Love Bites - How to get rid of hickeys!

Ok, so we all know that hickeys are the result of an overzealous set of lips suction-cupping themselves to an area of skin and sucking until surface blood vessels break. Hickeys can cause lots of trouble in relationships if "earned" by someone else than your partner, they can remind you of a beautiful night of love and pleasure, be a mark of pride for Cassanovas, or just be very annoying!

The easiest way to hide hickeys is using pump tongs making them bigger and pretending it was an "accident" on a different kind of job... But seriously how do you get rid of all that blood trapped right beneath the skin's surface?

A study of German dermatologists showed that the fastest way to heal big bruises is using a heparin salve. For smaller ones if you catch the hickey soon enough, you can minimize the mark by immediately applying ice.

Surface stimulation will help disperse the blood. Gently rub and massage the area. Using a comb or a hairbrush to massage the area works better than fingers and hands. Using any tubular object with a domed end works, too, apply steady pressure over the hickey and twist. It will hurt, but it will help. Lipstick caps, pen caps, and blistex caps work.

The goal is to work the blood deeper into the skin. Rubbing vitamin K into the area, applying a warm, moist, used tea-bag as a hot compress works well, too. Repeatedly re-wet and re-warm it as needed until the hickey disappears.

For covering up utilize turtleneck sweaters, scarves, or makeup like concealers. Using a makeup concealer with green undertones will balance out the redness of the hickey. Green is the opposite of red on the color wheel.

Of course, the best idea is just to get your hickey from the right person, your partner! Then you don´t have any trouble at all...