The Secret Behind Angela Bassett’s Flawless Skin? “My Mom"

Angela Bassett repeatedly delivers award-winning performances on screen, but there’s another thing we can’t help but marvel over each time she makes an appearance: her skin. The 57-year-old actress's complexion belies her age—and covering up in cosmetics isn't part of the magic. “I’m not a person that wears a lot of makeup other than when I have to, when you’ve gotta amp it up, so I just like to keep the skin clean and in good shape so you can just go without it,” she tells InStyle.

The American Horror Story: Hotel star, who moisturizes daily and avoids laser treatments, credits one person in particular for showing her the skincare ropes: “My mom," she says. "At a very young age she was taking me to the dermatologist, so it became just a part of who I was, of an awareness from the ninth grade up,” she adds. “She would take me out of school and we’d go to the dermatologist—in ninth grade! This is a woman who only made like $13,000 annually, but it was important to her.”

Bassett says her mom began taking her to the dermatologist because of her family’s poor history with skincare. “When she saw I had a problem, which is probably what every little teenager goes through, it was like, ‘Uh-uh! No chocolate! No chips!’ That’s what they thought at the time.”

So is the star using her know-how to help others? “I’m working on a line, so hopefully it’ll be out next year,” she told us. “[It’s] just skin care, whether it’s the creams and night creams and the day cream and the cleanser. We’re working with a doctor who’s became a friend—still in the works.”

Bassett may be been tight-lipped about the project, but we’re eagerly waiting to see what’s next.