Astrid Van Niekerk in Kin

Astrid smells like sunscreen and salt water approximately three hundred days a year, and she wouldn't have it any other way. A competitive open water swimmer who grew up chasing waves in Muizenberg, she has the kind of lean, sun weathered beauty that outdoor and wellness brands build entire campaigns around: real, radiant, and unmistakably shaped by a life lived outside. Her blue gray eyes and sun bleached hair photograph like they were designed specifically for golden hour at the coast, which is convenient because that's where most of her bookings take place. But Astrid is more than a beach body. A marine conservation volunteer who works with Cape Town's shark spotting program, she brings an environmental conscience to every brand she partners with and will interrogate a sunscreen company's reef safety credentials before she'll hold their product. She's also a surprisingly skilled harmonica player, a talent she picked up during long swims when she needed something to do on rest days. Her repertoire is limited to blues and one extremely bad rendition of "Bohemian Rhapsody," but she plays with commitment, which she insists is all that matters.