Even If You're Miserable, At Least You'll Look Fabulous
Written by: JoAnne Pearce
Forget facial peels and laser beams: all those fancy creams and potions you’ve been buying to look as dewy as an English rose in spring ain’t got nothing on a few weeks off the sauce.
If you are old enough to have seen the face melting scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark, just imagine that playing backwards to get a sense of what quitting alcohol does for your complexion.
All of that inflammation calms right down after a couple weeks, though, and soon you will start to glow. Botox ain’t got nothing on the dry life, because dry is the opposite of what your skin will be!
Now, let’s talk about your eyes. There are a few biological factors at play when it comes to how alcohol affects the appearance of your peepers. When the delicate skin under your eyes gets weakened by dehydration, it can’t properly contain all the extra fluid you are retaining, which is why you wake up with puffy eyes after a night out. Eyes also tend to get bloodshot during and after drinking, which can again be credited to dehydration and vasodilation.
Cut out the hooch and drink a little extra water, though, and your undereye skin will be tighter than a lid on a pickle jar.
You will also come to know a whiteness in your sclera (the white part of the eye) that puts all sheets and ghosts to shame.
This new shine that you’ll be carrying around won’t only be skin deep. Newly sober people tend to radiate from within. They Care Bear Stare directly out of their faces. Call it an absence of shame, an excess of new energy, or a glimmer of unearthed self-worth. There is an air of rediscovery in their manner – of seeing the world (and themselves) in new light.
Stare deep into the crystalline eyes of a newly sober person and you are likely to hear a literal *ping* as they unflinchingly shine back at you.
The effect is both unnerving and hypnotic, and can be handy in helping to gain the upper hand in a salary negotiation or staring contest.
In all seriousness, though, it should be said that real change comes from within. Cutting out drinking and doing internal work certainly isn’t all roses. Sometimes it just plain sucks! I say enjoy the perks where you can get ‘em! If that means a more lustrous physical appearance, then you should take that silver lining all the way to the bank and send selfies to your entire contact list. Go show off that shiny new mug, you deserve it!
