole lives on social media. There's a curiosity to that. But if I ever met Daniel Craig, I would be very intrigued to hear his views because you don't really get access to that person's views much. You don't get to know about that person much. That was the mystery of Hollywood actors such as Steve McQueen and Paul Newman; we didn't really get to know much about them. But you see images and they are so sought after, because there are hardly any pictures of them. But now there are so many pictures of everyone. They put where they were eating and what they were eating.
Don't rely on a glam squad
I don't have a trainer or a nutritionist. I do have a hairstylist, he's one of my best mates. He's more best mate than hairstylist most of the time. With Larry, I bring him on because there will always be someone doing hair at a shoot, and I would rather it be someone who I know is tremendously good and who didn't get the acknowledgment that he is so good until he came on to shoot with me. And now he is shooting covers, working on films, pop videos, adverts. I'm glad he's gotten recognition.
But respect your elders
You know who I think had a great life is actually Paul Newman. Just the way he acted and raced cars and did all this charity work. But I reckon David Attenborough too. He's the guy that does all the BBC animal or naturalist programs. He did the gorillas and the deep blue and does the most amazing photography and goes away for months. So many things we know about animals has come from David Attenborough, his research and whatnot. I met him last year. And you know I've traveled and talked to gorillas, and so it was pretty amazing to talk to him about that.
Protect the money maker
I think a lot of men just put serum on their skin and say 'okay,' but I think it isn't that effective if you haven't scrubbed, whereas moisturizer work if you haven't scrubbed. It's also about what you put into your body. And of course alcohol, smoking, sun, it's all going to affect it. It's a whole big circle. Colbert MD. is good. SK-II is very, very good as well. There's not huge amounts on the market for men. It's worth spending some money on. If you're smelling something and it has a fragrance, it's probably just not great. Alcohol you shouldn't put on your face either. There's also a serum by Vitabiotics, who I am working on in the UK at the moment. They're a vitamin company but they also do serum. You have to mix it together, and you activate and you put it onto your face. They've been working on it for about ten to 15 years. It's quite revolutionary.
