Zendaya Makes Prada Paradoxe Sweet Chemistry Her Signature
Zendaya calls Prada Paradoxe Sweet Chemistry her go-to scent, crediting her best friend Darnell for the discovery and director Barry Jenkins for the new campaign.
Updated
The takeaway
- Zendaya wore Prada Paradoxe a year before signing as the face of the brand's new Sweet Chemistry eau de parfum.
- Sweet Chemistry combines black currant syrup accord, orange blossom absolute, and neroli milk accord, with a fruitier finish than the amber-anchored Paradoxe line.
- Barry Jenkins directed the Sweet Chemistry campaign; he and Zendaya are also collaborating on the Ronnie Spector biopic Be My Baby.
Zendaya never leaves the house without fragrance. "I would say I'm pretty modest with the sprays," she tells Harper's Bazaar. "I've seen friends of mine that really, really go crazy, and I feel like I can't do that, but I definitely do more than two or three." Her placement usually involves a spritz or two on the wrists, transferred to each side of the neck for a long-lasting effect—and sometimes her clothing.
The actress has now made Prada Paradoxe's newest scent, Sweet Chemistry eau de parfum, her go-to perfume. But her connection to the line predates her role as the face of the fragrance. "I started wearing Prada Paradoxe a year prior to being reached out to. I tried it on at the previous Met [Gala]," she previously told Bazaar. The introduction came through her best friend Darnell, whom she considers one of the best-smelling people she knows and who frequently wears the line's Intense eau de parfum. "Every time he wore it, I'd be like, 'What are you wearing?'" she recalls. "And I would comment every time, and he was like, 'I'm telling you, it's the same one you just complimented me on a week ago!'"
Sweet Chemistry combines notes of black currant syrup accord, orange blossom absolute, and neroli milk accord. The scent delivers a fruitier finish with a creamy dry down, distinguishing it from the other Paradoxe perfumes, which are anchored by ambery notes.
Zendaya's taste defies trend cycles—a philosophy she applies as much to beauty as to her wardrobe. "I think I realized as a young person how fast trends cycle and change, and it is never-ending. You'll never catch up because as soon as you get it, we're already on to the next, especially now," she says. "I've tried so hard to just focus on things that I really love—pieces that I really, really love—and then also remind myself to actually wear them."
Her fragrance habits trace back to family. Zendaya's love of scent originates from watching her older sister's getting-ready routine as a child. "The way she dressed, the way she did her makeup, the way she smelled, and I swear I've never smelled my sister smell bad ever in her life," she says. "We have a joke that, like, at this point, she just sweats perfume." Her sister taught her how to apply and layer fragrance.
Her grandmother supplied another formative scent memory: the now-discontinued Soir de Paris, also known as Evening in Paris. Though her grandmother stopped wearing fragrance toward the end of her life, her Oakland, California home—which remains virtually untouched—still carries the smell. "They don't make it anymore, but I swear that it's, like, in the walls," Zendaya says. "Every time I walk in, it still smells the same."
When asked to match her most memorable characters to Paradoxe scents, Zendaya answered without hesitation. "I think Chani is Prada Paradoxe Intense because, listen, her life is intense," she says. "Athena would probably be this new Sweet Chemistry because it's so distinct and strong in a warm way... And then MJ, I think, would be Virtual Flower... it just feels like such a classic, simple fragrance that can layer with everything. And I feel like MJ just is a consistent girl."
For the Sweet Chemistry campaign, Zendaya worked with Moonlight director Barry Jenkins. The pair are also collaborating on the upcoming biographical film Be My Baby, about Ronnie Spector, the former lead singer of the 1960s girl group the Ronettes. "It was nice to test-drive our on-set relationship, because as much as we've been working kind of behind the scenes and off camera, we've never actually been able to work in front of a camera together yet," she says. "He was just so easy to work with."
With a Jenkins-helmed campaign, a Spector biopic on deck, and a Prada contract built on genuine fandom, Zendaya has turned personal taste into a working formula.
Source: Harper's Bazaar Beauty; Source: go.redirectingat.com
Grace Kim
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Correspondent covering media and advertising at Eurasian Beauty Journal.
