Person of Interest

Venus Williams Makes a Beauty Play with a New Sunscreen Collaboration

At home in Florida, the tennis star has been test-driving her SPF formulas during nonstop workouts: “Hopefully when I come back on court, I will look like She-Ra!”
Image may contain Clothing Apparel Venus Williams Human Person Face and Undershirt
By Craig Ambrosio.

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“When I was younger, I just thought I was invincible,” says Venus Williams, flashing back to her teenage start on the pro tennis circuit. The 39-year-old could be referring to her undaunted drive at the 1997 U.S. Open, where the newcomer landed a surprise slot in the women’s singles finals. The following year, she and her younger sister Serena clinched their first doubles title, a partnership that would earn them an Olympic gold medal in 2000, with two more to follow. When the Women’s Tennis Association ranked Williams No. 1 in 2002, she was exactly that: invincible. But from her home in perpetually sunny Florida, the tennis star is talking about a different kind of defense: sunscreen.

Williams rattles off her early excuses. “I thought, ‘I don’t need it. I am young! I already have built-in SPF,’” she recalls, referring to the certain amount of protection offered by the melanin in deeper skin tones. “Then, as I got older, I started to think, ‘Oh my god, I’m going to turn into a raisin!’” She lets out a laugh, saying that she’s learned her lesson. “I joke with my team: ‘Is it ugly? Because if it’s not ugly, I don’t have enough on.’”

The new sunscreen duo from EleVen by Venus Williams. From left: Unrivaled Sun Serum SPF 35, $50; On-the-Defense Sunscreen SPF 30, $42; credobeauty.com.Courtesy of EleVen by Venus.

As of today, though, Williams is going to need a new one-liner, with the debut of her first-ever sunscreens, designed to be invisible even if they’re piled on. Created in collaboration with The Sunscreen Company and Credo—the clean-beauty retailer known for scrutinizing labels—the products are a fitting extension for EleVen by Venus Williams, her activewear label that uses UPF 50+ fabric. (That’s the sun-protective equivalent of SPF 50.) Zinc oxide, a mineral filter that covers the spectrum of UVA and UVB rays, is the active ingredient in the range, but the success is in avoiding the tell-tale chalky effect. Unrivaled Sun Serum, a milky formula with an SPF of 35, comes dispensed from a glass dropper and glides on, just like that. (This is the one that Williams uses on her face.) On-the-Defense Sunscreen is a sheer SPF 30 cream that rubs in easily, from head to ankle sock.

“I’m a huge Credo beauty fan,” Williams says. “Honestly, if I’m not getting anything, I just like to go on the website and look around.” (Window shopping in a time of social distancing.) She calls herself a stickler for all-natural products; with Credo, “it’s like we’re speaking the same language.” Unlike food, where ingredients aren’t always slapped onto a menu, “the one thing I can always control is what I’m putting on my body,” she says. “I can win at that one all the time.”

In the past couple months at home, Williams is embracing the good and reevaluating everything else. “French fries are probably my favorite vegan food,” she says slyly, “but you can’t do that every day.” She describes how “things got really weird” during the early phase of quarantine, with a glut of time and strange foods—canned cranberries one day, pie the next. She has since done a wholesale reset, pivoting to clean drinks, protein powders (she calls out Tom Brady’s formula), and plenty of greens. As for the good? Let’s just say it’s helpful she makes athletic apparel, between her livestream fitness sessions, strength training in the gym, and hours with the racket. “I just did an Instagram Live workout,” she tells me. “You try to look presentable, but I was just sweating to the point where my right eye shut. My mom threw me a towel!”

Williams playing a match during the Dongfeng Motor Wuhan Open at Optics Valley International Tennis Center in 2019.By Wang He/Getty Images.

The cusp-of-summer heat in Florida is strangely new for Williams, who usually trains in the UK before Wimbledon and other summer tennis events. “I haven’t gotten one rain delay in all eight weeks I’ve been home—are you kidding?” she says, incredulous. “It rains on all the days I don’t train.” But she's liking the constant flex. “I’ve never worked out this much in my life, so hopefully when I come back on the court, I will look like She-Ra or something. Wonder Woman!” she says. Her tournament mindset can be all-consuming: “I lose track of even who I am. I just become a tennis machine.” By contrast, her IG Live sessions are all about connection. “I give shoutouts to people that I see all the time. ‘Maxine is in. Thanks for coming back, Kate’—and I love that,” she says. (That recognition flows both ways. It’s hard not to notice the effusive hearts on her page from one Naomi Campbell.)

If sunscreen is Williams’ first entry into the personal-care category, it’s easy to imagine what could follow. High-gloss lipstick, maybe; a shower line for active bodies. “I love all things beauty,” she says, running through all the main categories: makeup, hair, skin, supplements, nontraditional therapies. “The sky is the limit,” she says—a cliché that stops being a cliché when it comes out of a gold medalist's mouth. But it’s eyeliner that she would do first. “I wear it on the court. It’s kind of part of my outfit,” she says. Waterproof formulas, in a spectrum of fun brights and sleek basics? It would be a grand slam.

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