It’s around three in the afternoon. You’re at your desk, clacking away on your keyboard, doing whatever it is you do to afford all those shoes. The air conditioning in your office is borderline Arctic — not that outside’s been much better these days, if the number of people suddenly wearing scarves and boots in the tropics is any indication. (Really though, guys? If you’re wearing knee-highs, I’m totally judging you.) You’re hustling to make a dent in all the work that piled up while you were stuffing your face over the holidays. The “2014 is going to be my year!†optimism of early January is long gone, and you’ve come to realize that it’s, well, a new year of mostly the same old.
No one can blame you for feeling — and looking — haggard. But that doesn’t mean that nothing can be done about it. On this week’s Girls, when Hannah’s parents compliment her on how good she looks, Marnie interjects with “I keep telling her she could look like this every day if she wanted.†Backhanded, yes, but also so true. It’s all on you.
You’re halfway through your workday: Here are a few surefire beauty tricks to make you feel a little more human, and I promise they’ll all fit in your purse. Now, to quote Britney Spears, you better work, bitch.
Resurrect your skin
If you didn’t already know this, then I’m telling you now: Air conditioning sucks the moisture out of your skin. Then it will look dry, dull and unhealthy, or if you’re prone to oiliness, it’ll probably overcompensate for that dryness by producing more oil. Ugh. No one expects you to have moisturizer on your desk, but a mist is a quick and easy way to put some life back in your skin. If you’re misting over makeup, water spritzes (like Avène’s Thermal Spring Water) will make your makeup look fresh again. Spritzing on bare skin? Use a lotion mist instead, like Koh Gen Do’s Refresh Skin Spray, for a mid-day hit of hydration. Pick your poison.
Squinting at phone/computer/tablet screens for most of our waking hours is probably the reason so many of us have no social skills, are going blind and/or are developing dreadful little eye wrinkles. Whether you’re doing actual work, killing time on Buzzfeed, or using your company’s bandwidth to stalk people, it can’t be denied that your eyes are going through a lot of strain. One of my favorite things to do after reading through (or writing) long blocks of text at work is to whip out a roller-ball eye serum and treat my eye area to a little TLC.
A favorite: Shu Uemura red:juvenus Roll-Away Instant Eye Fatigue Corrector. The name alone makes its purpose pretty obvious, but this product brightens and relaxes the eye area with a combination of a light massage (courtesy of the cool metal applicator) and a hit of caffeine. Plus, it’s the perfect prep for step three…
Whatever the cause — actual sleepless nights or genetics — nothing makes one look more haggard than dark circles. You’ve applied your eye serum, you feel a little better, now it’s time to fake some more freshness with an under-eye concealer. The thicker ones that provide the most pigmentation can often be drying, so pick a lightweight one with a hydrating formula. Maybe you won’t get HD-level coverage, but it’ll still manage to make you look like you just took a nap and woke up looking like a Disney princess.
Try: Benefit Fake Up. Part concealer, part hydrating balm, this handy little stick instantly brightens up your eyes, blends easily, and gives your skin a slightly dewy glow for that K-Pop sheen we all secretly covet.
The skin on your hands is also dried out, plus they’re probably really exhausted from typing, scribbling, and whatever else it is you do to make bank. One of the perks of making a living as a beauty nerd is that I’m allowed to paint my nails at my desk (or at least I think I am — I suppose I’ll find out today), but if you can’t all-out pamper your poor hands at work, at the very least, keep a tube of hand cream in your purse and massage it into your tired fingers at regular intervals. Slathering your hands with L'Occitane's hand cream will feel amazing, yes, but more importantly, it’s really good to develop a hand cream habit early in life because the state of your hands is also an indication of age. (Some would even suggest using a little of your anti-aging serum on the backs of your hands, if you’re not scrimping on it.) Gnarly fingers? No, thanks.