Award-winning American actor and author, Julianne Moore, is best known for films that span Still Alice to The End of The Affair, and she’s also an award-winning author of the Freckleface Strawberry children’s books. As she becomes an Hourglass ambassador and fronts its “We Glow” campaign alongside her daughter, Liv, she speaks to Vogue’s beauty and wellness editor, Hannah Coates, about chlorophyll, radio frequency and her refreshing thoughts on getting older.
On how she wakes up in the morning
The first thing I do is drink water with chlorophyll in it. Somebody a long time ago told me that it’s really good for your skin, so I drink two huge glasses of water with a few drops of it inside. Then I drink tea and look over my iPad at the news. Also, there’s a New York Times game called Spelling Bee that I find very soothing – I do that for a while too. I like to have some time in the morning. I wish I could jump out of bed, but I can’t.
On her evening skincare routine
I’ve always been a stickler for taking all my make-up off and making sure that I put on some kind of moisturiser. Sometimes I use a retinoid – Teresa Tarmey, who is in the UK, has a really terrific retinoid that I like, and Hourglass has an eye balm, that is fantastic. I like stuff that is really hydrating.
On baths
I take an Epsom salt bath every night – I love baths! I’ll take one in the morning if I can, and at night. It’s interesting because I was doing a little job recently and I was getting up really early in the morning for it – I would still sit in the bath for at least five minutes, because it made me feel so good. Epsom salts aren’t expensive – you can get them from the drug store, I don’t get the fancy kind – and you should use a lot of them.
On what inspired her Freckleface Strawberry children’s books
It was my son, who was seven at the time. He had just gotten a haircut and he didn’t like how his face or ears looked, and his adult teeth were coming in – and you know when kids’ big teeth come through and they’re terrified? It was the first time I had seen him feel like “I don’t know if I like that”. It touched me because he was a perfect, beautiful kid. I also remembered that when I was that age I was called “strawberry”, and it felt so terribly offensive to me, which is crazy but, you know, perspective.
So I started to write this book, really for him and his sister, about the experience of having something that maybe isn’t your favourite thing about yourself. In the story, she grows up and her freckles don’t go away, but she doesn’t care anymore. I didn’t want to write a story about becoming a swan, because I think it’s different from that magical transformation. I think you grow into yourself – you have things that matter and don’t matter to you. You grow into your teeth!
On how to apply foundation for natural results
The one thing that’s great about the Hourglass Ambient Soft Glow Foundation is that it’s buildable, so you can use as little or as much as you want to get the coverage you want. Make-up artists tell me you can mix a little with whatever moisturiser you have, and it becomes like a tinted moisturiser, or you can use it by itself as a full-finish foundation – but it’s not heavy. You can still see the quality of the skin and it doesn’t look like a mask. The colour range is good – I was able to find one that completely matches my skin tone, which is not easy. I’m fair skinned and I don’t want to change the colour of my skin [with foundation].
On getting older as a woman in Hollywood
I honestly think it’s [less difficult] now. The thing about the Hollywood entertainment industry is that it really reflects our culture at large – and our culture is changing, so I think that Hollywood has changed too. When people talk about ageing as something that’s pejorative, it’s really crazy, because it’s simply a fact. You know, that’s what we do! We go from being younger to older, and it’s a privilege to continue to age because the alternative is just not being here anymore.
“The last thing I think about on a daily basis is what I look like.”
Every stage of life is something that’s valuable and interesting and compelling. The most important thing, I think, is to be present where you are and to get deeper in your own life. Getting older is about how can I be a better partner? How can I find some depth in my work? What can I do for the world? How am I as a parent? All of those things. It’s looking at everything as a birth opportunity so that, rather than being negative, it’s a positive journey.
On her go-to hair products for healthy hair
Philip Kingsley is a British brand that a hairstylist introduced me to – those shampoos and conditioners are fantastic. Olaplex is also something else. I’ve been out near the beach recently and my hair was super dried out, so when I got up this morning I put on an Olaplex mask and kept it on for about an hour before I washed my hair – that’s really terrific. I’m also using a hair colour that’s semi-permanent and have found that it’s gentler on my hair. It keeps it a more natural colour, and I prefer it.
On shooting the Ambient Soft Glow Foundation campaign with her daughter
I have to say, shooting this campaign with my daughter… I was just overjoyed to be there with her. I was so proud. To suddenly be with your 20 year-old daughter in a professional situation, where she really rose to the occasion, I could not have been prouder. It was a lovely day for us – and what’s interesting is that the whole essence of the commercial is that when we’re with someone that we love, who we have a connection to, we look better and come alive. And that actually happened! At one point I thought I was going to cry.
On wellness
I’ve been doing Ashtanga yoga for probably 20 years. They put my studio online during the pandemic and that’s been really great because now I can do it wherever I am. I still have my teachers there, which is great. I also had this crazy massage recently. It’s in LA, called Ricari Studios, and it’s a lymphatic massage. You wear a weird bodystocking, then they take this machine that goes “grrr”, and I had one woman using it on one side of my body. On the other side, the other woman was using the Brazilian system, called gua sha. Then they flipped me over, and it was amazing. I felt like I had all of this energy afterwards and then was exhausted later on in the day. She also did my face as well at the end – it was all lymphatic based. I liked that.
On working out
Yoga is the one form of exercise I’ve really stuck with. I go in and out. I feel that I probably should start lifting weights again, but I get really bored with it – I need to maintain interest. I used to run, but it’s too hard on my hips – I feel like they get banged around, so I just try to walk really fast.
On facials she loves
Teresa Tarmey is fantastic. I also go to a guy named Fabricio Ormonde here in New York. Radio frequency has been a game-changer for me. It’s really great, because it’s a way to maintain your skin that’s completely non-invasive. I use my face for a living and I need to make sure that I look like me and that my face is mobile – radio frequency is the way to do it. It can be time intensive, but you really see incredible results.
On the beauty tips she’s learned on set in her time
I’ve been so fortunate in my movies, because I work with [hair and make-up] artists and a lot of what they can do – let’s be frank – we can’t do! I’d like to say that I could, but I struggle with blow drying my own hair, as we all do. I think the one thing I’ve learned is making sure that my skin looks luminous. When we’re working on camera, we want the skin to reflect light, and that happens in real life too. It’s also important to work out what you can do to enhance how you look rather than try to obliterate a feature to play up the key features you feel good about. And back to hair: if you can find a tool that helps you blow out your own hair or that helps you hang on to your blowout for as long as possible – that’s one of the things I’m waiting for.
On evening out make-up
If I’ve been busy all day, I’ll add a little face oil to brighten up my face a little bit. I like to use a brownish liner – a nice soft brown – and then a shadow in a similar shade. The aim is to deepen the eye without it being too much. And then I keep my skin looking fresh.
On life lessons she’s passed on to her daughter
I’ve always told her not to touch her eyebrows. She has amazing brows. I remember when I started messing with mine when I was 12 years old, it was terrible and destroyed them. Then of course, I managed to get them to grow back, and then suddenly it was the ’90s and I did it again! I did it so many times that they’re now just a shadow of their former selves. So I say to her “don’t touch them, please!” It’s my biggest piece of advice.
On what’s in her beach bag
You know what? I never sit at the beach. We live by the beach, but I never sit on it because of the sun. However we have two dogs and I like to take them to the beach in the morning to walk them. Things were always coming out of my pockets, like I had a leash, the treats, the bags, my phone and my headphones – and I found this really great wicker beach bag thing that I could sling over my shoulder. I said to my husband, “Look, I’ve done it!”, and he said, “Now you look like a dog walker”. That’s my beach look. [Laughs].
