09/19/2014 at 12:00 PM ET
Julianne Moore is a beauty icon of ours for a number of reasons: That porcelain skin! That gorgeous red hair! And we especially love that she tells it like it is when it comes to all things aesthetic. She doesn’t let us down in that respect in the latest issue of NewBeauty, in which she looks amazing and gives her frank take on weight loss, hair color and more.
James White for NewBeauty
First off, Moore, 53, confesses that she had the reaction to her temporarily blonde hair as we did. “My grandmother always said my red hair was my calling card! And I never realized how much I identified with it until I had to dye it blond years ago for a role,” she tells the magazine. “It felt so weird, and I couldn’t wait to go back to my regular shade.” (Despite not wanting to go back to blonde permanently, it was “actually pretty fun” to don a wig for the upcoming Hunger Games film.)
Another thing she won’t be doing anytime soon? Subsist on only liquids. ““I did a juice cleanse for the Golden Globes one year. I think I did it for three days. To be honest, the only weight I lost was in my brain!” she jokes. Her preferred workout style is much more our speed. “I don’t like noisy workouts. I tried spinning and didn’t like it; it’s just too loud for me,” she says. “I do better when I am working out in quiet, which is why I like yoga. I also work out at my house, do interval running and lift light weights.”
James White for NewBeauty
She also discusses aging, and how she’s imparting her hard-earned beauty wisdom to her 12-year-old daughter, Liv. “I can remember being 12 and everyone was talking about the year 2000 and it seemed so far away. I remember thinking, ‘I will be 40 then,’ and it just seemed so old — I couldn’t even think about it; it was utterly shocking,” she says. “But when you get there, it’s so much less serious than you anticipated. The changes aren’t as vast and it all happens very gradually. Getting older is not as bad as you think.”
Especially when you have a sweet mini-me to keep you young. “For my daughter, we talk about different things as they relate to beauty. I always tell her not to overpluck her eyebrows — I remember overplucking mine in sixth grade, and I guess everyone does!” she says. “She is allowed to play with makeup, but I also remind her how beautiful she looks without it. I also try to remind her she can dress modestly and still look lovely.” So now we have to add “amazing mom” to our list of reasons we think Moore’s so great.
For more from the star, check out NewBeauty.com, and tell us, Loving the photos? How about her frank advice? Share in the comments!
–Alex Apatoff