Selma Blair on the Skin-Care Product She Helped Create and What She Wishes Her Loved Ones Knew About MS

Selma Blair has been on a journey with her skin care and her health. Luckily, she’s come out on the other side on both fronts. “I am relapse-free right now and I’m doing really well,” Selma tells us regarding her Multiple Sclerosis (MS). And as for her skin, which was once reactive and acneic, it’s also come to a calmer place, largely thanks to a new product she’s launching in collaboration with ESK called Ultimate A Gold ($100). She had the opportunity to team up with Dr. Ginni Mansberg, who catered to a laundry list of Selma’s seemingly impossible feats for the night cream to accomplish. Spoiler alert: they nailed it. We talked to Blair about horror stories of skin-care past, collaborating on creating a product, skin care in her 50s and what she wishes loved ones of those with chronic illness understood.

Selma on her skin trials and tribulations…

“I tried so many products. Many years ago, before my son was born, I was going through a really intense flare on my skin. Out of nowhere, my skin became so reactive, and I just couldn’t tolerate anything. The more products I used, the more it would be like cystic acne, dermatitis, lesions, burning—it was a mess. I used FaceTune the bad way, like ‘woah that person whipped her whole face off’ because I couldn’t deal with the reality of it.”

Selma on finding the right solutions…

“I had tried so many things and had a lot of horror stories. They were all too active or too organic; it just wasn’t working. There was actually an aesthetician who was like, ‘Try this product, it’s really great for me,’ and it happened to be ESK Calming Cleanse ($42). This was years ago, but even that first night, the tightness and the burning started to abate. Then I was recovering, and I got a diagnosis, and my health got better, and things started moving for me. I slowly added a couple more products, but I was really scared to go out and buy a bunch of stuff, because I had so many problems with things. I wasn’t paying attention. I didn’t even know where my skin could be, or how to make it more juicy. I was just happy not to be acneic or oily.”

Selma on creating a skin-care product in collaboration with ESK…

“When there was a chance to meet with ESK’s Dr. Ginni, I was like, ‘I actually use this, it changed a huge cycle for me,’ so I was really excited. Especially at this time in my life, I’m perimenopausal, a treatment I had done brought on an early menopause, so there are a lot of changes I was going through, and I was still nervous about skin care, even though my skin was clearer. So I kind of gave my wish list of a product.

A lot of my audience is from the disabled or chronic illness community and might not have a ton of extra spending cash. There are a lot of considerations, and that’s one thing I get often because I can be such a snob because I want the best of the best, but a lot of times that comes with a fantasy price point, and a lot of my audience is like, ‘yeah, that’s not that realistic.’ So that was one of my big wishes—that there could be cellular renewal and still have ingredients that nurture and heal and help the skin barrier. I wanted to start concentrating on my aging and my hyperpigmentation. So this was the wish list going into this collaboration product.

After using the product I’ve started to get compliments now. People who have done my makeup for years will say ‘Your skin looks better. I can change your foundation color because I’m not color correcting this here, or this grayness there.’ Things are definitely improving. This is the best skin care that I’ve ever used for me. So it feels pretty good.”

Dr. Ginni on creating Ultimate A Gold with Selma…

“So the brief was, can we build collagen, can we get rid of pigmentation, can we help with skin cell renewal, can we rebuild the skin barrier and can we do it all in a single product that can be done in one step a day?

It’s an absolute banger of a product. It’s going to give you a single step that you can use at night, and at $100 for a four-month supply, that is a pretty great deal. I feel like, when I first met you [Selma], you used to have to put quite a lot of makeup on and your pores were still big. I think you look 10 years younger now than when I first met you.”

Selma on how her skin and self care has changed in her 50s…

“Now, I stay true to something that’s working for me, and I’m obviously in a very wonderful position that I had access to this incredible doctor and gave my wishes for a formulation. But really, I wear sunscreen now. I’m learning to eat in the morning. That’s going a little slow, it’s really hard, and then I eat all the tough things at night in bed and wonder why I’m so tired, yet I’m eating many calories. That is the kind of immature part of me that comes out when I’m tired. It’s like, ‘Okay, we gotta grow up. We gotta work on this.’

With my beauty routine, I mean, it is such a relief to have known skin that has fallen apart and to put it back together. Anyone knows that when things fall apart, you can’t picture it better when you’re in the midst of it. I had health issues that were like that, I had skin issues that were like that, where it all just falls into that area, and you just have to figure it out.

So now, as I’m older, I make sure to use sunscreen, I use the right products, I find the person I trust and figure out how to move forward in this process. I still keep it pretty simple, because I’m still a single mom, my kid is a teenager and I get really easily distracted, so I like the fun lipsticks and the easy things.”

Selma on what she wishes loved ones of people with MS or chronic illness understood…

“Gosh, it’s the hardest thing. The hardest thing I find, even though I’m relapse-free right now and I’m doing really well, I think, is the constant fatigue I have. I’ll meet my obligations, but you know, I do think social life really does suffer, because if something is going to fall away, it’s not going to be your child or career. It’s a hard thing explaining to friends why you cancel, or why, after doing a couple of things in the day, you don’t have anything left, and it’s hard, you know, you get isolated. 

So I just have to keep remembering and keep training myself to think positive. It’s not my go-to thought. My immediate first thought is negative, and then I find the positive, but I need to start with the positive a little more to increase the stamina.

But I do wish people could understand it’s not personal. It doesn’t mean there’s something better to do. But I think that is a thing that happens with chronic illness, the things that are superfluous suffer, and sometimes that means love in your life, or having extra time, or girl’s weekends or it’s why you’re not checking in and forgetful of things That’s the kind of thing that I wish people could understand more, and that’s what feels so good to me when a husband comes up and is like ‘Oh, my God, your documentary saved my marriage. My wife is like that, and I took it personally when she says she’s done and has to go to bed and stops being able to talk. I realized Oh, she’s not lying to me.’ People take it personally, like you’re just trying to get out of being with them. No, when someone feels like the dog’s dinner and you have nothing left, you have to go to bed, or eat something, or be by yourself or take away the stimulus. So that’s for all the loved ones. I wish there was patience and no taking it personally.

But also to know that everything can change for better and worse. My healing was not linear. I thought I’d just find the right treatment, and I would be a different person. It’s like, no, it’s still me, even though I’m well, I’m just not quite so sick. Now I have a very different attitude and a different stamina I’m trying to build, and I’m learning what’s essential.”