Cold medicine and constant nose blowing can dry out your skin, making it look dull and even aged. Combat flakey skin patches and rawness by keeping up your usual moisturizing routine. However, here's the catch: Pass on your regular product if it contains fruit acids, retinol, or alpha hydroxyl acids, since these can further bother irritated skin, says Laurie Baldwin, a Philadelphia-based makeup artist whose clients include local newscasters who have to look great for TV -- sick day or not. Instead, opt for a gentle pick, like Cetaphil Daily Facial Moisturizer, $11.
For extra-dry areas, give an added boost of hydration by applying just a dab of natural beauty oil. Try Jason Natural Products Vitamin E Oil, $5, or make one of your own with Baldwin's recipe: Add eight drops of vitamin E and one to two drops of chamomile to four tablespoons of almond oil.
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Try Aromatherapy
These two tips use the power of scent to help ease your cold symptoms:
Eucalyptus Facial
Boil six cups of water in a pot, remove from the stove, and add three drops of eucalyptus oil. Place the pot on a small table, drape a towel over the back of your head, then bend over the pot so your head is about a foot away from the pot and the towel covers it. Breathe in the fragrant steam. Eucalyptus is known to help relieve congestion, and the steam will hydrate tired skin, says Baldwin. (Just splash your face with cold water after this DIY steam facial to close your pores.)
Aroma Home Aromatherapy Cooling Eye Pillow in Menthol and Lavender, $20
Keep this mask in the refrigerator and place the cool satin on tired eyes to help reduce puffiness (more on that next). Bonus: The fragrant beads inside contain menthol, long known for its effectiveness as a decongestant. Take deep breaths as you rest with it on your eyes for at least 5 minutes.
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Perk Up Your Peepers
Give your I've-been-up-coughing-all-night-and-it-shows eyes the wake-up call they need. Place a cold water-soaked washcloth over your eyes for at least a minute to reduce bags and refresh the area. Then use Kiehl's Eye Alert, $22, says Jennifer Campain, professional makeup artist and beauty expert from Lehigh Valley, Pa. This product contains caffeine, which constricts blood vessels and temporarily reduces any puffiness for a more awake look.
To help your efforts while you sleep, Baldwin recommends making sure that you snooze with your head propped up. "When you lay flat, fluid collects under your eyes, which increases bags and puffiness," she says. This may also help with congestion and allow you to breathe easier.
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Engage in Some Lip Service
A pop of lip color can brighten your appearance. Instead of using a lipstick, slick on a lip gloss, which will not only add moisture to dry lips but offer a fresher, more light-reflecting surface. Campain recommends that you reach for a gentle pink shade, like MAC Tinted LipGlass in Florabundance, $15.
Baldwin agrees that gloss is the way to go and adds that she likes to fill in sick clients' lips with a nude lip pencil before applying. "You're bound to need to reapply your gloss often when you're sick, since you're hopefully drinking a lot of fluids. With a pencil base, you'll at least have some color left behind if you're caught before reapplication," she says. Try LORAC Lip Pencil in Nude, $16.
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Select Shadow Wisely
Reaching for your regular makeup go-tos may not help your case. Eyeshadow colors in the red/purple family will only make red, irritated eyes look worse, and shades that are more brilliant than your own eye color will make you look more tired, says Campain.
As a kid, trying to look less sick would have been a seriously dumb idea. One glimpse of your red nose, watery eyes, and pale skin and mom would insist that you stay home watching cartoons in your jammies. Score!
And while a day spent on the couch attending to a full DVR probably sounds pretty great now, too, odds are your busy calendar means you can't take sick days. When the sniffles hit and you can't stay home, the only thing worse than feeling crummy is mustering up the effort to drag yourself out of bed and out the door only to hear the inevitable "you look awful." Um, right -- and that comment is supposed to make me feel better?
Whether you're headed to an all-eyes-on-you presentation at work, a date that's too late to break, or you simply would rather not hit the streets looking like an extra on "The Walking Dead," our tips on how to look healthy even when you're sick will help you become a master of disguise. Some may even help you feel a little more like yourself again, too.
