“My hair’s been through a lot,” says Whitney Peak, the Uganda-born, Canada-raised actor who plays Zoya Lott on HBO Max’s new Gossip Girl reboot as she lets her wet lengths tumble down out of a patterned silk scarf. “I thought straightening was the easiest way to deal with it, so throughout my entire middle school to middle-of-high-school career I would straighten my hair every single day, so that played [a role] in the damage that I’m currently recovering from. Now,” she adds with a smile, “I actually have a curl pattern, which is so exciting”—thanks, in no small part, to an air-dried approach that features defining creams, serums, and gels.
Next, Peak picks up a Youth to the People cleanser—a relatively new addition to her morning. “When I started getting breakouts, I was kind of like ‘Okay, we need to get on it, because this isn’t cute,” the 18-year-old recalls before walking Vogue through a more considered complexion-boosting routine, which includes Tracie Martyn’s Enzyme Exfoliant (aka “the best face mask ever,” she notes), a drop of hyaluronic acid and niacinimide from The Ordinary, and Sunday Riley’s Ultra-Clarifying Face Oil.
“When I came to Canada... I was received as a POC, a dark-skinned person of color [while] going back to Uganda, I’m seen as white, so it was just weird seeing the contrast in the two different worlds I was a part of,” she explains as she mixes two shades of Chanel foundation together. “Being mixed was definitely a little bit weird because I’m the only person in my family who’s mixed, so I don’t really have anybody to take tips from.” Peak has nevertheless figured out what works for her: an Anastasia Beverly Hills pomade used on both her brows and lids, a shimmery peach-hued gloss which she swipes across her eyes, Milk Kush mascara (an all-time favorite), and Glossier’s sheer lipstick in Cake. “And the look is complete!” she says, spritzing on a setting essence mist to lock everything into place. “XOXO, Gossip Girl.”
Below, shop Whitney Peak’s Beauty Secrets.
