Senator-Elect Abdul El-Sayed's Skincare Routine Goes Viral on X: CeraVe, Midday Sunscreen and a Differin Sandwich
Michigan Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed's skincare routine has gone viral on X. On November 5, Suzanne Lambert of the beauty account The Cosmetic Lane posted an interview clip on X asking the senator-elect, who had just defeated Republican Mike Rogers in the November 3 midterms, how his skin got so good. The 42-year-old El-Sayed first joked, 'I have really good genetics,' then walked through every product he uses, morning and night. BuzzFeed pulled the full exchange together in a November 10 story as the clip kept spreading.
His morning starts with cleansing. El-Sayed said he washes his face with a CeraVe cleanser made for oily skin, holding up a travel-sized tube, and joked, 'Unfortunately, Egyptian heritage, definitely oily skin.' Lambert teased that he sounded 'like such an influencer.' Long hours in cars on the campaign trail made sun protection a priority: he said he usually reapplies sunscreen around 12 or 1 in the afternoon because 'we sometimes forget that the stuff wipes off,' and cited a paper on truck drivers whose window-side faces age significantly faster from greater sun exposure.
His evening routine is more detailed. At night he washes again with CeraVe, and every other day uses Differin, whose active ingredient is adapalene, a retinoid. His method is the so-called sandwich: a layer of EltaMD PM moisturizer, then 'a tiny little pebble's worth' of Differin, then another layer of moisturizer, washed off first thing in the morning. On off days, he said, he just goes with two coats of moisturizer. The moisturizer-retinoid-moisturizer order is commonly used to reduce irritation.
When Lambert asked whether the routine would work for her skin, El-Sayed, who has a medical background, drew a clear line: 'I am not licensed to practice medicine in any state, and therefore I cannot give you medical advice.' He holds a medical degree from Columbia University and a doctorate in public health from the University of Oxford and once ran Detroit's health department, but he did not pursue residency training and is not a licensed physician, a point he made himself in the clip.
Reaction quickly spread beyond skincare circles. CeraVe's official X account replied to the video, 'Nah he knows ball,' and journalist Mehdi Hasan wrote, 'This man can totally run for president :-)' Many users praised a male senator-elect for describing skincare in such specific terms. BuzzFeed also noted stereotyped comments about men and skincare under the post, and reminded readers that skincare has no sexual orientation. After his November 3 win, El-Sayed is set to become the first Muslim member of the U.S. Senate; this viral moment had nothing to do with his platform, and it is the personal detail voters online remembered first after the election.
Related: Michigan Senate Election: AP Calls Race for El-Sayed, Set to Become First Muslim U.S. Senator
Source: BuzzFeed
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：密歇根州联邦参议员当选人 Abdul El-Sayed 资料图，2025年10月22日在 Michigan Technological University 与选民见面（Conlan Houston 摄，CC BY-SA 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons），非本次采访画面。/ Michigan Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed in a file photo meeting voters at Michigan Technological University on October 22, 2025 (by Conlan Houston, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons); not a still from the viral interview.
