Recently, On a Wednesday at 3:30pm, a friend mentioned that it was the “ugliest time of the week”. Huh?
According to our friend – and a report in 2013 by the skin experts behind St. Tropez – women look their worst on Wednesday afternoons at roughly 3 in the afternoon. Their findings combined interesting research on sleep patterns, reported stress, and weekend alcohol consumption (apparently, it takes a few days to see the results of Saturday night’s spicy marg).
Although we’re taking the study with a Himalayan lamp-sized grain of salt, it got us thinking about the mid-week tools that help us recover from the beauty slump that is hump day. Here’s how we lighten our moods, hydrate our bods and keep things as pretty as can be around here…
How To Beat a 3pm Beauty Slump
the foil for office a/c | Ah, the dreaded office air conditioning. It can be one of the most dehydrating factors to hit our skin throughout the day. Hyaluronic acid helps skin to retain moisture that would otherwise be wicked away by all that AC. We recently discovered this popular serum by OSEA and will be layering it on beneath our moisturizer going forward. Dry, chilly office air, we don’t know you.
The deskside facial spritz | Recently, a facialist assured us that our facial spritz obsession is fully justified. You may moisturize in the morning, but that skincare doesn’t last all day. The easiest way to rehydrate is to keep a mist on hand and use it in the afternoon. We particularly keen on Allies of Skin’s Molecular Savior facial mist with silver — it won’t evaporate under office-grade air conditioning either!
sakara life beauty water concentrate | Keep that big glass of water on your desk full and add drops of this potion of silica, rose and trace minerals throughout the day. The rose concentrate has plenty of beauty benefits and a majorly mood-boosting flavor.
Primer for computer screens | The only skincare on the market designed to counter the effects of blue light is Make’s Moonlight Primer. If you’re concerned about the potential damage occurring from all the blue-light screen exposure (see our full story here), consider a thin layer of this unique serum before your moisturizer.
the reviving smoothie recipe | Exhaustion ain’t pretty. Rejuvenate your energy from head to toe with this smart smoothie recipe designed just for afternoons at the office.
supplement swap | Try taking your daily supplements with lunch instead of breakfast. You might find that your afternoon energy slump is solved for. Slogging through the afternoon on low energy can be majorly depleting. Try this swap for a feel days and see if it helps. Just be aware of your sleep schedule and be sure it’s not affected by the mid-day boost!
give yourself Acupressure | Memorize a few key acupressure points and use them to give yourself a light massage mid-day. This will stimulate healthy blood circulation to the face and help you to break out of bad “face posture”. Yes, facial muscles can have bad posture too. Habitual tension and squinting can lead to unnecessary wrinkles if you’re looking to avoid them.
Take Five + Lose It | We usually take meditation breaks at TCM HQ mid-afternoon, but, lately, we’ve been taking laughter breaks instead. The complex good that happens to body and soul after a good laugh can’t be over-estimated. The challenge is in finding good material. Task your crew with saving and sourcing the perfect 3pm meme, then laugh your way to a glowier complexion.
