Julianne Hough has a bone to pick with the beauty industry’s worst-kept secret: the idea that looking good should somehow appear effortless.

For decades, women, particularly those in the public eye, have been expected to maintain a certain standard of beauty while simultaneously pretending that their appearance is entirely the product of good genes, adequate sleep, and perhaps a particularly effective moisturizer. It’s a contradiction that Hough, for one, is no longer interested in entertaining. “I think it’s almost harder on women to see other people, see how they look amazing, and they’re like, ‘I’ve done nothing,’” Hough says. “And you’re like, come on.”

The dancer, actress, and Dancing With the Stars co-host, however, has a refreshingly straightforward philosophy: If something makes you feel good, why should you have to keep it a secret? “I have a trainer to work out my body. I get my hair dyed. We’re not shaming people for getting highlights,” she says. “There are so many things that we already do that enhance our appearance and make us feel, but we have no shame around it.”

It’s this perspective that underpins her latest partnership with DAXXIFY, an FDA-approved injectable treatment for temporarily improving moderate to severe frown lines between the eyebrows in adults. But unlike some celebrity beauty endorsements, Hough’s relationship with the product began well before there was a partnership attached to it.

Hough first heard about DAXXIFY through members of her hair and makeup team, who had been sharing their experiences with the injectable. Already interested in wellness and aesthetic treatments, she was intrigued by the product’s peptide-based formulation. “I’ve always been a very curious person in terms of health, wellness, beauty, and just how to elevate what already exists,” she explains. “What am I doing to take care of my skin? What am I doing to take care of my aging in a way that feels really natural and like me, not to change or look like everybody else?”

After doing her own research, Hough decided to give the treatment a try. She began using DAXXIFY about two years ago and was particularly struck by how her skin appeared afterward. “I feel like my skin looks better, feels hydrated, and is generally more glassy-looking,” she says. “There are certain things that I’ve tried in the past where I feel like it freezes you, whereas this one made me feel more alive.”

It is worth distinguishing Hough’s personal experience from the treatment’s established clinical benefits, though. DAXXIFY is a neuromodulator that temporarily relaxes targeted muscles to soften frown lines. Its FDA-approved indication does not explicitly include improving skin hydration or texture.

For Hough, though, the appeal extends beyond any single cosmetic result. As someone who divides her time between television, dance, business ventures, and travel, she appreciates a treatment that doesn’t demand frequent attention. “The longer extended time is great because I also am a very spontaneous person,” she explains. “All of a sudden I’ll be like, you know what, I’ve got a week off, I’m gonna go to Tonga and swim with whales, but then I’ll have a shoot right when I get back.” She also appreciates what she describes as the treatment’s quick onset, particularly when an unexpected event or professional commitment lands on her calendar.

Still, her decision to partner with the brand is rooted in something more personal than convenience. Hough believes women should be able to discuss aesthetic treatments without feeling that they’ve compromised their authenticity. “Instead of gatekeeping and trying to keep it a secret, it’s like, we’re all doing stuff. Let’s just own it and be honest about it,” she says. “I think I’m doing it from a point of view of curiosity of how to enhance versus change.”

Of course, there’s a difference between embracing aesthetic treatments because you genuinely want them and feeling compelled to pursue them because of societal expectations. It’s a distinction Hough has thought about extensively. “I think in general, you should never make any decision based off of what other people think,” she says.

Before making a decision about her appearance--or, for that matter, anything else--Hough says she makes a conscious effort to examine her motivations. “Why am I making this decision?" she asks. "Is it out of integrity and authenticity, or is it out of wanting to be accepted or belong, or is it that I don’t feel good enough?”

For someone who has spent much of her life performing in front of millions of people, the distinction is particularly meaningful. The entertainment industry has never been especially forgiving of women aging, and the proliferation of social media has only intensified the scrutiny surrounding appearance. But Hough, now 38, says she’s more comfortable in her skin than she was a decade ago.

“When I was younger, I was very inflamed, we’ll just put it that way,” she says with a laugh. “We just did different things in our twenties.” Over time, however, she became increasingly intentional about her health, from the foods she eats and the products she applies to her skin to the ways she moves her body. “I haven’t felt better or looked better than I do today,” she adds. “I feel more youthful and more alive than I did when I was in my late twenties.”

And while injectables have become one component of that approach, Hough is adamant that there’s no universal formula for feeling beautiful. “It’s your body; you can do whatever you want with it,” she says. “I would encourage people to find what brings them joy and happiness and what makes them feel the most like themselves.”

Hough’s evolving relationship with beauty is also part of a much larger personal transformation. Having built a career that spans professional dancing, acting, singing, television hosting, and entrepreneurship, she’s spent much of her adult life navigating a collection of seemingly disparate identities. For years, she says, each role felt like a separate version of herself. “Your twenties are all about trying and figuring out the parts of you that inspire your creativity,” she explains. “For a long time, they all felt like separate things. I was this person and then this person and this person.”

Today, she sees those pursuits differently. “I’m a storyteller, I’m a creator, and I do it through different vehicles,” she says. “Whether it’s hosting, singing, dancing, acting, Broadway, writing--whatever it is, I’m a storyteller and a creator.”

That shift has changed not only how she approaches her career but also how she evaluates new opportunities. Rather than worrying about whether a project fits into a particular professional category, she’s more interested in whether it aligns with who she is and what she wants to express. “I’m less about trying to figure out who I am and what my identity is, and more just like, what is inspiring me and how can I show up in the fullest expression?” Hough adds.

It’s an outlook that has been shaped, in part, by her willingness to experiment, even when the results weren’t guaranteed. “You have to start to be great, and you’re not always good when you start,” she says.

From launching businesses to exploring new creative disciplines, Hough credits those experiences with helping her become more comfortable taking risks and relinquishing the need to be immediately successful at everything she tries. Now, with another season of Dancing With the Stars and additional projects in the works, she feels ready to embrace a different chapter. “I really feel like I’m in my leading lady era,” she says. “This is what I do. This is who I am. And we’ll see what vehicle it shows up as.”

If there’s a common thread connecting Hough’s approach to beauty, business, and her evolving career, it’s the freedom that comes with knowing herself. Self-discovery, she says, has fundamentally changed how she makes decisions. “It changed everything,” she explains. “It gave me absolute trust and clarity in my taste, what I like, and what I don’t like.”

That clarity has also allowed her to reconsider the labels that have followed her throughout her career. While audiences may know her primarily as a dancer, actress, or television personality, she no longer feels the need to define herself by any one of those titles. “I feel very clear about what my mission is in this life and how I want to show up in my fullest authenticity and expression of who I am,” she says.

Hough sees that same emphasis on personal choice and authenticity as applicable to aesthetic treatments. For her, the question isn’t whether women should or shouldn’t pursue cosmetic procedures. It’s whether they’re making those decisions from a place of confidence rather than insecurity, curiosity rather than comparison. “I’m not pushing it on anybody,” she says of her experience with DAXXIFY. “All I’m saying is, yeah, it’s been great, and I love it.”

Ultimately, the same philosophy applies to the many other facets of her life. Having spent years adapting herself to different professional roles, she’s no longer interested in changing who she is to fit the expectations of others. “It’s less about what I do and more just about the certainty and the trust of who I am when I do it,” she says, which has proven to be the most important beauty secret of all.