This may be the biggest year of Zendaya’s life so far. The actor has been on an incredible run of press tours—first for The Drama, then simultaneously for The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New Day, with Dune: Part Three still to come—besides very quietly marrying her longtime partner (and frequent co-star) Tom Holland. But there’s something fresh and incredibly fragrant in the air, as well: Zendaya is the face of Prada Beauty’s newest fragrance, Prada Paradoxe Sweet Chemistry. To hear Zendaya tell it, the partnership has been a long time coming.
“My first introduction to the Prada fragrances was through one of my best friends,” she says over Zoom during a short break between red carpets in London. “He wears Prada Paradoxe Eau de Parfum Intense, and I would always love it when I smelled it on him. I decided to test it out at the 2025 Met Gala, and I kept getting compliments on it, so it became my signature scent.” Now, Sweet Chemistry—with its notes of blackcurrant syrup and neroli—is on rotation, too.
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Applying fragrance is just one of the many beauty rituals the actor loves. Another is styling her hair. When Zendaya chopped it off late last year, she set off a tidal wave of requests for the bixie—a cut sitting somewhere between a bob and a pixie—at salons across America. “My different hair colors and cuts are like markers of different eras of my life,” she says. “When I was younger, I was on television, and I had an experience I think a lot of young women, especially young Black women, go through, which was not really understanding how to care for it on set and not having the right kind of people looking after my curls.” After dealing with intense heat damage, all she wanted to do was focus on repair and growth.
After her back-to-back press tours in the spring of 2024, when she was promoting both Dune: Part Two and Challengers, Zendaya and her team decided to take her glam to the next level. “That year, I had to figure out how I would differentiate between the two red carpets and make them feel really different,” she says. “That’s why we decided to go blonde—I had never been blonde before.” In the time since, she’s gone red, gone shorter, and more.
But as much as she loves to experiment, there are certain practices Zendaya won’t try—for one thing, the wellness trend du jour of cold plunging. “I’m definitely not a cold water girl,” she says. “I like to take very long, hot showers. Everybody knows that’s my thing. When I’m overwhelmed, I just need to go sit in the shower. Sometimes I’ll even bring in an iced tea or whatever, and just sip my little drink.”
More than anything, the 29-year-old is seeking out moments of stillness and reflection amid her banner year. Because she and Holland have been working nonstop the past few months, their quality time has turned into outdoor decompression sessions. “I love to go on a walk with our fur babies, just seeing them happy and going to the park,” she says. “Going on a nice walk, having a silly little drink. That’s ideal for me. As long as I have my allergy medicine, that is.”
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Such simple pleasures dovetail with another indulgence of Zendaya’s: a bit of nostalgia. “I have movie tickets from special experiences when I was a teenager,” she says. “I saved every birthday card.” She’s the same way with clothes and accessories; her first major purchase was a purpley-blue Prada bag, which she still has. “I use it all the time!”
The past remains a source of inspiration. “When I met Law,” she says—referring, of course, to her longtime stylist Law Roach—“he owned a vintage store in Chicago. A lot of big designers weren’t dressing me yet, so a lot of my clothing came from his vintage store. Now, every city I go to, I always want to hit up the good vintage spots and see what I can find.”
While Zendaya doesn’t do that whole different-scents-for-different-roles thing, the scent of Sweet Chemistry will forever be linked in her mind to this blockbuster year. “To be continued,” she says.
This article was originally published on Vogue.com.
