Mirror Mirror with Amy Chang

What does the SPF number on your sunscreen actually tell you and how is it tested?Amy Chang sits down with Ava Matthews, co-founder of Ultra Violette, to explore sunscreen labels, mineral versus chemical filters, and why sunscreen formulas differ around the world. Ava shares her perspective on the CHOICE sunscreen testing controversy, Ultra Violette’s product recall, and the changes the brand made to its testing process. They also discuss bemotrizinol (BEMT), sunscreen texture and wearability, and the everyday questions that make SPF feel more complicated than it should.Topics covered in this episode:• How SPF testing works and...

Filler, Botox, Sculptra, PRP, PDGF and exosomes are everywhere, but how do these treatments differ, and what should you understand before trying one?In this episode, Amy Chang sits down with board-certified facial plastic and reconstructive surgeon Dr. John Frederick to unpack the rapidly changing world of aesthetic medicine. They discuss why filler can remain in the face longer than patients expect, where filler may be appropriate, the risks associated with nose filler, and why your treatment history can matter when planning a future facelift.Dr. Frederick also explains the differences between filler and collagen-stimulating treatments, including Sculptra, PRP...

Social media gives us endless fashion inspiration, so why is it making personal style harder to find?

Fashion trend forecaster Mandy Lee, known online as @oldloserinbrooklyn, joins Amy Chang to unpack why fear of looking wrong, being “cringe,” or changing in public can keep us from developing a style that actually feels like our own.

Mandy explains why people online increasingly dress alike, even when real life remains much more diverse, and how TikTok and Instagram can turn aesthetics into rigid rulebooks. Amy and Mandy explore trending topics like why personal style requires vulnerability, experimentation and...

Why are people in Los Angeles, New York, Paris and London starting to look more alike and what does Instagram have to do with it?Puck fashion correspondent Lauren Sherman joins Amy Chang to decode the hidden beauty and style codes of the world’s most influential cities. Lauren explains why cities still have recognizable beauty codes in an algorithmic world, how online aesthetic tribes are replacing local culture and why social media can make personal taste feel increasingly standardized. She also shares how art, film, books, nature, vintage shopping and time away from the feed can help us de...

Why has skincare become harder to understand when we have more information than ever?Charlotte Palermino, co-founder and Chief Brand Officer of Dieux Skin, joins Amy Chang to unpack how fear, outrage and insecurity shape what beauty companies sell—and what consumers buy.From sunscreen conspiracy theories and “clean beauty” to ingredient-rating apps, luxury pricing, retinoids, K-beauty and kids at Sephora, Charlotte separates useful information from marketing noise. She explains why a longer routine is not necessarily a better routine, why expensive does not automatically mean effective and why your skin is not a trend.In this episode:• Why sunscree...

Ten hours of filming can become seconds of television. For Crystal Kung Minkoff, that meant even close friends watching The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills were left asking: “Who am I watching? This is not you.”Crystal opens up about becoming RHOBH’s first Asian American Housewife and what she learned about the gap between who you are, what gets filmed, and the version of you audiences ultimately see.She explains why Housewives isn’t scripted but how scheduling, selective moments, omission, and editing can still construct a powerful story around a person. Crystal also reflects on the pressure of feeli...

Tradwives promise simplicity. Dating apps promise effortless love. Media scholar Dr. Sarah Banet-Weiser explains why both can turn identity into a product—and what Love Island, swipe culture and AI relationships reveal about modern womanhood.In this episode of Mirror Mirror, Amy Chang and Dr. Sarah Banet-Weiser unpack how media becomes a “script” for real life. They examine why repeated images start to feel normal, the production and paid labor hidden behind tradwife content, and the crucial difference between choosing to be a stay-at-home mother and prescribing that life for every woman.Then the conversation turns to Love Island and on...

Dorothy Wang had the access, the doctors and the budget, but she still said no. In this candid conversation with Amy Chang, Dorothy discusses the pressure she felt during Rich Kids of Beverly Hills and Bling Empire, what happened when she no longer looked like the version of herself audiences expected, and why she eventually stopped trying to perfect every feature.Dorothy opens up about living with eczema, managing PCOS and insulin resistance, facing public criticism while filming Bling Empire, and learning that health and happiness matter more than chasing every beauty trend. Dorothy also discusses Botox, lip filler...

Five years ago I made a few TikToks where I leaned hard into self-deprecating humor — playing into every stereotype I thought my audience already had about me. Vain. Superficial. Not that smart. They went viral. Millions of views.

So I did it again. And again. For four years. It worked. I built a large audience on it. And I was exhausted from shrinking myself into a box that had almost nothing to do with who I actually am.

This week on Mirror Mirror, I sit down with Alison Fragale — organizational psychologist, professor, and author of Lika...

Christine Chu had so much hair she had standing salon appointments to thin it out. Her ponytails were too thick to manage. Hair loss was never on her radar. 1

Then in the fall, her hair started shedding like autumn leaves. By November, it was coming out in clumps. By December, bald spots. By New Year's — almost entirely gone.

She was filming Bling Empire, Dancing With the Stars, and RuPaul's Drag Race at the same time. Getting glammed up to three times a day. And quietly going bald underneath it all. 

This week on Mirr...

Most clinics draw 10cc of blood, spin off 5cc, and call it PRP. According to Dr. Ben Talei, that's not PRP. It's plasma. Plasma, without a concentrated yield of platelets and signaling factors, doesn't do much for hair loss. The entire PRP industry, he says, is largely built on protocols borrowed from studies that weren't actually measuring what the industry claims to be selling.

This week on Mirror Mirror, I sit down with Dr. Ben Talei — Beverly Hills-based facial plastic surgeon, founder of the Beverly Hills Hair Group, and the surgeon behind more than 3,000 li...

Three weeks before the 2025 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, Jasmine Tookes got a call: they wanted her to open it. She was nine months pregnant. Her doctor said no.She begged him anyway. She flew from LA to New York with a private doctor monitoring her vitals the entire flight. She walked the runway in four-inch heels, praying her water wouldn't break under the lights — and became one of the most talked-about moments in the show's history: the first visibly pregnant model to ever open it.Ten days later, she went into labor on the steps of her own foyer. Al...

After my first pregnancy, I followed Taiwanese postpartum confinement practices for 40 days — herbs, cooked meals, no leaving the house, a night nurse living with us. My milk came in immediately. I stopped bleeding in three weeks. I felt held. After my second pregnancy, I had none of that. COVID meant no in-person support, no family, no village. I took no maternity leave. Six months later, I got shingles. At 30-something. All over my hand. Studies now show it takes up to a year for a mother to fully recover from birth. American mothers get six weeks of leave — if they'r...

Marianne Fonseca has been a model for 20 years. She's lived in Brazil, China, Europe, and the US. She's getting married in six days. And this week, she's flying to Costa Rica for stem cells before the ceremony.She also founded Gente Beauty — a Brazilian body care brand built around at-home lymphatic drainage — when nobody in the US had heard of lymphatic drainage and investors didn't understand what she was building. Three years later, the category has exploded, and Gente is stocked at Nordstrom, Revolve, and Amazon.This week on Mirror Mirror, I sit down with Marianne to talk about the...

I gained 70 pounds with each of my pregnancies. After two kids, I assumed the soft tissue around my abdomen and lower back was just what came with being a mom. After one session with Rebecca Faria, the pioneer of Brazilian lymphatic drainage in the US, those "pockets of fat" were gone — and a six-pack I had never seen on my own body appeared overnight.It wasn't fat. It was lymphatic fluid I had been holding onto for years.This week on Mirror Mirror, I sit down with Rebecca Faria — founder of Detox by Rebecca in Beverly Hills, and the prac...

The beauty industry spent $32 billion on influencer marketing in 2025 and 80% of brands increased their influencer spend last year. Priscilla Tsai, the founder of Coco Kind, went the other direction. In this week's Mirror Mirror, I sit down with Priscilla Tsai— who's been building Coco Kind for 11 years — to talk about the unconventional moves that have actually worked. We get into why she stopped spending on traditional influencer campaigns, why she replaced influencer trips with customer brand trips (eight superfans, not eight creators), what "ultra-transparency" looks like when you publicly break down what every product actually costs to make, and why...

This week on Mirror Mirror, I'm joined by Camille Moore — brand strategist, founder of Third Eye Insights, and consultant to some of the largest beauty brands in the world — for the unfiltered breakdown of how beauty marketing actually works in 2026, who's winning, who's quietly dying, and how consumers can decode the difference.

Pat McGrath Labs is reportedly up for sale to avoid bankruptcy. Rhode's mass-distribution deal may already be eroding its brand premium. Lululemon is committing what brand strategist Camille Moore calls "death by a thousand cuts." Augustinus Bader's Dua Lipa diffusion line was, in h...

What actually happens when plastic surgery or cosmetic treatments go wrong? In this episode of Mirror Mirror, Amy Chang sits down with renowned plastic surgeon Dr. Terry Dubrow for an honest conversation about the side of aesthetic medicine most people do not want to talk about: complications. From filler emergencies and vascular occlusion to revision surgery, med spa red flags, surgical regret, and the emotional fallout of a procedure gone wrong, Dr. Dubrow explains what patients need to know before, during, and after cosmetic treatment.

What should you actually know before getting filler, Botox, blepharoplasty, or plastic surgery?

In this episode of Mirror Mirror with Amy Chang, board-certified facial plastic surgeon Dr. Prem Tripathi breaks down the hidden realities of the aesthetics industry, from unqualified injectors and filler migration to counterfeit Botox, overfilled faces, med spa red flags, and why “natural” cosmetic work is harder than ever. We also discuss why filler trends are collapsing, what procedures actually work, the future of aesthetics, and the risks most patients underestimate before going under the needle or knife.

Amy Chang breaks down the skincare and aesthetics myths people still believe, from “clean beauty” marketing to SPF misconceptions and in-office treatment expectations. If you’ve ever wondered whether expensive skincare actually works, if tingling means a product is effective, or whether one laser treatment is enough, this episode is for you.

Amy shares the science behind skincare consistency, collagen loss, barrier damage, Botox timelines, lasers, microneedling, and the biggest misconceptions shaping the beauty industry right now.

Tennille Jenkins is a content creator and co-founder of the long-running blog The Tennille Life. In this intimate conversation with Amy Chang, Tennille shares her personal journey with going grey—from initially trying to fight it to ultimately embracing it. They discuss the message she hopes to pass on to her daughters and why self-acceptance and positivity are foundational to living a fulfilling life.

Jay Small is a celebrity hairstylist, trichologist, global educator, and founder of haircare brand Arey, with over 22 years of industry experience. He joins Amy Chang to break down the science of greying hair—why it happens, which lifestyle factors accelerate or slow the process, why you need different products when dealing with grey hair from a structural standpoint and why prevention and scalp health play such a critical role in long-term hair health.

Amy Chang shares her personal experience with perimenopause and the symptoms no one prepares you for.From waking up at 3AM every night to brain fog, fatigue, and memory lapses, this episode breaks down the early signs of hormonal change and why so many women are left confused, dismissed, or misdiagnosed.Amy walks through her journey of getting tested, starting hormone replacement therapy, and navigating the trial-and-error process of finding what actually works. She also dives into the impact perimenopause has on skin, including sensitivity, breakouts, and barrier disruption and the products that helped her stabilize it.

Sarah Creal is a beauty industry veteran, former CEO and co-founder of Victoria Beckham Beauty, longtime executive at Tom Ford Beauty, and founder of her eponymous makeup brand, Sarah Creal. In this intimate conversation with Amy Chang, they examine the myth of “aging gracefully,” what happens to women’s visibility as they age, how to navigate the tension between resistance and acceptance, and where the beauty industry still has room to evolve in serving women over time.

Jill Dunn & Carlene Higgins, two longtime beauty editors and hosts of the podcast Breaking Beauty, sit down with Amy Chang for an examination of the myth of “aging gracefully” and how this term has played out in the editorial world the past few decades, why women are punished for both aging naturally and trying to fight it, where the pressure to stay youthful really comes from, and why some women feel invisible after 40. 

On this episode of The Inbox, Amy Chang breaks down how to approach anti-aging without needles. She walks through the lifestyle, skincare, supplement, and in-office options that actually make a difference, and the mindset shifts that can slow the visible signs of aging.

From antioxidant serums and growth factors to non-ablative lasers, food choices, and why sleep and stress matter more than most people think, Amy shares her personal routines and the changes that had the biggest impact on her skin and overall wellbeing. If you’ve ever wondered how to look and feel be...

Judy Lim is a makeup artist, viral content creator, and recent medical tourist. She joins Amy Chang for an intimate conversation about her experience traveling to South Korea and beyond for plastic surgery. Together, they discuss the realities of medical tourism, the pros and cons of surgery and recovery abroad, the financial and emotional considerations involved in making such a decision, along with what Judy would change about her experience going to Korea for plastic surgery if she were to do it all over again. 

Dr. David Kim is a board-certified dermatologist trained at Columbia University and Harvard, based in New York City. In this Expert Deep Dive, he joins Amy Chang to dissect the world of South Korean aesthetic treatments. They explore which procedures are worth traveling abroad for versus having done locally, how to identify reputable clinics overseas, the latest innovations emerging from South Korea’s beauty and dermatology landscape and the very real risks that can happen but most don’t know to ask about.

Beauty intelligence expert Amy Chang breaks down the skincare trends she's actually paying attention to and the ones she's passing on. From glass skin procedures to exosomes, get the unfiltered take on what's real, what's hype, and what's coming next.

Deepica Mutyala is the founder and CEO of beauty brand Live Tinted. She joins Amy Chang for a candid conversation about redefining modern beauty standards. Together, they reflect on growing up in the middle of the country within Eurocentric ideals and trying to conform, reshaping representation in beauty, and navigating identity, industry realities, and cultural change—with humor, honesty, and raw personal storytelling.

Elise Hu is an American broadcast journalist, host of the TED Talks Daily podcast, and former NPR bureau chief in Seoul, South Korea. In this Expert Deep Dive, she joins Amy Chang to examine Eurocentric beauty standards, challenge assumptions about colonialism’s role in shaping beauty ideals in the East and around the world, and explore South Korea’s soft-power play in exporting its own unattainable beauty standards back to the West.

Beauty brands throw around terms like "dermatologist approved" and "medical grade" constantly — but what do they actually mean? And who's making sure they're telling the truth? In this episode of The Inbox, Amy breaks down the murky world of beauty marketing claims, who's really watching the industry, and gives a clear, honest roadmap for anyone overwhelmed by acne.

Tracy Tutor is an author, top luxury real estate agent, and star of Bravo’s Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles. She joins Amy Chang for an intimate conversation about her experience with GLP-1 medications, having been one of the early adopters in Los Angeles in 2022. They discuss the fierce back-lash Tracy faced when sharing her journey online, micro-dosing GLP-1s, navigating body image, and managing beauty and mental health while operating in high-profile Hollywood circles.

Dr. Rocio Salas-Whalen is an author, triple board-certified endocrinologist, and obesity medicine specialist based in New York City. In this Expert Deep Dive, she joins Amy Chang to explore the rapidly evolving world of GLP-1 medications. They discuss what to know before starting a GLP-1, common mistakes people make early on, how to spot fake GLP-1s and why you should never buy these drugs online, how to choose the right option, and how to mitigate concerns like “Ozempic face."

Welcome to the first-ever The Inbox Episode of Mirror Mirror with Amy Chang. In this episode, Amy answers your most pressing beauty questions. From navigating an overwhelming skincare industry to figuring out what your skin actually needs, she breaks down how to test products properly, how to know if something is truly working, and why simplifying your routine is the most powerful move you can make. Amy also gets into a deeply personal conversation about beauty identity, confidence, and how external messaging can shape the way we see ourselves.

New The Inbox episodes drop...

Catt Sadler is an Emmy-winning entertainment journalist and television host, best known for her work on E! News. She joins Amy Chang for an intimate conversation about her experience undergoing a deep-plane facelift while in the public eye. Together, they explore the emotional dimensions of identity and plastic surgery, the realities of recovery, Catt’s experience with complications and painful side effects and why she’s become a sherpa for other women in her community embarking on their own facelift journey. 

Dr. Carl Truesdale is a board-certified facial plastic surgeon based in Beverly Hills. In this Expert Deep Dive, he joins Amy Chang to discuss the rising popularity of facelifts, driven by advancements in surgical technique and technology. They explore how facial anatomy influences which facelift approach is most appropriate, whether treatments like Sculptra, threads, or fillers can impact future surgical outcomes, and how to determine if—and when—a facelift is the right choice.

In this intro solo episode, host Amy Chang shares the story behind Mirror Mirror and her lifelong love of beauty — where it began and why it has always meant more than what’s on the surface. She also walk through the podcast structure, from its themes to experts and conversations with friends (and friends of friends) that you’ll hear throughout the season. Mirror Mirror uses beauty as a lens to better understand ourselves and the world around us.

Arielle Lorre, host of Well, joins Amy Chang for a Friend-of-a-Friend conversation on the cost of beauty. Together, they unpack how they personally spend on beauty, the pros and pitfalls of having no budget around treatments, common misconceptions about working in the beauty space online, and the ways beauty spending has both supported and complicated their lives.

Vivian Tu—widely known as Your Rich BFF—is a former Wall Street trader turned personal finance educator and the host of Networth & Chill, joins host Amy Chang for this Expert Deep Dive to examine the real costs of beauty across different areas of life, including career, dating, and major milestones like weddings. They explore where the return on investment in beauty spending is actually highest, whether beauty helps or hurts in the workplace, and how to think practically about budgeting for beauty in a modern world.