Treated as carnal baggage, hickeys are the result of bruising from biting or sucking on someone’s skin. It’s a common mark of passion in school corridors, but by the time we reach career age, hickeys become nothing but a nuisance that needs to be covered with layers of concealer and clothing.
Discover our latest podcast
But, now that it’s summer, high neck tops and scarves just aren’t suitable for hiding the evidence of your sneaky link, so here’s our advice on how to get rid of your hickey ASAP.
The first and probably most important thing to note is that hickeys are bruises and damaged capillaries, and they take time to heal, which means even the best cures may take a few days. In the meantime, stock up on a ton of colour correcting concealer and pray nobody notices.
1. Apply a cold spoon to the area
This trick is best used as soon as you notice the hickey and will help shrink the blood vessels and stop the blood from seeping into the skin. All you need to do is freeze a clean spoon for ten minutes and then firmly old it to the hickey. You may also need to repeat this a few times throughout the day.
2. Use eye drops on your hickey
Dab eye drops such as Visine or Clear Eyes onto your hickey with a cotton pad at least once or twice a day. Like a cold spoon compress, eye drops work to constrict the blood vessels that are giving your skin that red pigment, making them less noticeable.
3. Whip out that arnica cream or aloe vera
Chances are you may have a tub of this classic bruise treatment lying around in your medicine cabinet. Arnica cream won’t hide your hickey, but the powers of this flowering herb will help it heal faster.
If you don’t have any arnica cream on hand, try using aloe vera instead! Thanks to its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, aloe can also help speed up your hickey’s healing process. And, your aloe leftovers will be great for relieving sunburns - which is a bonus for the summer.
4. Use a warm compress
If your hickey has been hanging about for a few days and isn’t showing signs of fading out, then you may need to switch to using a heat compress. Using a warm washcloth or a wheat bag can help bring circulation back to the area to get the healing process moving again.
5. Rub a banana peel on your hickey
This one may seem a little strange but hear us out, bananas are full of antioxidants that can help calm inflammation and promote skin healing. Just like arnica cream and aloe vera, banana peels won’t be an instant cure for your hickeys but they’re worth a shot if anything.
6. Use a vitamin C cream
Using orange juice on your hickey has long been a rumoured hickey cure due to the collagen-boosting properties of vitamin C. However, if it’s vitamin C you’re after to get rid of your hickey, it’s best to use a vitamin C cream or serum instead of wasting your OJ.
What about the toothbrush or peppermint hacks?
If this isn’t your first time perusing the internet for hickey cures you may have come across the toothbrush or the coin scraping hack, that claim to ‘break up’ the hickey and disperse the blood under the skin. But, we’re here to tell you that these hacks won’t work. In fact, the harsh scraping and scrubbing may even irritate the skin and make your hickey even worse.
The same goes for any peppermint oil or toothpaste hacks. The idea is that applying peppermint oil to your hickey can help stimulate circulation. But, when misused, essential oils can cause stinging and irritation which won’t do anything to help your bruise and can leave the skin more sensitive and damaged than before.
