Mandy Moore Reveals the Skin Condition She Battled While Filming 'This Is Us'

The next best thing to a “This Is Us” reboot? Sitting down with superstar Mandy Moore to chat about her skincare secrets, new mom life, and why she won't get bangs again.

With an almost one-year-old and a two-and-a-half-year-old, Mandy Moore is booked and busy. In addition to gearing up to move into her family's forever home, she’s also determined to raise awareness around eczema. To do so, Moore partnered with Incyte on their “Moments of Clarity”campaign in hopes of encouraging those who have eczema symptoms to see a derm and come up with a treatment plan—just like she did.

“A few years ago,” Moore recalls, “I noticed my face had red, dry, scaly, itchy, irritated spots all over it, and I kind of threw every lotion and potion on it, and I thought, 'You know, I’m working a lot; I have a lot of makeup and prosthetics on my face,' and I figured maybe it’s some sort of allergic reaction to makeup,” she explains. “Maybe my skin just has too much stuff on it all of the time," she says. "But when the symptoms kept persisting and nothing was really helping, I finally went to the dermatologist and was diagnosed with atopic dermatitis,” Moore shares. While atopic dermatitis is less common in adults, 21 million Americans above the age of 12 have atopic dermatitis—the most common type of eczema.

Related: The Best Skincare Routine for Eczema, According to Dermatologists

How She Treats Her Eczema

“It’s seasonal for me and tends to flare up when it’s really dry and cold," Moore says. A few tweaks that have helped: “I found a number of lifestyle changes really helped, like dietary changes; I try to get a lot of omega-3. I love salmon—anything that’s going to help with my skin barrier and not let moisture out," she says.

“Stress is a trigger," she adds. Her favorite way to combat it: “I’m pretty good with the bath; closing the door at 7 o’clock and immediately starting a bath and sometimes I put a fun bath bomb in or light a candle or have a glass of wine, or I put my iPad on the windowsill and watch something,” she says. “And I give myself grace. I know we’re entering into the winter season and I know my eczema is going to flare and I’m not going to stress out about it,” she says. When she's having a blah day, "I treat myself, listen to music, allow myself to feel human—we all have days where we feel off," she says. "I think, 'Tomorrow’s a new day and we’re all in the same boat."

Her Favorite Skincare

When it comes to skincare, “Anything that’s simple, clean, and easy,” is what she reaches for, adding that formulas that are scent-free, dye-free, hypoallergenic, and super gentle are the ways to go. "There are plenty of great drugstore brands," Moore says.

Her Thoughts on Aging

Now that she’s had a sneak peak into the future while playing everyone's favorite character, Rebecca Pearson, on "This Is Us," I was curious to know Moore’s take on aging. “Even though I’d look in the mirror and I wouldn’t recognize my mom or grandma because I was playing a character, I think it did make me excited for everything that does come along with aging," she says. "Like the wisdom and clarity that comes along with getting older that there’s no substitute for,” she adds. “I love this chapter of my life; like you couldn’t pay me any amount of money to go back to my twenties. It’s demystifying; it makes me definitely less terrified of approaching those ages," she says.

She agrees that Rebecca Pearson knew what she was doing when it comes to aging gracefully. "Whatever that character was doing, I need to follow—she was getting more than eight cups of water a day and getting plenty of sleep and wearing sunscreen and doing all of the right things. If I could subscribe to whatever philosophy she did, because I think there’s a way to do it very gracefully and she definitely was a model for that.”

New Fall Hairstyles

Now that the show has wrapped, Moore is feeling free and ready to switch things up. “Being hemmed in from working on a television show and not being able to embrace change and have consistency for the sake of continuity, it was fun to be done with that chapter and cut my hair and cut bangs and add some color,” she says. “I started out blonde and went brunette and was every shade in between, so being able to to have fun with hair color and express myself in that way is something I’ve always subscribed to," she explains.

“I’m getting ready to do something fun for fall," she says. But she won’t cut bangs again. “That’s the thing with bangs; you cut them and then you’re like, 'I’m growing my bangs out.'"

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