*** This article was published by Women's Health Magazine. As an actress, Jennifer Esposito, 43, spends a lot of time in front of the camera. But for years, she dealt with skin and hair issues that made her job—and her life—extremely difficult. Jennifer—you know her from Blue Bloods, Mistresses, and The Affair—didn’t know why her skin was so dry it was peeling off. Or why her scalp felt like it was on fire whenever she shampooed. “Any time I used soap, I’d have an immediate allergic reaction,” she tells WomensHealthMag.com. In her mid-thirties, she was finally diagnosed with celiac disease—and it turned out the condition was the source of all these problems. |
“When I switched to a gluten-free shampoo, the pain stopped immediately,” says Jennifer, who’s overhauled her beauty routine since the diagnosis. That’s why partnering with Éclair Naturals, a new line of vegan, gluten-free, and soy-free beauty products available at Rite Aid, was a no-brainer for her. “I love the brown sugar body scrub because it smells like cookies,” she says.
Painful rashes weren’t the only thing Jennifer dealt with prior to learning she had celiac disease, though. She says her hair used to fall out in clumps. “My eyelashes were falling out, too,” she adds. (Because people with the condition don’t absorb key nutrients, hair loss often occurs.)
What’s more, Jennifer says her skin had a yellow tint to it, so finding a perfect foundation match on TV and movie sets was virtually impossible. “My liver was toxic, which was making my skin yellow,” she says.
While she’s doing a whole lot better now that she avoids gluten in her food and beauty regimen, Jennifer—who owns a gluten-free bakery called Jennifer’s Way in New York City—still has her ups and downs. “It’s an autoimmune disease, so you really have to stay on top of it,” she says. “When you feel a flare coming on, if you don’t take charge right then, it’ll cycle out of control. I feel great right now, but my killer is stress, and I’m still learning how to deal with that. Meditation helps a lot.”
— Women's Health, written by Christina Heiser