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When I met Tony and Emmy award winner Kristin Chenoweth, I was prepared for any level of diva-ness from the star of stage and screen. I found the opposite—she was warm and hilarious and didn't hold back. We fell into an easy rapport, talking about Romanian wigs and Southern matriarchs. I admitted that my grandmother has been wearing the same hairpiece for about 30 years (I hope she doesn't learn how to work the internet anytime soon). Her mother, she confided, lives by the mantra "Beauty is as beauty does."
“I heard it my whole life," she tells me. "I used to do the eye roll, like that’s all fine and good but I want to look cute.” She laughs, and her confidence shines. But then she tells me about a time when, suddenly, she didn't feel as cute or confident as she once did.
“When I turned 25 something really weird happened, a skin problem. I couldn’t afford to go to a dermatologist at that time [because] I was off-Broadway,” she tells SELF. “I was trying everything over the counter, all the wrong things, like Cortaid on your face.” Eventually, a dermatologist diagnosed Chenoweth with rosacea.
Some 16 million Americans have rosacea, which manifests as a persistent flush over the face and neck, red bumps that look like acne, a swollen nose, or tiny crimson spider veins on the cheeks. The telltale red color comes from dilated blood vessels and increased blood flow. Though it can affect people in their 20s, rosacea is more commonly spotted in people in their late 30s and 40s. “As you get older, the collagen that surrounds your blood vessels, which helps them be strong, starts to wear down,” dermatologist Leslie Baumann, M.D., explained in a previous interview with SELF. “After a while, your blood vessels lose that ability to shrink back down, so they stay dilated."
Because Chenoweth didn’t grow up with any skin issues, it came as a shock when she ended up with rosacea later in life, especially when her career requires a lot of time in the spotlight. “It’s OK when I’m on stage because I’m far away, but when I’m [close-up], like when I started getting TV gigs, it was kind of a nightmare,” she says.
Like many people with rosacea, Chenoweth uses concealer and cosmetics to help cover the redness, but when she’s not working she prefers to go makeup free. “I’ve had wonderful professionals help me with my skin but at the core of it you still want to be naturally [beautiful]. Who doesn’t?” she says. Now, she sticks to a simple skin-care routine to avoid flare-ups: RhoFade, which helps fade redness for about 12 hours (Chenoweth is a spokesperson for the prescription cream), layered under her favorite Neutrogena moisturizer. After that, she doesn’t wear makeup at all.
But she does like to add a few flourishes to her beauty routine—most of which she picks up at the drugstore. Nivea A Kiss of Shimmer Radiant Lip Care ($3) and L’Oréal Paris Elnett Satin hairspray ($7) also make her must-have beauty list. Plus, she’s got a whole drawer of false lashes at home. “I could do my lashes blind,” she says.
Whatever she chooses to primp with, Chenoweth always goes back to what her mama used to tell her: “Truth is, if you feel good on the inside there is a glow about you that people can’t explain.”
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