Sunday mornings are times for hangovers, brunch with friends and sometimes, when you least expect it, the discovery of some not-so-welcome reminders of the night before. Whether your boyfriend wanted to mark his territory or your one-night stand thought your neck was a chew toy, showing off those hickeys is not the best way to score a second round OCR interview or to welcome your visiting parents. With global warming keeping summer around in Philly, the old turtleneck-method is a dead giveaway that you've got love-bites under that poly-cotton blend. We here at Street get a lot of action too, so we decided to look into better ways to hide the evidence. With the help of just a little (okay, more than a little) makeup, you'll be showing your neck in public in no time. And depending on who those hickeys are from, you might even get to show your face too.
* Rebecca Schaible, Beauty Advisor at Douglas Cosmetics, suggests starting the hickey-hiding process with Clinique Exceptionally Smooth Cream for Upset Skin ($33 at Douglas). This cream helps relieve itchiness, dryness and redness in the affected area to make it heal more quickly. Unfortunately, no amount of cream will bring back your dignity.
* Next, she uses Lanc“me Maquicomplet Concealer ($30) in Correcteur, which is pure yellow in color. "It's going to counteract the skin tone before you just cover it up" Rebecca says. She blots this product on with a concealer brush to give it the most natural finish. After this step, our hickey victim already noticed a difference: "I'm never going to shower!" she pledged. Well, that's one way to prevent more hickeys.
* Rebecca also applies Lanc“me Effacernes Waterproof Undereye Concealer ($25.50). "This is for eyes, but we're using this one because it's waterproof so you don't have to worry about it rubbing off," Rebecca says. When applying this concealer, concentrate most of it directly on the hickey, but blend outward so the dark spot doesn't stand out from the rest of your unblemished neck. Be careful not to cover the spot too much though: our victim's boyfriend reported that the makeup can really interfere with the neck's flavor and does such a good job of hiding the hickeys that the taste can be unexpected.
* To finish the process, Rebecca likes Lanc“me Color Ideal Pressed Powder ($31) to "set it so that it doesn't rub off and it makes it a little more matte." Not covered enough for your liking? "You can always keep blending more if you want more coverage," Rebecca advises, "just let it set for a few minutes and then add more."
Four products and ten minutes later, your hickeys will be hiding like Harry Potter under his invisibility cloak. How will you feel after the process? "It still feels like I have hickeys. They hurt," said our guinea pig. So maybe you won't get rid of the physical (or emotional) pains from the night before, but at least you can avoid the constant reminder of that sharply-fanged frat boy every time you look in the mirror.
