As we head into fall, back-to-work, and back-to-school are very different for so many of us.  If you do find yourself back in the office, your new accessory is a mask.  And for so many of us, it can be hot and even a little uncomfortable at times.  

And yet as women, we want to look and feel our best.  We can all relate to wearing a great pair of shoes that we love but kill our feet and yet we still we wear them.  😏

So even though we have to cover the majority of our faces we don’t have give up looking and feeling our best.

Luckily, we had the opportunity to speak with Beauty Editor and Author of How To Look Expensive Andrea Pomerantz Lustig, to get some great tips on looking professional whether you’re in person or on camera.

According to Andrea, for most of us, we don’t think about being “camera ready” and how to get the best angle on our computer.

For zoom, she recommends to “keep the camera angle waist up—no need for a close-up! Shining a light in front of your face will help too.  You can wear makeup as usual or tone it down for the camera—expectations of what looks professional have changed, and it’s easy for too much makeup to look cakey on camera.  If you don’t want to wear work clothes, even a simple t-shirt can look professional if you don some jewelry around your neck.”

For that, how about a sterling grey or black pair of Hot Girls Pearls for the fall?  It’s a great look that goes with everything.  It will keep you cool and looking professional as well.  

But if you’re venturing out to the office, Andrea says, “spend time on your eye makeup as a way to express yourself style-wise and bring your personality out from behind the mask.  Between the mask and menopause, you could end up a hot mess makeup wise though, so stick to water proof products and cooling jewelry around your neck can only help you keep your cool and look stylish.” 

Andrea’s other great tip that we often forget about includes:

“Emphasizing your brows is another way to draw attention to expressive eyes when the rest of your face is hidden behind a mask.”

So, while we want to look our best, Matthew Levy, D.O., M. Sc. an associate professor of emergency medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine says it’s essential to stay cool when wearing a mask.

“It’s very important to be mindful of how your body feels. How someone will respond to heat stress while wearing a mask depends on a combination of the intensity of the heat, duration of exposure and any underlying medical condition.” 

He adds, “we need to be extra cognizant that masks, while important to wear for mitigating the spread of coronavirus, could make things worse for some people.”

For that, we recommend a frozen strand of Hot Girls Pearls.  Freeze for at least 4 hours in the free insulated travel pouch, and then take them with you to the office. You’ll have ready whenever you need them.  The pouch will stay cold for hours and you’ll get up to 30 minutes of cooling relief.  Simply put them back in the pouch once you feel better and re-cool them.

More about Andrea

Beauty and Style expert Andrea Pomerantz Lustig is the author of the best-selling beauty book, How To Look Expensive. 

Known around the offices of Glamour magazine as ‘The Beauty Sleuth’ for the wildly popular beauty advice column she wrote for the publication for over a decade, Andrea’s fans treasure her fresh, original beauty tips, ideas and solutions.  She was the original Glamour beauty blogger.  Previously she was the pioneer Editor-in-Chief of Sephora.com, and before that spent ten years as the Beauty and Fitness Director of Cosmopolitan magazine.  

Andrea’s book How To Look Expensive was a Washington Post Book Club pick and received rave reviews from newspapers around the country, including The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, which said about How To Look Expensive:  

“There are too many beauty books on the shelves, so the bar for actually buying one is high. This one leaps it, with room to spare.”

Andrea frequently shares beauty and style advice on TV and in the media on shows such as Dr. Oz, The Today Show, Good Day NY, Good Day LA, New York Live and E! News as well as podcasts such as Beauty Is Her Business. Her beauty tips have appeared in Glamour, Cosmo, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, WWD, Allure, The Huffington Post and countless other online outlets thanks to bloggers who interview Andrea and share her tips with their audiences regularly.  A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, Andrea is the mother of three college students and lives in New York City with her husband.