Zanita Whittington
On her morning skin routine:
“I usually cleanse with Kiehls Centella Cleanser combined with the Clarisonic or the Kiehls Ultra Facial Cleanser. Sometimes I use the Kiehls Cucumber Herbal Toner but I often forget/can’t be bothered. I’ll usually moisturise with The Clinic moisturiser and Kiehls High Potency Skin Firming Concentrate.”
On her signature beauty look:
“I use either Dr. Jart or Kiehls BB Cream during the day, or if I need my skin to be extra flawless I’ll use Lancome Miracle Cushion foundation. Some mascara – my favourite is by Dolce & Gabbana – some blush in a chubby stick (I love the Charlotte Tilbury beach sticks), then if I haven’t gotten my brows tinted I’ll use the Charlotte Tilbury Brow Lift. Brows are everything!”
On her signature scents:
“I love hard to find boutique fragrances – my favourite at the moment is Atelier Cologne’s Rose Anonyme, but I’m travelling right now with Tom Ford Black Orchid.”
On her beauty treatment schedule:
“I go to The Clinic in Bondi Junction for Blueberry Peels and IPL. I tried IPL for the first time last week and I’m so happy – I had these two spots with broken capillaries on my nose and they’re almost gone – and my skin is so dewy! Quite the revelation.”
On her words to live by:
“A candle doesn’t lose any of its flame by lighting another candle.”
Zanita wears Sportmax coat (shop similar here).
On how she maintains her hair:
“I love to keep it easy – I never spend too much on my hair! I use Schwarzkopf Sea Salt Texture Spray to get the volume and Schwarzkopf Styliste Ultime Dry Shampoo almost every day.”
On her evening routine:
“At night I just really cover my face with Charlotte Tilbury Miracle Glow cleanser, rub it around a bit and wipe off excess with a tissue. It’s so luscious, it leaves my skin baby soft.”
“I love Wildlife Salon in Surry Hills. I’ve been visiting them for about 8 years – I get half a head of light foils, no bleach.”
On her favourite all-time product:
“It used to be Bloom Lip Tint in Cinnamon but it was discontinued! I’m still on the quest to find another product like it – it was basically a felt tip pen for your lips, the colour was so natural and didn’t kiss off.”
On beauty as part of her style:
“I love my beauty routine to be effortless, but great skin is really important to me. I’m more likely to spend extra money on cleanser and moisturiser than concealer and eyeshadow.”
On her favourite designers:
“The design team for And Other Stories are so brilliant. I also love the team behind Topshop Unique and Stella McCartney.”
Pictured: Tibi slides (shop similar here), Adidas sneakers and Tony Bianco heels (shop similar here).
On the one product she can’t live without:
“Right now I love the Lancome Miracle Cushion foundation – I usually hate the feeling of make-up on my skin but this is so unbelievably light and dewy.”
“I love a red lip – either M.A.C Ruby Woo or Dolce & Gabbana.”
On her favourite skin pick-me-ups:
“Easily the Charlotte Tilbury Miracle Glow Cleanser. I use it like a mask and just leave it on my skin for hours. Hides all manner of sins. Kiehls Avocado Eye Cream is wonderful too, you can pile on loads of it and it won’t migrate into your eyeballs. Moisture is key.”
On her earliest beauty memory:
“Playing with my Nan’s makeup, applying red lipstick and bright blue eyeshadow when I was about 4 years old.”
On her exercise regime:
“I love running and cardio at the gym – I’ve also been seeing a personal trainer for strength training and getting great results. My butt isn’t a pancake for the first time ever.”
On her personal style:
“I love soft tailoring and loose silhouettes, colour and prints – if anything I would describe my personal style as fun. It’s always a tough question because I’m always changing my mind!”
Pictured: Sportmax coat (shop similar here).
On what she loves most about travelling:
“The change of scenery, I have an incredibly short attention span.”
When you are born into an exotic name, it’s almost a given that you should pursue a career in which you can be referred to in the singular (Beyonce, Madonna et al). If that said career is blogger, then it’s all the more easy to forgo the traditional naming conventions and go straight for the eponymous – particularly if your name is Zanita.
The very whisper of her name conjures alluring visions of a girl adept at flitting around the globe at a moment’s notice. Zanita calls Stockholm her current “holm” (see what we did there) when she’s not between Paris, Milan, London, New York and Sydney. “The change of scenery is what drives me, I have an incredibly short attention span.” And as the girl herself attests, her sense of style is chameleonic as she moves between continents, mirroring where she is in time as opposed to following a staunch style guide. “If anything I would describe my style as fun, it’s always a tough question because I’m always changing my mind! I love soft tailoring and loose silhouettes as much as I love color and prints.”
This in turn infuses her posts with an international flavour grounded with an essence that is also very Australian (at the time of publishing her most recent campaign edit was captured along the canals of Amsterdam featuring a Dutch blogger in a Sydney label) which sees her images re-blogged and re-grammed and re-pinned across the internet. In just a few short years Zanita has made the shift from model to personal style blogger to photographer to creative consultant to landing the cover of Lucky magazine in the US (“Saying it aloud still seems so surreal”) and she seemingly manages to pull the whole thing off with the exact same ease as would you in say, nestling yourself onto the couch to do some hard chillin + Netflix.
And forget the whole “good things come to those who wait” mentality, take Zanita as a case study in perserverance and authenticity, “I never strived to “hit the big time” my advice to up-and-coming bloggers it to work towards creating the most authentic site possible and the rest will follow.” And follow we did.
Photographed by Kelly Geddes
Words by Anna McLeod
