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In need of some tips on how to look less tired that really do work? Here’s my list of 14 simple ways to stop looking tired all the time. The first set of tips deal specifically with facial care and the second focus on lifesytle changes – every tip is an absolute winner.
It can be really disheartening to look in the mirror, see a tired, worn-out face looking back at you and think ‘why do I always look so tired and washed out?’. Especially if you’ve had a good night’s sleep.
Or that ego-crushing feeling you get when someone – quite often your mother – greets you with ‘ooh you look tired!’ It cuts particularly deep when you are (were) feeling totally fine.
I’ve been there and I know how frustrating it can be. So I’ve spent time researching how to look less tired.
It turns out there are plenty of great ways to fix a tired looking face and in particular, how to make your eyes look less tired.
First up, here are some facial care tips to help you fix a tired looking face and make it look fresh again.
First up, if you want to look less tired you need to give your skin cell renewal a bit of support through regular exfoliation.
This is particularly important as you age and during the winter months. No one wants to start looking tired and haggard as the winter months draw on and the years pass by!
I’m a massive fan of using chemical exfoliants rather than physical exfoliants. My current exfoliant of choice is glycolic acid.
Glycolic acid dissolves the top layer of dead skin cells and resurfaces the skin. This allows new, active, skin cells to come to the surface.
Which makes your face look brighter and your skin look plumper.
I’ve been using Pixi Glow Tonic for a few years now and I absolutely LOVE it. I tend to stock up on Pixi Glow Tonic at Boots but you can also buy it on Amazon.
Once you’ve dealt with freshening up your skin through exfoliation, you can look at what you can put on your skin to make it look less tired.
My Pick
PIXI Glow Tonic - 100ml
£12.45 (£124.50 / l)
Buy now on Amazon
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11/01/2022 09:24 am GMT
Dry skin tends to look like tired skin, because it doesn’t have the bounce and glow of hydrated skin.
Of course simply increasing your water intake is a big step towards keeping you skin hydrated and I mention this in the lifestyle tips.
However, you can also give your skin a huge helping hand to stay hydrated by using a product that contains hyaluronic acid.
Hyaluronic acid has become a bit of a buzz ingredient over the last few years and it’s easy to understand why. Hyaluronic acid is a humectant that occurs naturally in the body. Humectants attract and lock in moisture.
So if you use hyaluronic acid with a good water based moisturiser, your skin will look and feel lovely and hydrated.
My pick: Hydraluron by Indeed LabsI am a HUGE fan of the cult beauty hyaluronic acid product Hydraluron by Indeed Labs.
I tend to use it whilst my skin is still damp, to lock the moisture in, followed by moisturiser over the top.
Hydraluron makes my skin look more plump and smooth which goes a long way to helping me look fresher and less tired.
I always keep an eye on whether Boots has a special offer on for Hydraluron but I also make use of Amazon Subscribe & Save, because it’s a product I don’t like running out of. If I get lucky at Boots, I just skip a delivery of Subscribe & Save.
My Pick
Indeed Labs Hydraluron Moisture Serum, 30 ml
£20.83 (£69.43 / 100 ml)
You can use Subscribe & Save on Hydraluron, which is a nice way to never run out whilst also saving some money!
Buy now on Amazon
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11/01/2022 09:29 am GMT
TOP TIP: MOISTURISE WHILST YOUR SKIN IS DAMP OR WETFollowing on from the above tip on rehydrating, another great tip to make your skin look less tired is to moisturise whilst your skin is still damp, as damp skin absorbs moisturiser more easily.
Now facial massage is something I only recently tuned into as a way to stop my face looking tired. I must admit I’d been very ‘yeah whatever’ about the benefits of facial massage until then. What changed my mind was going for a facial massage at my local beauty salon.
The results of 45 minutes of a therapist doing nothing more than massaging my face quite literally blew my mind. My nasolabial lines had disappeared and my skin looked plumper and more alive than it had in weeks.
The effects of the facial massage gradually faded over the course of a week, so that is when I looked into how to do facial massage on myself to make my face look less tired and more fresh and glowing.
Facial massage works by boosting the circulation of blood to the skin and firming and toning the skin by giving it a bit of a workout. It can help reduce puffiness and it also encourages lymphatic drainage (lymphatic fluid helps remove toxins and waste) and encourages the release of endorphins, which makes you look and feel fresher and more awake.
Clearly most of us don’t have much spare time for facial massage in the morning, but it’s well worth even adapting how you apply your facial moisturiser to spend a minute massaging it in.
I find the best time to do a little facial massage is in the evening, when I can usually spare a whole five minutes!!
I use my favourite massage oil, which is Dr Organic Rose Otto Facial Serum, which has the most uplifting fragrance of any facial oil. It is made up of a blend of different oils, including almond and argan oil, plus of course wonderful rose essential oil.
My skin always looks plump and calm after I’ve massaged my skin with it. I tend to buy Dr Organic Rose Otto Facial Serum from Holland & Barrett but you can also buy it over on Amazon.
My Pick
Dr Organic, Rose Otto Facial Serum
£11.11 (£37.03 / 100 ml)
This is a great one to have on Subscribe & Save.
Subscribe & Save on Amazon
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11/01/2022 09:49 am GMT
There are lots of facial massage how-to videos on YouTube. The one I really like is by Abigail James: YouTube video
Now, it is said that the eyes are the window to the soul, but they can also be the biggest factor in looking tired and washed out.
So next, I’m going to focus on things you can do to make your eyes look less tired.
The skin under the eye area is really thin and delicate, which is why it really shows signs of tiredness. It’s also why we need to treat it really gently and carefully.
The formulation of eye cream is lighter than most facial moisturisers, which is why it is worth buying a separate eye cream.
Good ingredients to look out for in eye creams are hyaluronic acid, vitamin E and Coenzyme Q10.
Coenzyme Q10 is an absolute power-ingredient in beauty products because it is packed with antioxidants and helps to repair and regenerate skin cells.
My Pick
NIVEA Q10 Power Eye Cream
£5.50 (£36.67 / 100 ml)
This is one of the best, most reliable eye-creams out there, mainly because Coenzyme Q10 is one of the best active ingredients in skincare. I LOVE this stuff!
Buy now on Amazon
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11/01/2022 05:59 am GMT
Dark circles under the eye are a particular problem when it comes to looking more tired than you actually are.
The thing with dark circles is that they are often hereditary. Plus they become more visible as you age.
This is because the skin under the eyes is super thin and gets thinner as we age, so the blood pooled beneath becomes more obvious.
Allergies and a poor diet can also contribute to dark circles looking worse.
Caffeine is a good active ingredient specifically for temporarily reducing dark circles, as it is said to help boost circulation and constrict blood vessels.
Of course the hope with eye cream is that it will reduce the look of puffiness and improve the appearance of dark circles under the eyes.
The Ordinary is the most brilliant range of really well-priced skincare products.
There’s no fancy packaging and no fancy marketing to bump up the prices.
Love this stuff!
One thing that is often overlooked is HOW MUCH eye cream to use and HOW to apply it.
You should only use a pea-sized amount of eye cream, less is definitely more, as you don’t want to overload the skin.
A great trick I was taught by a leading facialist during my time PRing leading beauty brands is to use your middle finger to apply eye cream, as it gives a lighter touch than using your forefinger.
So, using your middle finger, start by applying the cream around the orbital bones (that’s the bones around your eye socket) and then start gently tapping or lightly massaging the cream in, going from the inner corner of your eye and making your way to the outer corner.
One of the best ways to get rid of tired eyes in the morning is to use eye drops.
They are also a great way for your eyes to look less tired during the day, especially after a day spent staring unblinkingly at screens.
Eye drops will moisturise your eyes and clarify the whites of your eyes, so that your eyes not only look less tired, they feel less tired too.
My pick: Optrex Double Action Eye Drops For Tired Eyes
I have been using these eye drops for the last couple of years and they really make a difference. I tend to put them in first thing in the morning and then have them with me in my bag so I can use them through the day.
They are particularly good to use after staring at a screen for several hours!
My Pick
Optrex Double Action Eye Drops
£7.99 (£79.90 / 100 ml)
The MOST SOOTHING eye drops EVER!!
Buy now from Amazon
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11/01/2022 06:10 am GMT
Well, that’s it for your facial care tips. So let’s move onto some lifestyle changes you can make to ensure you stop looking so tired.
Here are some really valuable to know overall lifestyle changes you can make that will help ensure you look less tired.
Ok, so starting with the seemingly obvious here.
But wait before you roll your eyes…
On average, adults need between seven to nine hours of sleep per night.
There is no such thing as ‘catching up on sleep’.
So figure out how much sleep makes you feel good the next morning and then try and stick to this amount.
Day in, day out.
This may well mean getting up EARLIER at the weekends, but try it, you might like it.
Here are some great ideas on how to get a better night’s sleep.
It is amazing how well your face can look if you exercise regularly.
But I know that starting an exercise routine when you’re not in the habit can be a big thing.
You need to be in the right frame of mind to get that exercise habit started.
But there is something simple you can do to help your body and in turn, stop looking tired.
Walking.
Moving around instead of spending endless hours sat at a desk, sat in the car, sat at home, can give your body the pep it needs.
Staying static for long periods causes lethargy and drains our energy levels.
Your body thinks that it is heading for sleep, so it winds down all its processes.
Sitting staring at a screen for hours can lead to dry, tired eyes that have fine lines all around them.
So get up and move around.
If you’re desk-bound at work, get up for five minutes every hour and walk around.
Combine one of those walks with getting your ten minutes of daylight.
If you’re at home or in the car a lot, look at ways you can build walking into your everyday life.
It is amazing how much better you can feel if you just get your body moving.
I know how hard it is to build exercise and movement into your daily life, especially when you feel like you don’t have a spare moment.
But it is SO important. I’ve got a post on simple ways to build exercise into daily life: How to build exercise into daily life.
Breathing.
We all do it.
But we don’t all do it in the right way to get the oxygen we need.
Especially if we’re running around and stressed.
Shallow, quick breathing leaves us lacking in oxygen.
Alongside raised blood pressure and increased heart rate, a lack of oxygen can cause bad circulation… see where I’m going with this… which can make us look tired and washed out.
So taking a few minutes to take some deep breaths can really help.
I’ve got a whole post on the benefits of deep breathing for relaxation, it includes a video on a really easy deep breathing exercise.
Read it here: Just breathe!
Next, some dietary changes you can make that will have a positive effect.
Ok, I know sugar is the current baddie of the food world.
But there is good reason for this.
Let me count the ways that too much sugar will have you looking (and feeling) wrung out.
Make no mistake, for most of us, it is an addiction.
But it can be done.
I know, because I’ve done it.
It’s not that I live without sugar in my life, but I have managed to cut it right back.
But I can walk down the confectionary aisle in the supermarket and not even flinch.
Even when I’m hungry.
That is a MASSIVE change in eating habits for me.
Here’s my post on the best way to go about it in my experience: How to quit eating sugar
Yes, I know.
It’s the thing we all want to reach for to ‘wake us up’ in the morning.
But caffeine, it’s not so good.
First off, it is a diuretic.
This means it makes you pee more.
Which means that caffeine is causing you to dehydrate.
As you’ll know from tip 4, keeping hydrated is super important when working out how to stop looking tired.
Second up, caffeine kills off antioxidants.
Antioxidants protect your skin’s elastin.
Lose the elasticity in your skin and you’re on the way to ageing your skin. FAST.
So keep caffeine, through coffee or black tea, intake to no more than a couple of small SMALL mugs per day.
Switch to green tea, which has less caffeine than black tea.
Go for decaffeinated versions – though be careful to choose naturally decaffeinated rather than chemically decaffeinated with solvents (er, yuk).
Clipper Tea does a lovely decaf black tea, which is naturally decaffeinated using carbon dioxide.
Related: Easy tips to quit coffee
Dehydration causes us to look and feel tired.
But we don’t always cotton on to this.
If our blood volume lowers we don’t get as much blood to our brain, so our heart has to work harder to get the blood there.
This means blood is diverted away from fewer places where it is needed less urgently, places like our faces.
So we end up looking washed out.
But this is easily remedied by, you’ve guessed it, drinking more water.
Water is the key by the way – not tea or coffee (which are diuretics, see tip 8 below) or sugary drinks (see tip 7 below).
Aim to drink a good size glass of water first thing in the morning and a smaller glass last thing at night.
Then drink water steadily through the day.
Learn to understand when you feel thirsty – thirst can often be mistaken for hunger.
I always have a stainless steel (#PlasticFree) Chilly bottle in my bag when I’m out and about.
Plus I always have a glass of water on my desk when I’m working.
My Pick
Chilly's Stainless Steel Water Bottles
£17.00
Choose the size that works best for you - think about weight when full, how much water you need to have with you...
Choose yours on Amazon
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11/01/2022 08:30 am GMT
We get top-ups of vitamin D through exposure to sunlight.
If we’re lucky we get bucket loads of it in the summer months.
But come the winter it is bye-bye vitamin D fix.
You most likely think of Vitamin D as being important for bones.
However, it is also important for guarding against illness AND stopping us from feeling tired and lethargic.
There are three things you can do to up your vitamin D intake:
And finally, to help you in the fight to stop looking so tired all of the time… I’ve got a couple of great tips for things you can buy that will help save your face from looking washed out, crumpled and tired.
Cotton is often the fabric of choice for bedding.
But it’s not great for allowing your face to glide over its surface.
Which means that if you’re a front or side sleeper, you wake up with your face looking ‘slept in’.
The answer is to go for a silk pillowcase.
Don’t worry, that doesn’t mean you have to change your minimalist or Scandi chic bedroom into a boudoir (unless you want to).
John Lewis has some lovely silk pillowcases, I have a couple of these and I would now never have anything other than a silk pillowcase on my pillow. It really does make a difference to how my face looks when I wake up.
I’ve even been known to take a silk pillowcase when we go on holiday.
My favourite
John Lewis The Ultimate Collection Silk Standard Pillowcase
This is the colour - Tea Rose - pillowcases that I have, they look beautiful against our white cotton bedding and silk really does help ensure your face is wrinkle-free after a night's sleep.
Buy now on John Lewis
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Of course sleeping on your back is the other remedy to ‘pillow-face’.
Having tried to switch to sleeping on my back more times than I care to mention, I know that this is easier said than done.
Ready for your final tip on how to stop looking tired all the time?
Ok, so ‘radiator face’ is a term I’ve made up for that horrible dry feeling you get when you spend hours in a centrally heated building.
Dry indoor air is not a friend of fresh-looking skin.
It can also make your eyes look dry and bloodshot.
Sleeping in dry, radiator heated air is particularly bad for us.
Not only do we need a nice cool room to maintain a good quality of sleep, sleeping in dry air can take moisture from skin and eyes, leaving you waking up looking like death warmed up.
So, first up, switch that heating right down or off at night.
Secondly, invest in a humidifier if you spend hours in centrally heated buildings.
Go for a cool-mist humidifier, because
My Pick
Humidifiers, 500ML for Bedroom
£16.66
This humidifier is a best-seller on Amazon with good reason.
Buy Now
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11/01/2022 09:19 am GMT
So there you go, 14 simple ways to stop looking so tired14 easy to do tips on how to stop looking tired all the time.
Tips for simple things you can start doing RIGHT NOW to start looking a bit more fresh-faced.
*Speak to your doctor or health practitioner before taking any new supplement.
Now you’ve looked through my tips to help you stop looking so tired all the time, let’s explore the reasons why you might look so tired.
Because it’s really helpful to understand the reasons why you might look tired and washed out all the time, in order to make the changes that really count.
Now, alongside giving you the great tips above, I thought it might we well worth sharing with you a few thoughts and facts on the things that can make you look tired.
There are many things, besides a lack of sleep, that can make you look tired. It can be particularly hard when you find yourself asking why you always look tired when you’re not actually tired or deprived of sleep!!
The reality is that there are lots of everyday stressors that can make us look more tired than we actually are.
Some of them are actually super easy to deal with if you know how. Some, like stress and anxiety, can take longer to address.
There is a very clear correlation between how we feel and how we look.
So if you do look in the mirror and wonder why you are looking so tired, it is worth taking a step back and seeing where you’re at in life.
Then you can start to address the issues and start to like what you see in the mirror again.
Then take a look at a list of some of the simple changes you can make to stop yourself looking tired all the time.
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‘How are you?’ It’s something we’re asked countless times a day by friends, family and colleagues, and the resounding response is usually along the lines of, ‘I feel tired.’ One of the many outcomes of the upheavals of the past year and the uncertainty of the months ahead is a feeling of perpetual tiredness—and that fatigue is written all over our faces as dullness, dark circles and angry, misbehaving skin.
“This ongoing situation is having numerous indirect effects on our skin,” says Dr Anjali Mahto, a consultant dermatologist at Skin55 in London.
“Many of us are suffering from increased levels of stress and anxiety, which means that not only are we feeling mentally tired, but levels of baseline chronic stress are affecting sleep patterns, resulting in physical tiredness and impacting the stress hormone, cortisol, aggravating any pre-existing skin conditions.”
It is the effects of stress that Noella Gabriel, co-founder and global president of Elemis, argues that we are noticing in our skin. “We need to understand that stress is not just something we go through, but something our skin has to contend with on a daily basis,” she says. “Our skin faces external stressors every single day, a fact that is then exacerbated by our own emotional stresses.”
So, even if we are sleeping well, the constant hum of stress that many of us are experiencing right now is causing us to feel tired and making our skin look fatigued in the process. Here’s what you can do about it, according to the experts.
“Around 9pm, as the day closes, the body prepares for sleep by producing melatonin, a powerful anti-inflammatory antioxidant,” explains Gabriel.
“Melatonin helps to balance the circadian rhythm and counteract inflammation and oxidative stress, which are key players in ageing. If this process is interfered with by broken sleep, anxiety or stress, the body produces cortisol, which in turn prevents your skin from producing hyaluronic acid, its natural hydrator.” What all this means is, poor sleep can result in dry and dehydrated skin, leading to dullness and an impaired skin barrier.
With many of us working from home now and foregoing makeup, it’s tempting to skip an evening skincare routine, but if you do, you are missing out on an opportunity to support your skin’s repair mechanisms while you sleep. In terms of the best products out there, Estée Lauder Advanced Night Repair takes advantage of your circadian rhythm and helps to even out skin tone and boost glow, while Elemis Ultra Smart Pro-Collagen Night Genius is clinically proven to help strengthen the skin’s protective barrier, so it can hold on to its own moisture better and minimise sensitivity.
It has also been shown to hydrate skin over 72 hours. Both help to make you look more rested than you may feel.
“When my patients tell me they think they look tired, what they are often referring to are changes in the upper third of their face, especially around their eyes,” says Dr Mahto. “Their concerns can range from pigmentation or dark circles to fine or deep wrinkles, to hollowing due to volume loss and subsequent tear troughs.”
Makeup can transform beyond recognition, but sometimes it can ruin everything - create the effect of "congestion" of the face or give it a tired look. We talk about the main mistakes in make-up, because of which you can look like you haven’t slept for a month.
Now the trend is arrows that emphasize the natural shape of the eyes, so you need to draw a line along the ciliary contour and try to make it as thin as possible.
Thick arrows make the eyelid look smaller and close the eyes, making them look heavy, so you can look tense and exhausted.
Don't use too much mascara when making winged lines. If you make up your eyelashes too thick, your eyes will become even more tired, and your eyelids will seem to droop.
Smokey eye makeup should accentuate the look, not make it look tired. Choose shadows and eyeliner that match your eye color, and if black looks rough on you, ditch it in favor of gray or light brown. In general, smokey can be made even with pink, even with green, the main thing is that the make-up looks harmonious.
If you spent many hours at the computer and your eyes turned red, then you should not do too rich make-up - it will only emphasize your tired look. Therefore, it is better to just paint your eyelashes with mascara and apply a highlighter under the eyebrow - so the look will be more open and fresh.
An important point - matte lipstick looks perfect only when your skin is radiant and your lips are soft and smooth.
If you neglect moisturizing balms and creams, then matte lipstick will emphasize dry skin and all imperfections. In addition, she needs a rather dense tone and a good concealer under the eyes, which will hide bruises. Matte lipstick requires preparation, otherwise it will make the face tired and pale.
Firstly, a large amount of bronzer looks at least unnatural, especially when the skin on the neck is much lighter, and secondly, it makes the face tired if applied not properly. With the help of the product, you need to focus on those places where the sun leaves a mark when you sunbathe: on the forehead, a little on the nose and cheekbones. In this case, the bronzer will look harmonious.
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@anyaholdstock, @a.b.ellie
To look fresh and rested on your wedding day, you need to prepare in advance. If you have a stylist - great, he will definitely be able to hide the bruises under the eyes, add a healthy glow and blush. But the better you look without makeup, the less it will be needed during preparation - and then you will definitely look natural. We suggest ideas on how you can start to deal with a tired look before the wedding. Just try these methods in advance so as not to conduct risky experiments on your own face a couple of days before an important date.
@lepetitfika, @roseinc
We often give the appearance of being tired and downcast when we have dull skin and a greyish complexion. This happens not only due to lack of sleep, rest and sun, but also due to the fact that dead cells accumulate in the upper layer of the skin. You can easily get rid of them with the help of ex-folios - the mildest option would be tonics with a small percentage of acids in the composition.
True, it is better to use them in winter, when there is no strong sun. In spring and summer it is also acceptable, but then you will have to constantly apply sunscreen to your face to avoid the appearance of age spots.
@taniarudenko_
Micellar water Marble Lab with ana-acids, 990 rubles
Lotion for sensitive skin Clinique Clarification Lotion 1.0.850 Rhesi
@ Maaari_si, @ Roseinc
Antistress Massage in Amnis Spa, 13500 rubles for 1 hour
,Spas Procedure “Absolute Transfiguration” with the Massage of the Zone around the eyes in The Ritz-Carlton SPA, 16000 circent for 2 hours
Floating and massage program "Beauty Immersion" in Float Studio, 7600₽ for 2 hours
Another sign that "gives away" our fatigue is the condition of the area under the eyes.
