How to Cure Hickies

A hickey or "love bite" is the end result of tiny blood vessels rupturing just beneath the skin due to excessive sucking of the skin. This can cause a discoloring of the skin, typically seen on the neck area. A hickey can take up to five days to disappear, but there are a few things you can do to try to minimize the visibility of the hickey. Unfortunately, there is little scientific evidence confirming that these practices work reliably.

Things You'll Need

• Ice
• Lipstick Cap
• Coin

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Instructions

Curing a Hickey

• 1

  Apply ice to the area of the hickey as soon as possible after the blood vessels have ruptured. Hold the ice in place for at least five minutes.

• 2

  Apply pressure to the hickey by using a lipstick cap or a pen cap and twist into the skin. This will help push the pooled blood deeper into the skin and away from the surface where it is visible. This may hurt a bit but it is reportedly an effective cure for an unsightly hickey.

• 3

  Scrape the skin with a coin. This may be a rather painful way to remove a hickey. Stretch the skin around the hickey and scrape with the coin, but do not scrape so hard that you break the skin. This method pushes excess blood away from the surface of the skin where it is visible. The area may be red from the scraping but the redness will go away and will be less noticeable than a hickey.

• 4

  Conceal the hickey with makeup. Use a cosmetic foundation that approximately matches your skin tone. Cover the area completely so the hickey is not as visible.

• 5

  Wear a turtleneck shirt or sweater to conceal a hickey located on the neck.