The Best Beauty Remedies For The Morning After

The reason you wake up looking washed out can have as much to do with your body clock as that last glass of champagne. When the sun sets, your skin automatically moves into its ‘cleaning’ phase, removing dead cells and so on. Then, between around midnight and 3am, when we should be asleep, it moves on to the vital ‘repairing’ stage. If, however, you’re still awake during these hours, those important jobs can’t be done. That’s why we wake up looking pasty and dull – it’s the same reason that chronic insomnia ages skin. So, rather than using a typically lighter morning face wash, opt for a balm or gel that you can massage in to really deep-clean the skin. Massaging boosts circulation, which takes away toxins and brings back some of that rosy glow.

Doing a gentle peel completes some of the job your skin should have done itself the night before – but go gently. I love U Beauty’s fantastic Resurfacing Compound; it’s made with a blend of acids, yet it’s sting-free. Deploy it as a clever mini-program, using it twice daily over two weeks, to leave party-season skin looking polished and smooth. Alternatively, Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare’s Alpha Beta Ultra Gentle Daily Peel smooths without any skin tingle.

MZ Skin’s Vitamin-Infused Meso Face Mask blends vitamin C with soothing licorice extract and hyaluronic acid and is a total game-changer. Leave it on for a good 10 minutes (or longer) and, when you remove it, somehow your washed-out complexion has a new, even-toned clarity. If time is short, consider a vitamin-C-infused cleanser such as 111Skin’s Black Diamond Brightening Cleanser to tackle two steps in one, by cleansing while creating a glow. Be sure to massage it into skin for a good 60 seconds before rinsing it off, to get the full skin-luminizing benefits.

If you have time to do just one thing, try this simple but brilliant skin-transforming tip given to me by super-talented makeup artist Andrew Gallimore. Apply a hydrating serum or mask, wait a few minutes, and then reapply up to twice more to literally saturate your skin. (If you have the time or inclination, face rolling over the mask or serum is great on puffy, weary skin – but remember to roll upwards only, not back and forth.) Then, in the areas where the product has disappeared, you can keep reapplying until you see that it’s left sitting on the skin rather than sinking into it. Tissue off the excess, apply a face cream to seal it all in, and then apply your makeup. It works on all skin types, and doing this post-peel is your fastest way to that super-dewy, glass-skin finish. It’s also great for rehydrating after a flight.

Keep makeup light, as a heavier base will accentuate tiredness. I love the newer liquid balm foundations that give skin a dewy, juicy finish, such as Hermès Beauty’s Plein Air Complexion Balm. Also, Westman Atelier’s Vital Skincare Complexion Drops manage to cover invisibly so that skin looks amazing, not made-up; Tom Ford Beauty’s Traceless Foundation Stick is a solid format that also gives weary skin that much-needed boost; while Charlotte Tilbury’s Magic Away Liquid Concealer is a new discovery that I can’t rate highly enough, concealing and counteracting dark circles to make eyes look fresh. It’s a post-party essential, along with eye drops.

And finally, an old-school trick that makeup pros use, because it works: depending on your skin tone, using a peach or apricot-toned blush or eyeshadow can have a near-miraculous effect, giving an exhausted face a total refresh. If you don’t have eyeshadow in the right tone, use a blush over the eyelids instead.