Sure, success is nice, but for the 40-year-old working mom it’s also a job—

and one she’s been working pretty hard at since she was a teenager and

her family packed up from Connecticut and headed west to Los Angeles.

“I can’t complain. I’m working on successful

shows and that is all you can ask for in this industry,” she says. “But I do wish someone would tell me the secret to a little work-life

balance!”

Ha! It’s fun. This season we have had the pleasure of starting earlier than we usually do. The weather has been absolutely amazing! I understand why people live in Vancouver now—it is absolutely stunning in the summertime. We’ve been shooting in the winter the last four seasons, but now we started to spend more time there in the summer; I got to experience a little bit more of the sites and amazing things to do in the city. Typically, it was so cold and wet. The winters could be so brutal…but now I’m like, “Oh wow. I get it now. I get this town.”

Typically, I get hair extensions and we keep doing the color over the season to get the right tone. It’s not easy. Sometimes, it just looks different even after post-production—the contrast is different, the root color can look heavy and dark. We’ve been working hard to dial that in as we get along. It’s funny how hair changes ever so slightly every now and then. I used Oribe products for styling and we use L’Oreal for my color. We use L’Oreal Professional between 9 and 9.3, which is strawberry blonde for my hair.

It sounds so minor, but I think it really does help get me into character—I had blonde hair over the break when I went to do This Is Us, so we had to change me back, and it felt like such a big transformation. I was like, “Oh, yes. This is Mel. I’m officially back into character from Sophie to Mel.” They’re both kind of similar characters, but they definitely have their differences. I think that the hair and the wardrobe help get all that across.

I was like, “Oh, wow, this is the direction we’re going with. Great.” It was the show where I was introduced to Clé de Peau foundation—and I haven’t stopped using it since. I take it with me to every set now, even if I’m guest-starring on something! I always bring it with me because I love what it does. Clé de Peau is owned by Shiseido and I love all Shiseido products. I’ve been using their under-eye patches, brightening masks, eye creams, everything. I’m thinking of switching most of my products over to the Shiseido line because it’s just magic on my face. I love their sunscreens—I’m very sensitive and it’s one of the few sunscreens that doesn’t break me out. I still get pimples from a lot of skin care everyone else loves!