To hide a hickey, use color-correcting makeup (green for red, peach/orange for purple/blue) then concealer, set with powder, and blend well, or wear clothing like turtlenecks or scarves; for healing, try cold/warm compresses or Arnica cream, notes Health.com, Teen Vogue, Fancii & Co., wikiHow, and Cleveland Clinic Health Essentials, Reddit.
Try an arnica cream on your hickey once a day until the swelling and bruising subsides. Dabbing the Visine liquid on your bruise once or twice a day will help make your hickey less obvious. The easiest (and fastest) way to hide a hickey is with your favourite concealer or foundation. Use a lighter shade than your skin.
Crush up an aspirin and rub it on the hickey. Also, take a hair comb (like a wide tooth one) and rake it across the bruise. Both will diffuse the bruise and make it seem less obvious.
Neutralize the Discoloration
Use a green color corrector for red undertones or a peach corrector for purple tones. Lightly dab it on the hickey and blend out the edges to balance the skin tone before applying foundation.
Teeth aren't needed to cause a hickey — suction alone will do it — but you can mix in a bit of light biting and nibbling here if your partner is interested in that. After about 20 to 30 seconds of uninterrupted suction, you're likely to have visible hickey results within the next few minutes.
For the first 48 hours after getting the hickies, avoid activities that may increase swelling, such as hot showers, hot tubs, hot packs, or alcoholic beverages. Protect the area from further “trauma.” Gently massage the hickey to increase blood flow and relieve pain. Be careful not to rub the area if it hurts too much.
According to makeup artist Ivy Boyd, you want to use a color corrector and concealer to hide a hickey. A fresh hickey has red and/or purple undertones, so apply a green corrector to red areas and a yellow corrector to purple areas. Then, use a concealer that matches your skin tone and set with powder.
“Any abrasive treatment of the skin like scrubbing with toothpaste or trying to scratch off the discoloration would be too superficial to impact the hickey. And it could even make the problem more apparent with scratches, bleeding, additional discoloration and scar formation.”
Like other bruises, hickeys can take anywhere from 3 days to 2 weeks to go away. Hickeys are superficial bruises, which means they are on the surface of your skin. These types of bruises usually don't take as long to heal as deeper bruises like black eyes.
Other Ways to Treat a Hickey
Cold brings down swelling, but heat helps the body break down the damaged cells in the bruise and remove them. Should you massage a hickey? Some people recommend massaging your hickey with a chapstick or lipstick cap, or even a toothbrush to stimulate blood flow.
Cold compress
Dr. Maria Robinson, a board-certified dermatologist and GoodRx contributor, recommends applying ice wrapped in a towel to a hickey for 15 minutes several times on the first day you notice it. “The best thing you can do is to apply something cold to the area as quickly as possible.
Beyond pulse dye laser, Zeichner says that topical creams like Arnica or Vitamin K are your best bet for a speedy recovery. Plus, Zeichner says if the skin barrier is disrupted and the hickey becomes dry or itchy, you can also apply Vaseline petroleum jelly to protect the skin from infection and keep the wound clean.
While makeup can potentially help reduce the visibility of a hickey, it's important to note that the effectiveness of coverage depends on various factors, including the severity and age of the hickey.
Conceal your hickey with makeup
Try green if your hickey is red, or a peach-y yellow (for light to medium skin) or bright orange (for tan to deep skin) for purple hickeys. Then, blend your go-to concealer formula on clean, dry skin with a brush and lock it all in with a quick dust of setting powder.
8 Simple Ways To Get Rid of a Hickey Fast
In private they're fine; if you're in public, especially at work, it's considered polite to conceal them. Or just have your partner make them in concealed locations.
Best Excuses to Use to Explain Away a Hickey
A hickey is sometimes used to mark someone as being the target of a partner's romantic affection or as belonging to them.
Find any coin (it is advised that you disinfect this as it will be touching your skin) Using two fingers, pull the skin on either side of your hickey to stretch it out. Now, making use of the edge of the coin, you will need to scrape the surface of the hickey, moving from the centre of the hickey outwards.
Do hickeys hurt? If your partner gives you a hickey, the area might be a little sore for the first day or two afterward. You might also experience a tiny bit of swelling. You shouldn't have any serious pain or swelling, though.