Over the last few years, I have become particularly excellent in the realm of faking it… faking looking well that is. It sounds rather odd, but when you have a chronic illness or multiple chronic illnesses, you learn how to ‘game face’ and look presentable even when you are ridiculously sick, in lots of pain, and just generally want just to go back to the safety of your bed.
I am excellent at game facing… If it were an Olympic Sport – I would get the gold medal. Or at least that’s what I like to tell myself. /lol
For most of April, I was down with the flu, strep throat, an ear infection….ON TOP OF MY NORMAL SPOONIE ISSUES. It was a lovely trifecta of chaos, and all I wanted to do was just stay around in bed until my bed finally welcomed me as one of its own, and I slowly melted into it. Well, I had actually to go out and be an adult for one of those days towards the latter part of the week and while I didn’t want to … it sucks being an adult and having to do non-fun, adulty things (like blood work, hospital visits, and bill paying). All things that I would love to avoid, but they are necessary evils.
I posted a picture on social media and then received the standard “You don’t look that sick.,”I wish I looked that good sick,” etc… responses from folks. I straight up deleted the nasty comments, because nobody needs to see or feed into that crap. That gave me the idea to write this post. You see, even though I, or another person, may not look sick, that doesn’t mean we aren’t. Here are a few makeup tips from my little spoonie self to you!
Disclaimer: Whenever I go out into the wild jungle that is out-in-public, I always wear my Vogmask. Most of the time it is to prevent me from catching this, that, or the other. When I am sick with something possibly contagious, I like to limit my time to being out only as much as I need to, but I also wear that mask to prevent others from being sick. I do not advise going out when you’re sick, but I will let you be the judge of your body.
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Step #1 – Take care of your skin.
I don’t know about you, but when I’m sick with some bug, my completion seems to go down the crapper. Pesky zits arise like the Balrog of Moria. My already dark circles get darker, and I lose a lot of color in my face. I look like death warm-ith over, most of the time. Add into that any time my nose decides to impersonate a leaky faucet, and my nose becomes this red beacon of death – like a warming light over a tough, dried out piece of brisket. It ends up being tender and dried out and no bueno.
- It’s good to keep your face as clean as possible when you’re sick. It helps reduce the amount of breakouts that may or may not happen. Plus, when you’re sick and have a fever, the cool water may feel excellent.
- Moisturize, moisturize, moisturize, moisturize, MOISTURIZE! When you’re sick, your skin is the first thing to get dehydrated. Sure, you’ll feel clammy when you have a fever … but that’s cause all the moisture is jumping ship (figuratively speaking). Some of my favorite moisturizers are Estee Lauder DayWear Moisturizer, FAB Ultra Repair Moisturizer, or Origins GinZing Daily Moisturizer.
- Multi-task to treat yourself. While you are laying around in bed surfing the interwebs or binging on Netflix, take some time to pamper yourself – either with a sheet mask or other facial masky-thingy. It will help relax you… and pampering yourself is always a plus!
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Step #2 – Apply your GAME FACE:
- Prep your face before starting all the ‘makeup stuff’: I like to wash my face, then apply an under eye bag de-puffing cream or mask, wait for that to start, then follow up with serums and moisturizers. I will then let all that jazz soak in for a good 10-15 minutes before continuing with the day’s war paint.
- Invest in a good primer and setting spray. Pick up things that will stay put even if you end up… well… you know. I prefer using hydrating primers, like Marc Jacob’s Coconut Hydrating Primer or MUFE’s Step 1 Hydrating Base Primer.
- Color correcting creams and concealers are your friend. I like to use a light foundation and then go in with a heavier concealer to cover up certain spots. If I’m having a serious case of the under-eye bags from Hell, I will color correct before the foundation – lightly.
- Don’t cake on a metric FRAK-ton of the foundation. Be sparing with your foundation and base layers. Along with not caking your face, try not to wear your makeup longer than you feel you need to. It’s important to give your skin a chance to breathe. Water-based foundations are fairly lightweight. Alcohol based foundations will just dry you out even more, and oil-based foundations can be heavy on the skin.
- If you want to go big and bold, don’t let your sickness stop you. Makeup is sort of therapy for me some days. It helps to give me confidence when I’m feeling like absolute crap-ola. Those days are when I wear the boldest, friggin eyeshadows… because I can.
- Wearing a mask? Don’t worry about the lower half of your face. Seriously. I wear a vogmask, and unless I am doing my makeup to ALSO take pictures of and post it to social media – I rarely do the lower half of my face since my mask covers my mouth and nose. It’s weird, but it’s just one more thing, and I’m all for it. I will ask this of you if you do have some contagious cold, flu, etc… PLEASE WEAR A MASK. Help protect those around you, like me, who have compromised immune systems. Common colds for normal people can put me in the hospital, and I really don’t like being in hospitals.
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Step #3 – Only wear your GAME FACE for as long as you absolutely NEED to:
- Try to schedule all your ‘adulty’ things all in one clump. This is something that I am starting to get better at, however, I’ve found that it is monumentally helpful. If you have doctor appointments that haven’t been scheduled for months and months in advance (or just appointments in general) try and schedule them close enough together so that you don’t have to be waiting around all day – in public – to do things. It may sound hard, but just be upfront with whoever you are scheduling things with. If you need to run errands, try and grab a friend to go with you or ask if your spouse can take care of it for you instead. It’s OKAY to ask for help.
- Take your GAME FACE OFF when you’re done. This may sound obvious, but taking your makeup off as soon as you get home after all of your questing and adventurings will help you get that much closer to relaxing – and more importantly – SLEEP.
DO NOT FALL ASLEEP WITH YOUR MAKEUP ON.
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Step #4 – REST, RELAX, AND FOR GAWD-SAKE…. SLEEP!
You are sick, remember? Your body needs to rest and recuperate from the day’s excursions… and you know… heal. I know that I only have a certain amount of spoons each day and if I have to do adult things while I am flaring, I end up in the negative spoons category. Rest is important, and you deserve it. If it’s not something IMPORTANT, then it can wait till tomorrow or till you feel better.
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Well, dahling, that’s my secret to being the best game-facer in the land. I hope that this little post helps you in your game facing endeavors and that the next time you get sick and have to adult things – that you can at least look like a badass when you’re doing it. (Not that I think you’re not already because I think you are the bee’s knees.)
Do you have any tips for game facing when you don’t feel well? Share it with me in the comments below, pretty please?
