Here's why wearing makeup on flights may not be the best thing for your skin

With countless celebrities sharing not only barefaced selfies from flights but complete in-air skincare routines, the skin-savvy are aware that makeup on flights, long-haul ones or not, is a bad idea. But does it really have such troubling effects on our complexions? Let us elaborate...

Revered cosmetic doctor and one of London’s favourite face-fixers, Dr Frances Prenna Jones told a leading news and entertainment portal, “It is not 100% the make-up that is the problem… it is more the combination of factors that occur when we get on an aeroplane.”

Explaining further, she said, “The change in atmospheric pressure and the air conditioning effect our toll receptors within our sebaceous glands that dictate the amount of secretions we do or do not produce.” This means we lose moisture from the skin – hence the dehydration we all feel on flights. “Our skin is then dry and so we naturally apply moisture on top,” Dr Prenna Jones continued. “This, plus the make-up that often has a heavy talc-like content, then blocks our sebaceous glands, increasing the probability of a breakout,” she said. So, in an attempt to quench our thirsty skin, we could be in-turn causing congestion – thanks to the make-up.

Also, once we add the consumption of salty food and alcohol into the mix, plus the potential of sleeping in our makeup, all of this enhances the risk of irritation. How do we go about looking after our skin then? To that, she replied saying, "My recommendations are that if we wear makeup to get on the plane, we should wash our faces as soon as possible once on, and apply a product containing hyaluronic acid that can be rehydrated with a face mist and anti-pollutant to keep hydration up during the flight."

So now the next time you travel, make sure you follow all these tips!