Victoria's Secret Fashion Show 2018: Meet VS Model Jourdana Phillips

When you watch the 2018 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, we're positive your eyes will be on one Angel in particular: Jourdana Phillips. Not only is the fresh-faced model always one to watch during the famous fashion show, but she also embodies the 4 Bs — brains, beauty, body, and balance — on and off the runway.

So what do you need to know about the model? The Jamaican beauty gave The Lookbook a behind-the-scenes peek into her life as a model and into the upcoming Victoria's Secret Fashion Show.

Brains

Phillips refuses to choose between her dreams. After graduating from New York University, Phillips was faced with the decision to choose between a modeling gig in Africa, a place she often goes to when she feels "lost and directionless," or a job offer at a prestigious private school in New York. In the end, she turned down a guaranteed teacher's salary for a modeling contract, but she continues to pursue her passion for education in a different way, proving that she really can have it all.

Phillips described a pep talk she heard during rehearsals for the show. According to Phillips, the pep talk shared the hope that naysayers would see the strength that the VS models have and what they've endured to make it to the runway, which Phillips claimed is harder to get into than the Super Bowl. Phillips believes that the VS models are there because of their strength — not just their beauty.

Phillips said, "All the women that have come before us who’ve walked that show have done some of the most amazing things in the industry — having their own businesses, being philanthropists or advocates for different causes. Some of the greatest strengths of our industry have graced that runway and we can never forget that, that legacy that is Victoria’s Secret." 

Phillips continues this legacy through her work in education reform. She told The Lookbook, "I want to use my platform to highlight that, hey, education in America needs help!"

Aside from working with organizations to support education, Phillips is launching her very own "career education program to help kids discover their passion and motivate them toward their dreams and goals through providing different life skills and motivational workshops." As an advocate for better pay for teachers, she said, "We don't really provide money for education initiatives in the states and we don't give teachers enough money to help them have a livelihood."

Education isn't the only issue that Phillips uses her platform to highlight. Through her social media platforms, she shares a message of women empowerment. She said, "Maybe we have some issues in terms of how we view women that we need to work through. So I’m excited to see how we continue to support women’s involvement in politics and in other positions of power." Women are "powerful, strong, and capable," insisted Phillips. As she noted in her Instagram post, she believes that "the future is female!"

Beauty

Phillips shared some of her beauty secrets on and off the VS runway with The Lookbook. Her daily skincare routine includes washing her face with Cera Ve, using a rose hip face mask at night and a sheet mask by Karuna in the morning, and keeping her face super moisturized. The model jet-setter explained, "Most of my skincare routine is about keeping my face really moisturized because it can get quite dry, especially with traveling a lot on the plane." But leading up to the VS Fashion Show, Phillips gets two facials to keep her face "plump and looking nice."

Phillips gave us the deets on her VS outfits, too. "My favorite outfit was the cape with the black embroidery on it. I just loved the cape, it was fun to swirl around. I felt really powerful and strong with it." She described her second outfit as a Victoria's Secret T-shirt, a corset, "a little panty," and sunglasses.

Charlotte Tilbury was the exclusive makeup sponsor for this year's VS Show. According to Phillips, Tilbury allowed the girls to pick their own makeup. She said, "Charlotte gave us the autonomy to make those decisions for ourselves and that's the most important part, that the girl individually feels beautiful." To Phillips, Victoria's Secret shows that sexy is powerful. She believes that being sexy is "a way to show your beauty and your strength and not be afraid to show that."

Body

Jourdana keeps her modelesque physique with the help of her trainer, Reese, at the Dog Pound in New York. "Most of our workouts focus on legs and butt because I really want a big butt. I crave that every day, like give me a big butt, please," said Phillips. She explained she likes "feeling a little bit more curvaceous." To get her the body that she craves, Reese geared her workouts toward "filling out a little bit more and putting on a little more weight." This was also meant to increase her strength to walk the VS runway in heels. According to Phillips, her workouts included the use of resistant bands, leg weights, and "pushing a sled with a lot of weight on it." Look at her go in the Instagram post below! 

Balance

The NYU alum described herself as "real and approachable" because of her belief that being real allows people "to understand their own strength." After all, she just wants people to look at her and see that their dreams are reachable. She explained, "I'm not special like at all, I'm just like everyone else... I don't like creating fake personas to give the illusion of superiority, it's unfair."

Phillips showed off her real side with The Lookbook when she described how scared she felt leading up to the VS Fashion Show. "It's hard not to completely freak out internally when you know you're going to grace the stage with some of the most beautiful women in the world. Your mind gets completely filled with self-doubt, and I have to remind myself that [I] belong here. There's a reason [I'm] here," explained Phillips.

To get rid of the self-doubt, stay balanced, and ease pre-show jitters, this zen beauty meditates. Meditation is an everyday part of her life, but before the show, she goes into meditation overdrive. Her pre-show rituals include "a mini-meditation retreat," a massage before the show, and lots of chamomile tea, which helps to "keep the nerves down and keep my body calm."