The festive season is here, and it’s literally flowing with fun. Apart from sumptuous feasts on the tables, you’ve got alcohol, late nights and tons of makeup to contend with.
Let’s take alcohol for instance. We’re all too familiar with the headache and nausea that follows after a night or few of binge drinking. But that’s not all that a hangover brings because it can also wreak havoc on your skin too. Also known as the hangover skin, this side effect will give you all the holiday blues including ruining your skin for the next party in queue!
And that’s exactly why you need this guide to bring back your glowing skin after all that Christmas booze.
Read more: The best Christmas gifts for women
What does alcohol do to your skin?
Alcohol is a diuretic, meaning it flushes fluids out of your body and leads to dehydration. And yes, that includes your skin! This dehydrating effect causes your skin to lose essential nutrients and water. It also makes your skin look wrinkled, dull, and puffy. In some cases, especially for Asians, alcohol causes redness and flushing. This is because it also induces inflammation in the skin, or worse, broken capillaries that give you permanent flushing.
How can you recover from hangover skin?
Bring out the ice packs.
A long night of drinking means waking up to a bloated and puffy face. When this happens, our proven and tested first aid is the ice cube hack. Take an ice cube, ice-cold jade roller, or an ice pack, and roll it around your face. This will help boost blood circulation and soothe inflammation, so there’s one less problem off the list!
Drink lots of water.
As we’ve said earlier, alcohol drains your body of essential fluids, which causes dehydrated skin. This is why it’s crucial to restore hydration from within by drinking lots of water. If possible, drink water before, in between, and after drinking. But if you’ve missed this window, you can still make it up by drinking at least eight glasses of water. Oh, and before we forget: don’t stop drinking water even though you feel better. You still have to step up your hydration game over the coming days. After all, maintaining healthy skin is paramount, with or without holiday drinks.
Step up your moisturising game.
Now, it’s time to plan your attack from the outside. As water works from the inside, use heavy-duty moisturisers to work on the surface of your skin. Our top pick is to use moisturisers packed with hyaluronic acid. Hyaluronic acid is natural in our body and can hold up to 1000 times its weight in water. It’s also a humectant, drawing moisture from the air and delivering it to your skin’s deeper layers. This provides long-lasting hydration with a dash of collagen-boosting benefits too!
Soothe your whole body with a massage.
Did you know that massages are one of the best hangover cures? Not only do they soothe your tired muscles, but they can also rejuvenate your skin! A massage helps relieve the agonising headache that comes with hangovers by promoting blood flow. This improved circulation also helps reduce inflammation and dehydration, which will then restore your glow. Massages also push your system into relaxation mode, so your body will work on internal and external healing and renewal.