Margaret Zhang is one of the most refreshing, down to earth and ridiculously smart women I have ever met so no wonder Clinique just named her as one of three young women in Clinique's global campaign #faceforward— alongside Hannah Bronfman and Tavi Gevinson.

Margaret has been on my radar for awhile now and when I was given the chance to pick her brain from all things beauty, travel & food I jumped at the opportunity.

At the breakfast launch for #facefoward campaign Margaret stood in front of 100 women including myself, beauty editors, bloggers and influences of all and told us "You might think you've reached saturation point, but you haven't. There's always room to educate yourself more." I love that!!

After the launch we sat down for a one-on-one and from the moment we said 'Hello' I was taken back at how comfortable, relaxed and focused she was flicking through pictures on her phone of her recent trip to Paris to give me tips for my upcoming honeymoon and it felt like I was talking to a girlfriend I had known for ages.

So excited to share this interview below and Margaret is definitely a major #girlcrush any day of the week!

What drew you to the #faceforward campaign?

"Its not to often a brand really researches you and when Clinique got in touch they were like we love what you do and had a solid understanding of what I was about and that is a clincher thats what you want, you want to work with a brand thats ultimately a perfect fit but understands you and listens to your suggestions."

" I feel this is a ongoing conversation we might not be the faces for the next season but people who engage with Clinique will continue to engage with us and understand what we are about".

"Plus my mother had always used Clinique, it is an iconic brand with its products that it felt right it was the perfect fit"

What are the products you are OBSESSED with from Clinique's range?

'I love the Chubby Stick highlighter you can just paint it on your face, Im not a huge believer in contouring for the reason I'm terrible at it but I think you should work with the facial features you have and manipulate it to look a certain way but contouring is a work of art and seen some intense transformations".

"I always have the Clinique Moisture Surge Face Spray ($45) in my handbag, because I need a wakeup call throughout the day, I just spray it over my face and it also has that moisturiser so it’s naturally highlighting in a way". And the Sonic brush too, I’d never used a brush before and I didn’t realise how much difference it makes with cleansing. So that’s been a really good thing."

What are your tips for travelling? I need to know them all!!

"My skin secret 101 is wear a hydrating mask instead of a moisturiser on the plane I use the Clinique Mask as its sheer enough you do a thin layer and then add another layer later and I sleep in it, its makes a mess and they get angry but whatever my skin feels better for it.

'Drink heaps of water I take on 1.5 litre bottle on with me and just have them fill it up, I also try and get a night flight and get as much sleep as possible on the flight, when you get at your destination you have to have your knees exposed( genius idea) getting sun on your knees is suppose to wake your body up and stay awake until at least 8:30pm and crash and hopefully you should be good the next day".

'And for each country it is different but try and understand how that country works so for like France nobody wakes up before 10am so I go and do everything during sunrise and 10am and then take a nap and then head to a restaurant as soon as it opens for lunch and get an early dinner so to avoid waiting and crowds'.

'Go visit the Trocadero at Sunrise no one was there and do a breakfast picnic at Champ De Mare as the light is better and photos turn out better and again nobody is there. I highly recommend doing heaps of research of the country you are going to and doesn't matter how much money you have its more of a your lifestyle thing'.

Whats your favourite place to Travel to?

'I keep going back to New York I feel like its my second home as I've been going there since I was 17 and Ive built up a friend and work network there. Its high energy I don't sleep when I'm there and it makes you want to work hard'.

'The best trip to date though was Morocco, just really eye opening I thought I knew so much about Muslim culture but when your there you fully understand women in Muslim culture which you thought you already knew. Its so colourful and we went during Ramadan so that was interesting and I was hungry all the time".

MY PROMISE - "To not sweat the small stuff"

Now your photos are beautiful on your social media account, do you use a professional camera or just your Iphone?

No just phone most of the time, its a real massive effort to upload from camera to Iphone and I honestly don't have time to do that, so I just edit them with filters and they are graining but whatever I think it takes away the in the moment thing it will be interesting to see how Instagram evolves as its so styled right now'.

What inspires you? Is there anyone in particular or is it everything around you?

'I think the process of learning is inspiring in itself, always pushing yourself to just absorb as much as you can, I wrote recently on my blog that the first thing I notice is architecture and the second thing is the light so as a photographer thats really inspiring in itself to.

'In Sydney I don't shoot wide angle but when your in a city like Paris everything is so beautiful that you don't want to miss anything in the shot. In Sydney the light is so inspiring and why we have such great photographers but cities like Milan have no light so it pushes you to try other angles'.

What advice would you give me for my website/social media and in general as being quite new to this?

'I think its just not to have any inhibitions, when I started I use to be such a hustler not in a contrived way, but I would see somebody and be like they look like somebody and go up to them and start talking to them, it is daunting but at some point but you kind of have to be fearless as the worst they can kind of say is no and the worst they can be is rude and if they are then you don't want to work with them anyway.

'You will find people that really believe in you and brands that you build longtime relationships like Clinique that didn't just materialise overnight it takes time and like Swarovski that was 4 years of growing organically and now a global operation campaign for me.

Lastly how do you stay active when your travelling or at home?

'I love swimming and hate when I go to NY and you can't and I can't wait to get back home and go for a swim, but also there is this girl on Youtube called 'blogilates' she has so much energy its nuts.

'Its not a cheesy blog that all they are about is being totally ripped and doing cross fit and exercises that equipment I have no idea how to use , she's super nice and normal and all her videos are 10 minutes long so I am able to do them in the hotel or at home and they are Pilates based and she just talks to you whilst your doing the workout about her nails its super amazing.'

With thanks to Clinique and Margaret Zhang X

Jul 20 #faceforward