Whether it was a late night party, or just a sleepless night, a lack of sleep can leave you feeling and looking far from perfect. No one wants to go out looking like the walking dead, but we can’t always guarantee that we will get a good night’s sleep.
Having some tricks up your sleeve that will help you look more awake than you feel will always be useful, so here, then, are ten tips on how to look amazing and fresh when you are short on sleep.
1. Take a shower
Taking a shower is an obvious way to wake you up, but you might just be tempted to skip it, if you are feeling really tired, and you shouldn’t. Ten minutes under a warm shower will get the blood circulating around your body and help wake you up, so don’t skip the shower, even though you might feel like you would rather have an extra ten minutes in bed.
2. Drink water
Your natural reaction to a bad night’s sleep is to probably reach for the coffee, rather than a glass of water. You may well need a dose of caffeine to bring yourself back to the world of the living, but don’t neglect to drink a couple glasses of water as well. Water helps to remove toxins from your body and it will also help clear up and plump up your skin and make you look much more awake and refreshed.
3. Get moving
A quick, mini-workout, will get the blood flowing again too. If you can’t find the energy for that then a few stretching exercises will do the trick. The biggest signs of a sleepless night are puffy eyes and a pale complexion. A bit of exercise, will help bring the colour back to your cheeks and drain some of the fluids from under your eyes.
4. Treat tired, red eyes
Red eyes are a common sign of a lack of sleep, but they can be disguised and treated quite easily. Apply a cold compress over your eyes for ten minutes, and this will help to reduce the size of blood vessels in the eyes and reduce the redness. You can also use over-the-counter eye drops, which will clear the eyes up in no time at all.
5. Clear up the dark circles
When you haven’t had enough sleep, dark circles appear under your eyes, because the skin is paler and your eyes will be slightly closed, which highlights the shadows. The easiest way to minimise the appearance of dark circles under the eyes, is to hold a cold spoon over your eyes for a few minutes, or a couple of slices of cold cucumber.
6. Use a tinted sunscreen
Apply a tinted sunscreen and that will put some colour back in your skin, as well as protect you from the sun. You should be using sunscreen anyway, so use a tinted one when you are tired, and you will look more like you just got off a plane having come back from a Caribbean holiday, than like you just spent the last eight hours tossing and turning in your bed.
The morning after a sleepless night is not the morning to skip your moisturiser, especially if you drank a bit too much alcohol last night. Don’t underestimate how much better moisturiser can make you look. Moisturiser will rehydrate your skin, bring back the colour and plump it up too, which will make your skin look far more awake and alive.
8. Use concealer
Concealer can be your best friend when you haven’t had enough sleep, and it will cover up blemishes and dark circles and hide the fact that you had a sleepless night. Apply concealer in a triangle shape under the eyes and if you need to, you can use concealer to hide redness around the mouth and nose that can be caused by not getting enough sleep as well.
9. Apply blush
Applying a rosy tinted blush to the apple of your cheeks will give your face an instant uplift and make you look fresh, healthy and awake. Remember, though, that when you are tired, the rest of your skin is probably paler than usual, so don’t go mad with the blush and make sure you blend it in well.
10. Open up your eyes
On a morning when you have had little sleep the night before your eyes are going to look tired and closed. Open them up by using an eyelash curler and mascara on your lashes, and you will look far less tired. You can also make your eyes look wider awake by applying some white or cream eye pencil to the inner corners of your eyes.
How to look beautiful and fresh when you are short on sleep? What are your best tips?
Stay beautiful!
