There’s this recipe I love, and I hesitate to even mention what it is, because it is SO awful for you. It involves ramen noodles. And eggs. And lots and lots of butter frying. (Okay, the eggs and butter are okay, but the ramen packages … PACKED with sodium and probably MSG.)
.
The day after I eat this stuff, it’s like someone shoved a spigot in my face and filled it with air.
Needless to say, between this and allergies, I’ve spent some quality time depuffing. Here are the 5 most effective ways I’ve found to stop looking like I just woke up – all day.
Top 5 Ways to Get Rid of a Puffy Face
Before we even get started, I want to mention the obvious. Water. Part of the reason your face gets puffy is because you’re retaining too much of it (unless you have a medical condition that causes edema). And you could be dehydrated (which causes your body to retain more water). What’s the best way to get rid of water weight? Drink more water.
So, while I’m not putting this in the top 5, it goes without saying: If you’re puffy, drink more water.
If you’ve eaten a lot of salt for dinner, up your glasses of water to at least three in the evening. The same is true for nights when you’ve had one too many glasses of wine. Drink a few cups of water after you’re finished, and it should help with the puffiness – and any accidental hangovers you may have.
So. Water. First. Now. Always.
1. Try a Coffee Mask to Reduce the Puffiness
One of the most popular recipes I’ve ever posted in this humble little blogbode is the Mocha-Frappuccino mask. The caffeine in the coffee de-puffs your face in an instant. I used it last week and then went for a walk, ran into a friend, and got the “Betty, you look so much skinnier! What have you been doing?”
The coffee mask. That was it. Because it sure as heck wasn’t the spaghetti with meat sauce I’d eaten the night before.
If you don’t have cocoa powder or plain yogurt the Mocha-Frappuccino mask calls for, don’t fear. This is easily adapted by just adding honey to finely ground coffee. Enough to make a thick paste. Smear that all over your face and leave it on for 15 minutes.
Scrub very lightly as you’re rinsing it off with warm water.
When you’re done, come back here and tell me how amazing it is.
2. Cucumbers, Of Course
My dear cat, who’s currently named Bacon, is showing us all how to use cucumbers to reduce the puffiness under your eyes. But that’s not all you can do!
Get rid of the bloat plaguing your whole face by tossing half a cucumber (washed, but unpeeled) into a blender – or just mush up pieces with your fork. You can either apply the whole cucumber mush to your face, or get a small washcloth, soak it in the juice and dab it on your face. Leave the juice (or mush) on for at least 10 minutes, then rinse and move on with your day.
3. Brew Some Green Tea (and Then Freeze It)
Some weeks ago, I posted a recipe for a blueberry-green tea ice facial. I use an ice cube twice a week (and still have a few left, even) and LOVE it. It’s seriously the quickest way to unpuff the eyes – and wake you up!
However, if you don’t want to use blueberries, it’s not a big deal. You can get the exact same depuffing action by brewing some strong green tea, filtering out the leaves or tossing the bags, and freezing them into tea cubes.
Just run an ice cube all over your puffed face in the morning (concentrating on the puffiest parts). The green tea not only helps with the swollen look, it’s high in antioxidants that are terrific for skin. It can be used by any skin type – from dry to super oily – with great benefit.
4. Break Out an Egg White
Egg whites tighten your skin like you wouldn’t believe, so they’re an excellent remedy for a bloated-appearing face. To give this treatment an extra boost, I suggest using an egg white, 1 tsp lemon juice, and 1 tsp salt. Apply this mixture to a clean face and lie down while you wait for it to dry.
As the egg white hardens, it will pull your skin in whatever direction gravity is taking it (which is, by the way, down). If you’re sitting up, it’s going to drag your cheeks down. If you’re lying back, it will pull your skin back – which helps disappear wrinkles temporarily, too.
I recommend the lemon juice and salt addition only for oily skin, as it’s pretty drying. However, if you have normal or dry skin, you can just use egg white – plain and unadulterated – in the exact same way.
5. Massage, Massage, Massage
This method uses only your digits, so it’s quick, easy, effective, and costs the same amount of money as nothing. And you can use it in conjunction with any of the other ones on the list (preferably before, as you’ll stimulate circulation, which helps your skin be “ready” for other ingredients).
How to do it? Gently. In half-moon motions (always going up, to prevent dragging your skin down) lightly massage your face with your ring and middle fingers. If it’s eye puffiness that’s bothering you the most, use only your ring finger in the under-eye area, as it’s the weakest finger and won’t be so likely to affect the delicate skin.
The Horrible-For-You Ramen Recipe
I have this sneaking suspicion that someone’s going to want this, even though I’ve already told you that it’s terrible for you and the next morning your face looks like a balloon with nose-holes.
So for those of you who have a thing for bloating, I give you:
Ramen Tasty Goodness
- 2 packages dry ramen (I like the oriental flavored kind)
- 1/2 stick butter (preferably organic, mkay?) plus 2 Tbsp
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 1 chicken breast, diced and cooked in a splash of soy sauce and sesame oil
- 1/4 c cooked peas
- 1 thinly sliced green onion
First, cook the ramen noodles (without the flavor packages) in boiling water just until they’re al dente. Strain. Next, in a big frying pan, melt the butter on medium high, adding the cooked noodles to the butter right when it finishes melting. Fry the noodles in the butter – chopping them lightly with the spatula – for approximately 5 minutes, or just until they seem to be losing their water content a little. Add the 2 Tbsp butter and eggs. Working quickly, add a package of the flavoring to the egg/ramen mix. Cook and stir until completely mixed in. Next, add the chicken, peas and second flavoring package. Stir and then add in the green onion. Continue to fry until the noodles are just a little crispy.
If it’s not salty enough for you, add a little soy sauce.
Ugh. It should be salty enough for you.
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Have you ever noticed one particular food item that makes you bloat? What is it? And why do you still eat it?
In Don’t-Stay-Puft crunch!
Your Natural Medicine Cabinet : Remedies for Cuts, Scrapes, and Burns
this blog is cool
I loved the coffee mask! I woke up after getting a good night’s sleep looking puffy. I searched the internet and found your page. The mask made my day a lot better.
Thanks!
Kristi
Thank you sooo much! I’ve been looking for remedies to de-bloat my face. I’m naturally thin, but in pictures of my shoulders and above, I always look very heavy set! And its my face giving the illusion that i’m overweight when in fact, I’m thin! I”m going to try the caffeine tonight and I’m already massaging my face lol
I just favorited this page!
the best way to enjoy Ramen noodles and make them gourmet is to not use the salt/seasoning packet in there…that’s a heart attack waiting to happen or at least use a quarter of it cuz Lord you know’s you dont need all that damn salt. a quick way to make soup with it is if you add some coconut, curry and some chicken you can make a really nice healthy thai soup…Just a thought. Egg white and lemon I would always use right before a photo shoot! Works everytime. Drinking coffee and then hitting the treadmil helps too first thing in the morning. Coffee is a diuretic just like tea you will pee like a racehorse and get rid of any excess water and after your work out you would’ve sweat out any salt and excess from the night before…After your work out drink a nice tall glass of water to replenish your water and you will see how fresh will be afterwards…,mark my words…works everytime.
Hello Betty! Would using leftover coffee grind from the morning’s pot of coffee work? Or does it need to be fresh grounds?
Hi Betty! For some reason my face has been looking andar feeling puffy andar ir really irritates me! Ir has never happened before. I hace yo say that i do exercise.a lot. I tried the drink more water approach but it doesn’t seem to do anything I conatatntyl go to the restroom and pee but my face looks the same. Please help! P.s does any kind of coffee work for the mask? Thanks!
Just tried the coffee mask and I still cannot believe how well it worked! I really needed it this morning and I am so impressed with it. This will be my go-to remedy for a puffy face now that I know how well it works! Thank you so much!
orange juice bloats my face up
i do a very similair thing with ramen except i shred cabbage and carrots. I use almost as much thinly sliced cabbage as noodles.Maked me feel not as guilty!
Drinking coffee makes me puffy. However…putting it on your face as a mask is pretty awesome.
I just got back from washing coffee grinds off my face and I wanted to say THANK YOU. After a night of extreme overeating my face was a horrifying sight this morning. I’ve heard that preparation H works well so I started with that. Then, per your suggestion, I put my coffee grinds all over my face and rested for a few minutes. I then washed them off, and exfoliated my face and WOW. My face looks completely normal! so THANK YOU : ) It’s hard to feel confident or get going in the morning when you don’t look and feel your best so thank you for helping me start my day off right!!
This is really funny because I just googled this out of the blue because i never seen my face so bloated as it was this morning. This is the first site I looked at and funny enough, I had ramen noudels last night..>!
i realy hate the way my face gets puffy.. and i knw the cause( sleeping late) but nothing works..it takes the mick especialy when your bf stays over and witnesses my horrible face :(.. i realy need somefin to work.. sure will be tryin the coffee mask fing 🙂
I used the egg white mask then the coffee mask and it actually helped. Nothing ever helps!Thank you so much for the advice
Yay! I love to hear stuff like this! Isn’t the coffee divine? I have such a hard time throwing out my used grounds now without putting it on my face (but I try to limit it to twice a week).
Glad it worked for you!
As always, great ideas! But reading your posts make me all sorts of hungry, especially when coffee, honey, or chocolate are involved. I do quite often suffer from Puffy Face, so now I know what to try!
Ha. I totally know what you mean. Every time I make that mask, I’m so tempted to put cocoa powder in my coffee. There’s no reason you couldn’t, right? I mean, it’s like making a mocha, only not with espresso. Crud. Now I have to make another pot of coffee and try it.
Anyway, YES! Try the mask. And let me know what you think!
Would any of this work on my puffy belly?
Ha. I wish. Actually, the water could work. AND, coffee actually really, really works on cellulite – so I bet a billion dollars it would work a little on the stomach area.
Hm. I am going to have to try that. Often. Putting coffee on my stomach sounds like WAY more fun than doing sit-ups.
I’ve recently been drinking at least a gallon of water a day and I’ve noticed my face is less puffy! I love the coffee mask thingy though….will try that! Also I wanted to say, yes, you are right, those ramen noodles are not the greatest things for you! Have you ever tried shirataki noodles? They’re carb and calorie free and when you cook them down, look a little bit like ramen noodles! Also, they take on the flavor of anything you season them with. I love adding Bragg’s aminos to them. If you want to know more about them, visit http://eshiratakinoodles.com
These are my new favorite food!!
Those noodles look fascinating. So they’re kinda like tofu? (At least in terms of not having taste, and taking on whatever you flavor it with.) Do they sell them in, like, Whole Foods? I MUST try some soon!
Also, you just reminded me that I have a bottle of aminos hidden in the back of my cabinet that I forgot ALL about. Time to pull them out and give them another whirl.
Would these de-puffyfiying masks work if say, someone was up half the night crying, say. If there was a major meltdown and tears were required, would these masks help then?
Dude.
For that, I recommend the red wine mask. By mask, I mean put it in your mouth.
And then you can depuff from that with one of these ideas. After drinking water.
I hate my puffy eyes! 🙁
I had to give up Grape Nuts.
Yep. Grate nuts. Not cause they made my face puffy, they made my entire middle puffy. And uncomfortable.
But I do notice that if I’m being very very good about my diet, I will notice when I eat ANYTHING high sodium – canned soup, ramen, rice with soy sauce.
Heh heh…Bacon with cucumber. I couldn’t get Nimbus to do that.
Bacon with cucumber cracked me up. And then I begged fiance to make me some bacon. He did not. Because he was leaving for work.
The cat was actually named Bacon a few weeks ago by my neighbor’s boyfriend’s 3-year-old daughter. Nobody knows why. Before that, he was Mishy-Mish, named by 3-year-old nephew. Oh, and somewhere in there he was also named Dirt. By me. Because I’m kind of like a 3-year-old.
I’m sorry to hear about the grape nuts. Have you ever tried Bragg’s liquid aminos? Robin just reminded me of them, and they taste a lot like soy sauce, but without the horrible sodium content (plus, they’re good for you).