The Truth About Peptides, Plastic Surgery & Skincare Hype with Allure's Linda Wells
This week on Lipstick on the Rim...
When Linda launched Allure in 1991, people said she’d never fill a magazine about beauty every month. She proved them wrong for 25 years — giving readers the information they actually needed, without the judgment.
Molly and Emese sit down with Linda Wells, the legendary founder of Allure Magazine, for a sharp, no-nonsense conversation about what’s actually worth your time and money in 2026.
Linda gets real about the plastic surgery obsession sweeping Hollywood and why you should never walk into a doctor’s office telling them what procedure you want.
She breaks down the skincare ingredients she’s excited about, calls out the treatments that are just expensive pampering, and shares the one beauty rule she thinks needs to disappear for good.
From GLP-1s and injectable peptides to the deep-plane facelift debate, Linda cuts through the noise the way she always has. Honest, sharp, and a little bit ruthless about the stuff that doesn’t work.
02:41 - Linda on Beauty Before It Blew Up
“The funny thing is, when I started Allure, it was 1991, and everybody that I talked to, whether it was advertisers or people who reported on the media industry, said, how are you going to fill a magazine about beauty every month? And I was like, are you kidding me? There’s so much to say. And now you could do it daily, as people do. You look at Instagram and TikTok. It’s just absolutely exploded as a topic.”
08:31 - Linda on Ditching the Shame Around Procedures
“Well, that’s the thing. There was so much shame attached to pursuing beauty, and because of that, people were making really bad decisions. You weren’t researching doctors properly. So many women would impulsively go to a doctor and get something done, and that’s not the way to do it. The elimination of that shame, and the openness around procedures, means we can talk about it and pursue it the right way. I think the other big change is the technology. The tools, the lasers, the injections, the procedures… everything has really advanced. It’s lightyears away from what it was.”
28:20 - Linda on the Truth About Women’s Hair Loss
“Women didn’t talk about hair loss until very recently because it’s seen as masculine, and people don’t want to feel like they’re losing their femininity. Every doctor, every oncologist says that when women get breast cancer, what becomes really upsetting is losing their hair during chemotherapy. It’s a very visible result, and it’s legitimately disturbing. Rather than try to minimize that and think it’s not important, you should accept that it matters and that you can do something about it. I had this treatment with a topical mixture of minoxidil and finasteride, and a machine called TED, which is an ultrasound device that goes around your head. It’s not painful, and you do it once, then again six months later. That has really helped me. It’s another advancement, and it takes about 20 minutes.”
