Beauty Q&A: Hangover Face, Nail Wraps, and Pimping Your Ride
I am an undergrad — meaning I spend a lot of time drinking, staying up late, being stressed, you know the deal. How can I salvage my face when I am hungover? In a rush? My face gets really bloated and my eyes near slits… it can get pretty ugly.
That sounds so gross. Just kidding, it sounds like you’re having a blast! The number one thing you need to do if you want to look okay the day after a party is learn how much you can drink so that you get drunk but not hungover. It doesn’t take a team of scientists, just drink less. You know that moment when you’re like, “Hey! Now we’re having fun!”? That is when you’re drunk! And your body hasn’t even processed the last few glasses of wine yet. Slow down at that point instead of pounding four more drinks that’ll waste money and your brain and your face the next morning. [This message is brought to you by a woman who loooves her Pinot Grigio — a lot — but doesn’t have the time or youth for hangovers.]
Aside from not completely destroying yourself, the most effective cures for hangovers are actually no-brainers you do while you’re drinking, not magic bullets the next morning:
-Keep a bottle of water in your hand or purse all night. Alcohol dehydrates you and a number of the bad things you feel when you’re hungover — dry skin, puffy everything — are a result of that. (One time on Oprah someone said that the glass of water you drink when you take an aspirin is usually the thing that makes you feel better, not the aspirin, and now I tell everyone that like I’M Oprah or something.) Try to drink a 1:1 ratio of alcohol and water all night and take a huge glass with you to bed. You’ll pee a lot, but you will look and feel a million times better in the morning than you will if you forgo water.
-Don’t drink five different kinds of drinks in one night, but you knew that already.
-Wash and moisturize your face before bed. I know this is tricky when you’re drunk or crashing at someone else’s place, but that eye irritation you’re talking about could be from mascara and junk getting in them overnight OR it could be from all that drunk crying you did when you were blacked out, you crazy nut! Go re-read suggestion #1 and then always force yourself to wash your face. (A cheat is carrying some of these in your purse for emergencies.)
As for the next morning, there are a few things you can do to alleviate the most obvious physical signs of your awesome or terrible night:
-Find moisturizing eye drops that also take the red out. Don’t use these often as they can be addictive, but have some on hand for emergencies.
-Try a skin brightening and maybe even tinted moisturizer. Boots makes a good one you can get at Target now instead of feeling cool because before it wasn’t available in the US and you got it during a layover at Heathrow airport and could tell people you got it in London because close enough. And Stila’s illuminating tinted moisturizer is lovely as well.
-Get my favorite secret weapon against tiredness/long flights/long nights/big fights: Caudalie Beauty Elixir.
-If you have the time, do some old fashioned eye de-puffing: lay down with cold cucumber slices or tea bags that have barely been steeped on your eyelids for as long as you can stand it. The cucumbers moisturize and cool down your skin; the tea bags are also moisturizing and have, uh, anti-inflammatory things in them or something? Mostly these things just feel good, and that’s all you really want when you’re hungover, right? Or you could get all hi-tech baller with these hydrating patches, but since you’re in college you probably need to save that money for beer. (BUT NOT TOO MUCH BEER, REMEMBER!?)
Mostly, don’t make an ass of yourself at night and you won’t look like an ass of yourself in the morning. And please, take every stress-relieving hangover-curing nap possible while you still can.
I’m a lady who likes nail polish and manicures but also plays the bass. Are these irreconcilable interests? Is there a way to make my manicure stronger/last longer aside from gel nails? The consensus among guitar players is to use a pick, but that’s not an option for those of us who rock the bass.
Nail stickers! My bassist friend Emily put some on a few weeks ago and I’m looking at them right now and they’re still fine. She even had an audition to prep for in that time.
Emily used nail wraps from NCLA and they come in super cool/trendy patterns. You apply them by putting a base coat down, adding the sticker, then applying a top coast for extra protection. Each package comes with enough wraps for four manicures. Sally Hansen has some pretty good solid colors and a few interesting patterns in their line as well. These stickers tend to chip less than polish because of SCIENCE or something.
A big event is coming up and I’m planning on wearing a gold brocade dress. My problem is shoes. It’s surprising me how hard it is to shop for shoes that go with this dress. I’d love to wear bright colored shoes since the dress is kind of neutral, even though it is metallic, but I think a neutral shoe might work out better? I have a go-to pair of black pumps that I love but they’re suede and I think that may be too heavy/dark? I’m completely lost!
There are plenty of colors that’ll work, which I’ll get to, but I want to reiterate some advice I’ve given for similar situations: when you’re shopping for clothes or makeup or shoes for a special occasion, don’t shop looking all bummy. You don’t have to get completely dolled up but, at the very least, try to keep in mind that your face and hair and sweatpants are more likely throwing you off at the shoe store or in your closet mirror than the impossible notion that you bought the only dress on Earth that doesn’t match anything. On to colors…
Metallics seem a lot trickier to match than they really are. Once your whole outfit is pulled together, the dress is going to read more like a neutral so you’re pretty free to do whatever you want with your accessories. You could mix your metallics and go with a silver or bronze shoe. Or, try monochromatic and do gold on gold. Hot right now: pairing neutrals with neon. Or, for a head to toe retro look, what about leopard print or red? And don’t forget about the magical leg lengthening effect of heels that match your skin. Finally, it’s fine to put black at the bottom of your list of possibilities, but you’re right that the heavy brocade and suede might be a bit much.
So, see? Too many options suddenly. If you’re still not sure once you’re looking polished in the whole getup at Macy’s, go for the pair that strangers compliment you on. That way when you look stupid at the party, you have someone else to blame, you know?
I’m having some problems with eyeshadow, specifically the application of it with brushes. I feel pretty adept at makeup in general, but when I try to put on eyeshadow with a brush, it just kind of stays where the brush touched down first, and then I end up having to smear it around with my finger, so the results are imprecise at best. I’ve tried primer and concealer to smooth the surface of my eyelids but to no avail. Is it the brands of eyeshadow (mostly Nars and Stila) or brushes (mostly Sephora brand and Benefit, various shapes and textures) I’m using? Would it be a waste of resources to try out other brands before I figure out what it is I’m doing wrong?
No, it’s not the brands or brushes. As long as you’re using pretty much anything but those little foam applicators that come with drug store eye shadow, you should be good. (Though I do have a few pals that are MASTERS at using those pieces of crap, so what do I know?)
You should try two things: use less eyeshadow and blend it a ton more than you think the rest of us do. To start, load the brush with shadow by lightly tapping it into the palette. Don’t swirl or swipe it, just tappa tappa tappa. Then, tap it again on the side of the case to knock off any excess. I know this sounds like barely any shadow, but you can build the color up in layers once you figure out how to get it where you want it to go. Now that you have a little less color on your brush, try doing like two or three dots in the area of your lid that you want color. Now connect the dots by lightly swiping the brush between them ONE MILLION TIMES. Here, watch how many times I move the brush over my lids:
Also, if you start with the medium shade and blend it like crazy, you won’t need to do a lot of work with your lighter and darker shades since they’ll just go in a few small areas like your brow bone and the outer corner of your lid.
I just got a new job that I love! I am so so happy and ecstatic, but there is one teeny tiny caveat. I have a long commute (about an hour-ugh) and in the afternoon the sun shines directly on my left side the whole way home! What should I do? I really don’t want sun damage on my arm and the left side of my face, but I also would prefer not to put on sunscreen every day after work.
Congratulations! Now take that first check and get them windows tinted, girl. Or, buy UV blocking clear film for them. Fixing the windows is so much easier and cheaper in the long run than slathering stuff on your body every evening (wear sunscreen during the day though!), not to mention it could make you look really, really cool.
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