At some point in our lives, we’ve all woken up with our lovely faces looking a little puffier than we’d like. Whether it was a great meal that doubled down on the salt or a drink (or five) the night before, our skin just can’t seem to keep a secret. The unfortunate truth is that many of the lifestyle choices we make will show up all over our skin — and quickly. Whatever the cause of puffy skin, I think we can all agree that “puffy-chic” isn’t a thing. So, next time your overindulgence shows up on your face, here are five ways to depuff your skin before you head out the door.
Drink More Water
While drinking more water may sound counterintuitive to depuffing your skin, it’s actually a great way to do so. But the trick is to it is being mindful of how you do it. Drinking a ton of water before bed isn’t a good idea because that can lead to pooling and water retention while you sleep. Drinking water throughout the day, however, is a great way to stay hydrated and keep your tissue fluids more balanced so your skin won’t feel the need to retain water to accommodate its dehydration.
Change Your Sleeping Position
Sleeping on your side or on your stomach tends to lead to more fluid retention and puffiness than you’d like. Elevating your head, however, reduces the amount of fluid heading in that direction and subsequently the amount of fluid being retained around your face. In this case, an easy fix is to sleep on your back or try adding an extra pillow to your bed. Both of which can work wonders for keeping puffy skin to a minimum.
Try A Little Cold Therapy
Cold temperatures instantly constrict your blood vessels and reduce the swelling in your face.
So, depuffing your face can be as easy as washing your face with cold water or grabbing a few ice cubes from the freezer, or refrigerated jade roller and swiping them across your face.
Try An At-Home Facial Massage
Speaking of jade rollers, these tools are not only great for delivering a little cold therapy to your skin, but they’re also great for stimulating lymphatic drainage.
In this case, jade rollers redirect stagnant fluids toward the lymph nodes where they can be carried away. The end result is a fresh face that looks more awake, and you guessed it, less puffy.
Use An Eye Cream With Caffeine
The skin around our eyes is the thinnest skin on our bodies, so unfortunately for us, our eyes are the first place to show any signs of trouble, like wrinkles and puffiness.
Caffeine is one of those secret ingredients known to depuff your face quickly, and it works ridiculously fast around your eyes. Much like ice, caffeine also constricts your blood vessels, so a cream infused with caffeine can go a long way towards reducing the puffiness around your eyes.
This budget-friendly eye cream with caffeine by The Inkey List reduces the appearance of puffiness, under-eye bags and also does its part to tackle fine lines and wrinkles. But if you’re not all in on finding an eye cream with caffeine, you could also try using something you may already have in your pantry — a simple green tea bag.
If you’re feeling a little puffy, just steep a green tea bag and pop it in the fridge; you can also do this the night before you know you’ve overindulged. Once the tea is cold, soak a cotton pad in the tea and apply them to your eyes. You should see immediate results.
Puffy skin happens to everyone, and when it does, we want it gone — fast. The good news is that quick relief is only as far as your faucet or freezer. If you find that puffy skin is a more frequent occurrence, however, you want to think about some more long-term solutions like drinking more water and changing your sleeping position.
