If you’re not one of Zanita Whittington’s 243K Instagram followers, chances are you’ve probably seen her somewhere. After all, she’s living the dream most fashion and beauty bloggers aspire to – travelling the world to attend fancy schmancy events, a spot on Foxtel’s Fashion Bloggers Reality TV series, and now she’s a Schwarzkopf Hair Happiness Ambassador.
We caught up with the Perth-born blogger to find out her (surprisingly easy) trick to amazing hair, and her homemade scrub recipe.
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How do you look after your skin?
“I used to have bad skin and I took Roaccutane (about eight years ago) and it cured me. Prior to that I would have never fallen asleep in my makeup because I knew that I would wake up with really bad skin, but then when I fixed that with medication, I became more relaxed about it. Now, I use really gentle oil-based cleansers and really rich moisturisers. I have dry skin and I travel all the time, so I keep my beauty routine as simple as I can, really.” (Post continues after gallery.)
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What’s the one thing you do every morning that sets you up for a successful day?
“Probably drink about three cups of coffee! [laughs] Usually when I wake up I drink so much. I’m like, ‘It’s time for coffee!’, and I usually have this space of time when I’ll drink two or three and then I realise that I’ve drunk too much and then I calm down again.
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“I think I really need to replace that routine with going to the gym or something. It’s probably the only thing that’s consistent in my life. Every morning I get up and a drink too much coffee.”
Do you have a favourite budget beauty product?
“The best thing that I’ve ever discovered, in terms of beauty, is caster sugar and lemon juice as a scrub. I just add enough lemon juice to the sugar to give it that scrub consistency. The sugar is quite harsh, so you just need to gently rub it on your face and you can put it on your hands too and it makes your skin baby soft. It costs pretty much nothing, it’s the best.”
What’s the best life advice you’ve received?
“It’s not really advice, but it’s a quote my friend Nicole Warne [Australian fashion blogger] told me and I’ve sworn by it ever since: ‘A candle doesn’t lose any of its flame by lighting another candle’. It’s something I believe in, and it particularly applies to the girls in the fashion blogging industry.
"When I started out, everyone’s sites grew because everyone supported each other and linked to each other and it was a community. Back then it wasn’t ever about making it your job or making it your career. It was a little club.”
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You’ve got incredible curly hair, how do you maintain it?
"Yeah it's curly - sometimes it can get really curly if it’s super humid but I just want it to have volume. In the morning I shampoo my hair and I won’t use any conditioner. And then I use Schwarzkopf pearlescence shine spray through it. I also use the salt spray on the roots and then massage it through.
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"I won’t put it in the ends because that makes the ends kind of dry - the ends are kind of what gives it that shape and body. And then I let it dry naturally and use my fingers to create shape. So that’s why it has that effect, because I’m doing that all the time. Every day."
What’s your favourite way to exercise?
"It’s terrible but I actually really love mindless cardio - in the gym, just staring at the wall. I like to use that time to solve all the problems in my life, just get on the treadmill for an hour and just sort all my stuff out.
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I really like that. Once I get into a rhythm with exercise, I really just like anything that hurts. I love to sweat a lot. I don’t really have a lot of patience for yoga, which is exactly why I need to do it. I’m so stiff, it’s so bad!"
