Phaedra Parks brought the glam to The Traitors — and nailed her role as a Traitor.
Spoiler alert: She didn’t fully nail it, because she didn’t actually win the game as a Traitor, but she did look flawless every single day she stayed in the game.
On day one of season 2 of the Peacock show, Parks was tapped as a Traitor, which meant she was tasked with tricking the Faithfuls into believing she was one of them so she and her fellow Traitors could steal the prize money at the end of the game.
Parks outlasted a few of her fellow Traitors, though, thanks to a “hack” that she employed with her makeup, she tells PEOPLE exclusively.
Chris Haston/PEACOCK via Getty
The way the game works, each day, the players all vote to banish someone from the game. Their goal is to banish a Traitor so that only Faithfuls are left in the game at the end. After banishment, everyone heads to bed for the night, but that’s when the Traitors come out to play. The Traitors all meet in secret in the middle of the night to “murder” a player (aka, send them home).
Parks, who recently partnered with IT Cosmetics for its Keep It Real social campaign, tells PEOPLE that during her season of the game, which premiered on Peacock this past January, her fellow players started suspecting anyone who looked tired each morning, assuming that those players were Traitors who had been up all night committing murder. And she had to counteract that.
“I was like, let me make sure I get up at 4 a.m. and have my eyes concealed and look absolutely amazing,” she says. “Because people were looking so close at everyone in the mornings. When the girls would come in, if they looked a little haggard, they would say, ‘She’s got to be a Traitor. She didn’t get any sleep. Look at her bags under her eyes.’ So when they would say that, I was like, ‘Oh my God, look, I’m so rested.”
As a self-proclaimed “hack girl,” makeup became her best friend to keep her in the game as long as possible.
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The game, hosted by Alan Cumming and filmed in a remote castle in Scotland, also meant that Parks had no extra help with her makeup. That was fine by her, as she tells PEOPLE she considers herself to be an “amateur makeup artist.” Though people assumed she had help with her makeup for the show.
“I did that makeup every day,” she says with a laugh, adding, “I did my makeup and most of the other cast’s makeup. The other girls were always like, ‘Please do my makeup.’ I’m like, ‘Okay, cool. Get in my chair.'”
The Real Housewives of Atlanta star may not have taken home the massive prize pot on The Traitors — that was split between C.T. Tamburello and Trishelle Cannatella — but she maintains that going on the show was “the best thing” she’s ever done.
“I would do it a million times.”
