"It’s very easy to fall into a work-from-home slump. As exciting as it is to work at home in the early days, it’s equally easy to forget about all those perks that first excited you. One of the many advantages of working from home is the ability to spend your breaks in your own home instead of in a break room that always smells like burnt popcorn. A productive way to use those breaks is to lean on the beauty products that wouldn’t normally be a part of our work days if we worked outside of the home.
So you can get in on the fun, I’m going to walk you through the beauty products I frequently reach for during the workday to make sure I’m really taking advantage of working from home.
In my first big office job, I learned on day one how not fun it is to work in close quarters with someone who wears a heavy perfume you don’t like. I love perfume, I but stopped wearing it to the office in order to be a thoughtful coworker. Now that I work at home, I can wear as much perfume as I want. My current favorite is Krigler English Promenade 19 which also happened to be one of Audrey Hepburn’s favorite perfumes. While most days I work in my sweats, when I need to feel a little less casual, I like to enjoy a spritz or two of this luxe fragrance without having to worry about anyone else’s scent preferences.
As a daily wearer of blue light glasses, it’s about time that my skin got in on all the protective fun. This refreshing mist protects against blue light damage and serves as the perfect wakeup call when that 3 p.m. (okay also 10 a.m. and 1 p.m.) slump rolls around. I also reach for this mist when I need to refresh my makeup in between video chats. Would I feel silly misting myself multiple times a day in an office? Absolutely. Do I love doing this at home whenever I need to feel refreshed? Again, absolutely.
As a beauty writer, it’s safe to say there isn’t enough time in the day to test out every product that catches my attention. Luckily, I’ve realized that squeezing in a little extra pampering is possible when working from home. Since I type all day long, I spend countless hours looking at my own hands. Polish doesn’t last long because of that aforementioned typing, but I still want my hands to look good. Enter—Sparitual Citrus Cardamom Hand Serum—which now has a permanent spot in my desk drawer. Whenever my hands need a break from typing, I massage this serum on my hands to keep them feeling moisturized and looking good.
The one beauty upside of working in an office is that you can’t pick at your skin whenever you want. Working from home with no witnesses makes it very easy to pick at blemishes and other skin issues. That’s why I love to slap on a Disco Overnight Pimple Sticker not just at night but in the morning or afternoons when I have a breakout I can’t stop thinking about. That way, even if I’m tempted to pick, my skin is protected and the patch is working hard to get rid of the source of my fixation. Ignore the messaging that these stickers are for men, all that means is the sticker is larger than traditional ones and can suck even more gunk out of your pores. I love a multipurpose beauty solution and appreciate that these stickers heal acne and stop picking in one fell swoop.
Arguably the best part of working from home is the added privacy you get. AKA—no one will be able to tell that you’re wearing a thick overnight mask in the middle of the day. Even on a video call, this mask isn’t visible. Worst case scenario is you look a little glowier than usual—which isn’t a bad thing in my book. Why not bring out the big guns when your skin is feeling dry or like it needs some extra TLC?
Ready to up the ante? If you have no video meetings on the calendar, no one needs to know that you’re polishing off your upcoming report while also enjoying a soothing sheet mask. This vegan sheet mask is one of my new favorites. Unlike a lot of sheet masks, it doesn’t leave that sticky feeling after you take it off, and it’s really soothing after a little too much summer sun.
Have a few minutes to kill hands-free? During your next webinar or all-company meeting, turn off your camera and hit mute so you can use this handy acne zapping device. You have to hold the device on each breakout for three minutes—hence the need to be hands free—but the effort will be worth it when you watch your acne noticeably shrink after one use and heal faster in the following days.
There’s no need to rush off to a beauty appointment on your lunch break or as soon as you sign off for the day when you can bring spa services into your own home. This easy-to-use henna kit makes it possible to lightly dye your eyebrows in the comfort of your own home. You have to leave the henna on for 15-25 minutes which is the perfect amount of time to clear out your inbox.