It’s easy to do your makeup for a big date—but maintaining your glam-ness after an acrobatic roll in the sack? Not so easy. Here’s how to ensure you’ll look just as hot the morning after—no walk of shame required.
1The Issue: Bad Bedhead
After hours of him running his fingers through your soft, shiny hair and rolling around on the bed (or carpet, washing machine, kitchen table, desk, etc.), you’re bound to get a nasty case of bedhead. Think Flock Of Seagulls hair.
The Solution: Hair Oil
When you’re getting ready for your date, massage a drop of nourishing hair oil on damp hair before blow-drying. This will make each strand super smooth and less prone to snagging when the friction heats up in bed. Slip it in your purse for the morning after, too. “Whether the problem is frizz, fly-aways or plain unruliness, apply a drop of oil to the ends to improve manageability, restore softness and eliminate frizz immediately for a more polished, put-together look,” says celebrity hairstylist Harry Josh. His pick: John Frieda Frizz Ease Nourishing Oil Elixir, $9, which can be used on wet or dry hair.
2The Issue: Smeared Lipstick (on You and Him!)
Hey, we all love a dramatic bold lip as a sexy date night look, but beware—those lips can go from sexy to scary pretty quickly when you two start to lock lips.
The Solution: Try a Lip Stain
A lip stain will give your lips a dramatic tint, but won’t smear and slide when it’s time to get cozy. The new Topshop Lip Ink in Sloe Gin, $16, creates the perfect berry bitten lip look and goes on glossy, then dries down to a pretty stain.
3The Issue: Chapped, Over-Worked Lips
Along with a lot of smooching can come some unsightly lip chapping.
The Solution: Honey Lip Balm
Keep your lips soft, sweet and kissable with a moisturizing and tasty lip balm that you’ll both enjoy. Le Couvent Des Minimes Smile Lip Balm in Honey, $14, is an intensely nourishing lip moisturizer with nutrient-rich honey extract, shea butter, beeswax and Royal Jelly (which is also known to boost the libido, wink wink).
4The Issue: Morning Breath
What’s the worst part about waking up with a hottie in your bed? Wanting to roll over to say “Good Morning, Sweetie,” but fearing that your breath will singe his eyebrows.
The Solution: A Natural Breath Spray
Some breath fresheners can smell so strong and medicinal, you wonder if it’s even better than your morning breath. Enter Hello Breathspray, $4, recommended by Dr. Lowenberg, of NYC’s Lowenberg, Lituchy & Kantor dental practice. “It gives you a sense of clean, fresh breath in an organic way—it’s not an artificial cover-up,” he says. It comes in four flavors. Dr. Lowenberg prefers Supermint; we veer more towards Pink Grapefruit Mint—it’s pink! We also love that it’s so small, you can easily slip it into your clutch.
5The Issue: Raccoon Eyes
Date night can require up to three coats of mascara to create those alluring bedroom eyes. But what can that ultimately lead to if you get lucky? A total mess.
The Fix: Tube Mascara
We all love a good waterproof mascara, but when it comes to wearing mascara all night long, tube mascara is just more reliable because it won’t budge one bit without getting splashed with warm water. (Here’s a quick lesson on tube mascara.) The Kanebo Sensai Volumizing Mascara, $34, fattens up each lash for a high-drama look, but won’t come off unless you splash water that’s 38 C (100 F) or warmer on it. Don’t have tube mascara? Then skip mascara all together and rim your lash lines with a smudge-proof liner. This will make the roots of your lashes look dark and lush, and if it smudges a bit, all the better for those real bedroom eyes. We love Votre Vu Le Jolie Crayon in Charbon, $16.
6The Issue: Foundation Meltdown
You may be tempted to whip out the foundation for date night, but here’s why you should think twice. Foundation, even smudge-proof, will ultimately rub off at some point during the night (especially if things get a little sweaty), leaving streaks and stains on his shirt or sheets and leaving you with a tiger-striped-looking complexion.
The Solution: A Face-Perfect Serum
Instead of foundation, use a multi-tasking serum like Dior Capture Totale Dream Skin, $110, which contains an exclusive Biomimetic Powder that reproduces how your skin naturally diffuses and reflects light, immediately creating the illusion of perfect skin. It also has intense anti-aging ingredients to reduce dark spots, wrinkles and roughness over time. Have a few bad spots? Apply concealer where needed.
7The Issue: All-Over Damage Control
No matter how hard you try to sex-proof your beauty look, things come up—smears, stains, sweat.
The Solution: Fragrance-Free Wipes
Let us count the ways one can use a fragrance-free wipe—to clean up eye makeup, refresh your face, remove a stain from your clothing, freshen up your armpits… Makeup remover wipes are the closest thing to a shower-in-your-purse. Select ones that are fragrance free so that you can use them all over without leaving that telltale scent that you were frantically trying to clean yourself up in the bathroom. We love the new Yes To Carrots Fragrance Free Gentle Cleansing Facial Towelettes, $5 (for 25 cloths).
