At this point in her career, Pamela Anderson hardly requires an introduction. Still, since bursting onto the scene in the early '90s, the model, actress, and activist has added quite a few new titles to her ever expanding résumé, including author (her autobiography, Love, Pamela, was published in 2023, and her plant-based cookbook, I Love You: Recipes from the Heart, debuted earlier this year) and budding skincare entrepreneur. Anderson, along with her sons Brandon and Dylon, acquired vegan and cruelty-free skincare brand Sonsie in January 2024, a fitting exclamation point for her newfound status as a makeup-free icon.
It's quite the change for a woman who became synonymous with the dark, skinny brows and frosty pink lips of the '90s and early '00s. But Anderson is not only welcoming this no makeup shift — she is finding solace in allowing her most authentic self to shine.
"Now that I peeled it all back, maybe I'll wear a lip sometimes [or] put a tiny bit in my brows...but I'm just experimenting because I really prefer not to have anything on my skin," says the 57-year-old over Zoom, who, true to her word, is bare-skinned and radiant behind her fashionable thick glasses (a recent purchase from a drugstore in Barcelona). "I don't think I look better without makeup; I just think I look more myself without makeup. And that's kind of the phase I'm in right now."
Now, due to overwhelming consumer demand, and with Anderson clocking just under a year at the helm of Sonsie, the brand is finally debuting its first cleanser, the Sonsie Cleansing Mousse. It joins a tightly edited collection of Sonsie products, including the Super Serum, Multi-Moisture Mask, and Basic Balm. "I get to bring a little bit of home with me, because I miss my garden," says Anderson regarding the cleanser's subtle rose notes. "I travel so much lately that I've been wearing my [Sonsie] mask all day long, and I have the lip balm everywhere I go."
For more of Anderson's best beauty and wellness essentials, as well as her most heartfelt (and encouraging) advice about growing older, keep scrolling.
Marie Claire: You've made such a stir by ditching makeup for shoots and on the red carpet over the last year. What have you discovered during this new makeup-free era?
Pamela Anderson: I really just want to embrace who I am. What are my dreams? What are my goals? Not what everybody else's goals are for me, or what everybody else thinks of me. I really had to find myself again. So it was part of the journey, and I'm still in it, still discovering.
MC: What has happened with your makeup collection since becoming an advocate for bare, healthy skin?
PA: I mean, I have a lot of makeup. I still have it. It's kind of gone to the back of the drawers because I haven't been using it so much.
MC: Well your skin is absolutely glowing. Do you believe in supplements for skin health?
PA: I do. I think it's important to find out what you need, especially at my age. I never did anything hormonally for myself. I never did any bioidentical hormones or anything. I'm just taking it as it comes. I take evening primrose oil, and I have turmeric supplements, too, for inflammation —stuff to keep my immune system strong because I travel so much. I am plant based, so I take [vitamin] B12.
I'm outside all the time. It's really important for me to be in nature. That kind of that saves me.
MC: What rituals do you engage in on a daily basis to prioritize both your mental well-being and your physical well-being?
PA: I walk every day. I walk five to ten kilometers a day outside, unless it's, like, torrential rain, then I'll hit a treadmill. But I'm outside all the time. It's really important for me to be in nature. That kind of that saves me.
I write every morning. I have my Open Journal that I share with people, and then I write for myself. That's really important. I get up really early, like four or five in the morning, and I write. Then as soon as the sun comes up, I'm outside walking, and then I come back in and I have my little ritual — cleaning my face, doing my skincare and then getting on with work.
MC: Do you dream journal? Or are you just writing down your thoughts as they come to you?
PA: More of a stream of consciousness. My kids were always like, 'Mom, you need to do a journal so you don't email us as much and give us all this advice.' [Laughs]
MC: Obviously, you've developed a lot of really amazing skincare habits for your skin health, but do you have any bad habits that you're trying to break?
PA: I drink too much coffee. I want to work on that, because I love this dandelion chicory coffee that I've created for a lot of different drinks from my cookbook.
MC: If you have time to dedicate to a spa day, what's your go-to treatment to decompress?
PA: I love a bath. I have a bath every day. Kind of a bubble bath, but more salts and oils and moisturizing [things]. Then putting on the [Sonsie] moisture mask and sit in a steamy bath and play music, like Nina Simone — something blues — and I just dream in the bathtub. That's my favorite thing to do.
MC: You've had access to so many treatments over the course of your career, but what's the strangest beauty treatment that you've ever undergone?
PA: Oh my God, well, probably leave those off the table. [Laughs] No, my mom always taught me that less is more and to just... nourish your skin instead of peeling it all away. I've always been a little bit fearful of those kind of treatments; anything too [harsh]. I have very sensitive skin, and that's why Sonsie is good, too. It's [made] for sensitive skin, so it just feels gentle but nourishing. And you're in a good place when you use it because it's cruelty-free. That really means a lot to me.
It's life-changing to feel confident in your body and in your skin and who you are and what you look like. It's very freeing.
MC: Being on the other side now, are there any things that you were surprised to learn about skincare and running a skincare business?
PA: Yes, it's quite complicated. My sons are very involved in the business side of things and working with labs and and creating formulas, especially to do it the way we want to do it. We want it to be a clean beauty brand, [and] there are some hurdles you have to overcome with that. We've just got to...make sure that we don't ever lose that integrity for the product. Because I know people expect that from me. So it's really important to do the best we can, and we are. We have these conversations all the time [about] how to do better.
MC: In the skincare business, there's so much chatter about "anti-aging" and developing products that will erase the signs of aging. But to flip that, what have been a few of your favorite things about growing older?
PA: I just feel better than I ever have felt. I feel like it has to do with really accepting who I am and feeling comfortable walking out the door as me. And I hope that's [the] one message I can get across because it's life-changing. It's life-changing to feel confident in your body and in your skin and who you are and what you look like. It's very freeing. So that's what I've learned. Don't be afraid of getting older. It just gets more fun.
