Auto-Refill: Our favorite beauty pros share the products they love — the ones so good they’ll make you hit that little “auto-refill” box at checkout.
Photo: T3
Without Dr. Julie Chung, there would be no T3 — not only because the Korean American ophthalmologist is the luxury hair-tool brand’s co-founder but also because over 20 years ago, she was its first muse. At the time she was a medical student, and Kent Yu, her future husband and co-founder, observed that she struggled with drying and styling her thick, coarse hair. “He was like, Why is this woman who can spend 100-and-something dollars on a jar of La Mer using a $20 blow-dryer and struggling so much?” Dr. Chung says Yu, who had grown up watching hairdressers in his parents’ salon, decided to design a beautiful, functional, lightweight hair dryer for the woman he had fallen in love with.
Dr. Chung went on to become an eye surgeon while working with her husband to build the company. She still practices — albeit one day a week — realizing her mother’s dream of having a doctor daughter and Dr. Chung’s own dream of working in beauty. As Dr. Chung detailed her daily routine for me, it became clear that she had inherited a deep love of beauty from the women in her family, especially her grandmother. “For her, putting on her very bright fuchsia lipstick was her personality, and she didn’t feel like she could start her day without it,” Dr. Chung says. “When she was in hospice for metastatic cancer, she needed to put on her lipstick every morning, because that was her saving her own humanity, and the power of that transformation from a simple tube of lipstick, that really stuck with me.”
Below, read about Dr. Chung’s own self-empowering makeup products, all of the Korean beauty treatments she recommends, and why she wishes she got her lower blepharoplasty sooner rather than later.
I usually wake up around 5:30 a.m. I rush downstairs because I have three children. I’ll make some black coffee, put two stevia in it, and get a workout in. I have a Peloton and a gym in our house. I’ve been obsessed with doing weighted-vest high-incline walks on my treadmill for 30 to 45 minutes. They’ve been transformative. I’ve turned every single mom here in West L.A. on to do the same. Then, it’s time for breakfast. I’ve been on the whole protein bandwagon. I’ll either have two or three hard-boiled eggs or a protein smoothie with creatine. It’s supposed to help with muscle building and brain health. I’ll also drink some hot water. A friend of mine, Sarah Jane Ho, told me to put two tablespoons of ground flaxseeds and a little honey in my hot water, and I’ll drink that instead of a smoothie if I’m already full from the night prior.
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I usually wash my face in the shower with the Youth to the People vitamin-C cleanser. I’ve also discovered this new brand called Moonbow, which uses traditional Chinese medicine ingredients. The cleanser is really good for calming your skin, so I’ll use that if my face is inflamed or unhappy. Once I get out of the shower, if I have time, I’ll put on a Korean sheet mask, because I go to Korea once a year, and I have tons and tons of sheet masks. I like the ones from Mediheal and Torriden. Then I have these silver ice globes that I have in my beauty fridge. I use those to de-puff my eyes and run them over the mask to cool my face. I have melasma, so I’m really careful about heat on my face in general. After that, I’ll use some sort of vitamin C. I keep going back to the SkinCeuticals CE Ferulic serum, even though it’s not the most stable formula. I recently tried the Mara vitamin-C serum, which is supposed to be more stable. It’s a bit oilier, but if I don’t mind looking glowy that day, I’ll use that. I use the Sisley Paris Ecological Compound for hydration, which hydrates my skin without making me oily.
I’ve tried every single sunblock on the market, whether it’s European, Korean, or from the U.S. A longtime favorite has been Elta MD UV Clear. But my issue with that is that it’s a mineral and chemical SPF hybrid. So then I started using ISDN mineral sunblock for a while, but you do have to really rub that in, and it does leave a little bit of a cast. My latest discovery is the Light Saver Triplesome Serum sunscreen by Dr. David Kim, and it’s incredible. David has oily skin, and so he wanted to make sure it was very lightweight. This is something I will use my own money to buy over and over again. It’s also tinted, which is great for skin with melasma. Also, I’m obsessed with ZitSticka. I find that those pimple patches work the best out of any of the ones I’ve tried. The second I feel something erupting, I put the one with microdarts on, and it pretty much squashes it. It won’t even show up the next day. My teenagers have been taking them too now.
If I have a lot of makeup on, I’ll use Farmacy Green Clean to take it off, and then I’ll use the Youth to the People cleanser again to double cleanse. My issue with prescription retinol is that almost 100 percent of the time, I get red and flaky. I just don’t have time in my life to be red and flaky. But I like Medik8’s Crystal retinal line, because it forces you to go through a system that starts you on a very low concentration and increases it incrementally. I’m up to level 20 now. Musely’s 12 percent hydroquinone cream has gotten rid of 90 percent of my melasma. It’s a little controversial, because high-dose hydroquinone can have this sort of opposite reaction if you use it incorrectly. But my skin has never looked better. I do three months on, and I take six months off. I’m also a religious user of the Sisley Paris Supremÿa line. It’s very expensive, but the older I get, the more I gravitate toward these tried-and-true brands. I use the lotion and cream at night. I also really love the Dr. Diamond’s Metacine moisturizer. Being a doctor myself, I’m a little bit more predisposed to picking physician-led lines. I use a Celluma Pro for light therapy at least four to five times a week.
I wash my hair every morning, which I know is sacrilegious. I just don’t feel like I’ve woken up unless I shower and wash my hair. I usually take a really cold shower. I wash my hair with either the Kérastase Nutritive Bain Satin Riche shampoo or the Rōz shampoo and conditioner. My favorite conditioner is a Davines Ol conditioner. Once or twice a week, I’ll do the Ol hair butter, which is a little bit thicker. My hair is coarse and thick, so I really need to moisturize it well in the shower. My favorite exfoliating bar soap is the Flamingo Estate peppermint exfoliating soap. The scent is so strong that it almost feels like aromatherapy when you enter your shower. It’s really incredible. I’ll use that to lather up, and then I use those Korean exfoliating mitts that you see at the Korean spa that the ladies use on you to rub all of your skin off your body.
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I towel-dry my hair first, and then I use the Milbon Luminous Softening oil as a heat protectant and leave-in treatment. Then, I do a rough dry with the T3 Aire IQ hair dryer before using the Aire 360 with the brush attachment to smooth and dry my hair at the same time. My bangs are kind of curly, so I straighten them every morning with the T3 curling straightener. Sometimes, I’ll try to put a little flip at the end so I don’t look like a soccer mom. I finish it all off with the tiniest amount of oil from Bread on my ends. The oil is very heavy, so if you have fine hair or even medium hair, this probably isn’t for you. I love it because it really weighs my hair down. I also love a styling cream called Leonard Greyl Éclat Naturel, which is a lighter version of that.
If I need to look a little bit more done, I’ll do the Dior foundation stick. I find it to be creamier and stay put longer than a lot of foundation sticks that I’ve tried. It’s not heavy, and it’s buildable. I have a 13-year-old daughter who bought this pudding pot from a Korean brand called Fwee. I’ve been obsessed with it because it goes on like a cream blush but finishes like a powder blush, so it stays put. If I want to really make sure it stays, I’ll use the Westman Atelier powder blush in Tulle on top. Then, if I want a little bit of sheen on top, I’ll use the Chanel stick highlighter in Dragée — I think I’ve gone through five of those sticks. I like my brows really thin. I get them laminated at the Ulta Benefit BrowBar in Santa Monica. I use the Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Wiz pencil in Ash Brown. I have a makeup artist named Kelly Zhang who does my makeup for me when I have to go onstage for a panel, go to an event, or get photos done. She turned me on to Makeup by Mario, and his eyeliner pencil is amazing for Asians eyelids. They somehow go on very creamy but don’t move. I also love his original matte neutral eye-shadow palette. I have short and straight Asian lashes that don’t want to curl. I use the Tower 28 mascara because it doesn’t transfer onto my lower lid, and it’s supposed to be very good for sensitive eyes. For lips, I like the Eadem lip balm in Boba Bounce.
I prefer hair fragrance. I really like one called Dirty Coconut from Heretic. It’s very light and makes me feel like I’m on vacation. However, I recently was in Paris and bought a set of Officine Universelle Buly perfumes. They have weird scents that actually smell really good. And sometimes, I’ll use some sort of gardenia fragrance that reminds me of my grandma. Heretic used to make a solid perfume called Gardenia Butter. So if I’m feeling fancy, I’ll take a little bit of that and rub it on my wrist.
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I’ve been getting Rejuran PDRN injections in my skin — a series of three every four to six weeks. I’ve seen a difference in my skin, especially in the firmness and hydration. It’s also gotten rid of a lot of the little fine lines that I’m developing around the eyes. It hurts, but it’s tolerable as long as you have some lidocaine cream on for 30 minutes. I enjoy it. You do look like a crazy person with dots and bumps all over your face, but only for about 24 to 48 hours. I also just started doing Ultherapy because I’m trying to avoid a face-lift. I have friends in their early 40s who have already gotten a face-lift, and I know it’s all the rage right now. I’m trying to push that back as long as possible. I probably will get a face-lift one day, but I’m going to use Ultherapy in the meantime. But that was pretty painful, too. I go to this place called Mimo Aesthetics in West Hollywood — Belle is fantastic.
I go to the Korean spa for a full-body scrub at least once a month, if I can. If you’re scared to try it, you can start with Pellequr in Beverly Hills, which is more westernized. But if you want to sit with all the grandmas and the old ladies and do it really hard-core style, you would go to Wi Spa or Crystal Spa in Koreatown, where no one cares what their body looks like.
I get regular Botox with a colleague of mine, an ocular plastic surgeon named Dr. Ray Taban in Beverly Hills. I’ve been doing that since I was 30. It’s all about prevention. I think Botox is one of the most effective things that we can do. I’ve never done filler. My grandma had very strong procerus muscles, which I inherited. I get about 25 units just in my forehead area and also to help minimize crow’s feet. I’ve thought about putting it in my master because I have a bit of TMJ, and Korean girls are always obsessed with that V. I haven’t tried it yet, but I think maybe I will.
Dr. Taban also did my lower bleph two years ago. I have these bags here that are genetic. It’s just an out-pouching of fat. All you do is go inside of the eye, so it’s incision-less, and you take that fat pocket and you suture it down onto the orbital rim. I had spent years and years buying skin patches and creams and thinking that maybe, if I slept more, it would go away. But when it comes down to it, if it really bothers you, if you look in the mirror and that’s all you see, just go and get surgery. He had been telling me for years to do it, but when I was ready, and I was finally ready, after I got it done, I was like, Why didn’t I do this sooner? I’m pro feeling good about yourself as long as you’re not going overboard.