Peyton List Dishes on Her New Brand, Pley Beauty, and a Big Change to Look Out For on Cobra Kai

Pley Beauty, which officially launches in January, has been in the works for two years. “It was crazy because, even when the whole world was shut down and it felt like I had no idea what would happen with filming and everything else, I was still meeting and developing this beauty brand,” List said.

While launching a beauty brand amid a pandemic would make most people question what they were doing, List felt they were right on track from the start. As the trend began to shift away from doing makeup out of obligation or as a way to impress others and instead, doing it more for yourself, Pley’s mission echoed that. List said her brand is for “people that love beauty and love expressing themselves, but also care about their impact [on the world] and the environment.” Staying true to the name, Pley is all about finding joy in beauty and playing. “It was really fun to just be able to have absolutely no rules.”

But she’s not doing it alone – she formed an all-women team to help make her dream a reality. “They all left huge beauty brands to come work for me, and it was just a huge win for me,” she said. “I just feel so grateful to have this team around who’s been able to take my vision and run with it.” This project is the first time List has had “complete control” over what she’s working on, and she loves it.

List’s first memory with beauty is in the hair and makeup chair on set with Disney when she was 12. Before that, she never wore makeup. She distinctly remembers the hair and makeup pros getting her camera-ready and using an airbrush makeup applicator. “I looked in the mirror, [and] I didn’t even recognize myself. I was like, ‘Wow, I look so beautiful,'” List said. “I just remember wearing a lot of makeup on set and feeling really beautiful, and then feeling like a different girl on my off days.”

That was the first time List really felt like she was playing a character. “It was interesting, having to separate that, while I’m finding myself, but also playing this other person,” she said. “Like, who am I? And what is my relationship with beauty and makeup? But then, I started discovering, ‘Oh, this is really cool.’ [Beauty] is a very cool way to express myself.”

List gets to be the most experimental with beauty on Cobra Kai. While her character Tory Nichols has a very natural beauty vibe throughout most of the show, List describes it as “smoky and fun.” But it took some trial and error to get here.

“For the longest time, we were doing an orange lip, which I really didn’t like at all because I just thought orange was a really odd color on my pale skin, but I didn’t say anything,” List said. “So I’m like, ‘OK, this is what you guys want, that’s fine’ . . . But then over time, I realized, ‘OK, I have some input here.'” After voicing her opinion, they immediately changed it for the new season. “Nobody is going to notice this, but to me, it is a huge win.”

Orange lipstick wasn’t the only monumental beauty moment List had on the set of Cobra Kai – it was also the first time since 27 Dresses that she’d dyed her hair dark brown for a role. “I felt more like myself,” she said. “I never think about changing my hair color.” Like most actors, she waits for the next role to dictate what her hair will look like, but “going brunette felt very right for me.” Ditching her signature bright, blond hair color also allows her to blend into the background. “I disappear a little bit more,” she said. “I was like, ‘I kind of like this.'”

On average, List said she spends two hours in hair and makeup before filming, which leaves a lot of time for exposure to new beauty products, but she’s also been known to do a little research on her own. During the pandemic, she focused on skin care and “started learning about all kinds of different products.” That’s when she fell in love with one product in particular: the iS Clinical Active Serum ($138). “I’m like, ‘Oh, Kristen Bell uses it; oh, this person uses it.’ I feel like I’ve been seeing the product everywhere,” she said. That and the SkinCeuticals Clarifying Clay Mask ($59) have become staples in her routine.

In the hair category, it was the Hers Triple Threat Shampoo Thickening & Moisturizing Hair Defense Shampoo ($16) that she said saved her hair after dyeing it for Cobra Kai. “My hair has just gotten so much healthier from it. I love it,” she said.