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.
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.
