Alcohol effects on skin: what a glass of wine does to your face

SKIN CONCERNS

What does alcohol do to the skin on your face?

Alcohol changes the skin on your face on three timescales: within minutes through blood flow, overnight through sleep and fluid balance, and over the years if you drink heavily on a regular basis. You see the first straight away, because the fine blood vessels in your cheeks, nose and neck widen and more blood flows through the skin. The second shows up in the mirror the next morning: swollen eyelids, a dull complexion, skin that feels tight. The third is quiet and can only be observed in larger studies, not after a single evening. To put this in perspective: almost everything you see the next morning is temporary. One glass of wine does not give you a wrinkle. An evening with little sleep, salty food and several glasses, on the other hand, certainly shows – but usually only for a day. Factors with similar effects, such as too little sleep, smoking or constant stress, often occur together and are rarely easy to separate from alcohol in everyday life.

Why does your face go red after a glass of wine?

Your face goes red after a glass of wine because alcohol and its breakdown product acetaldehyde widen the blood vessels in the skin. The face has a particularly large number of fine blood vessels close to the surface, which is why the effect shows there first. How strongly it shows varies a great deal from person to person. A paper in PLOS Medicine describes what is known as the alcohol flushing response: it is caused by an inherited deficiency of the enzyme aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (ALDH2), which breaks down acetaldehyde. According to the authors, around 36 per cent of people from Japan, China and Korea show this reaction. They estimate the number of people worldwide with this enzyme deficiency at no fewer than 540 million, roughly 8 per cent of the world’s population. Besides redness, the response includes nausea and a racing heart, partly driven by a release of histamine. Whether histamine or sulphites in the wine itself play a major role is often debated, but the evidence for it is thin.

If you flush strongly after just a few sips, or the redness has still not faded by the next day, have it checked by a dermatologist. Other possible triggers are covered in the article on facial redness and what skincare can do. Persistent redness with small bumps or a burning sensation can also point to rosacea; there is more on this in rosacea skincare and when to see a dermatologist.

Why does your face look puffy and dull the morning after?

Your face looks puffy and dull the morning after because several things come together: fluid shifts into the tissue, the blood vessels are still widened, and the night was less restful than it felt. When you lie down, fluid tends to collect in the loose tissue around the eyes, and salty food late in the evening makes this worse. A large survey in the Journal of Clinical and Aesthetic Dermatology involving 3,267 women found that even moderate drinking was linked to more pronounced puffiness under the eyes. The participants rated their own faces, so this is not proof of cause and effect, but it is a pointer that matches everyday experience.

The dull, tired complexion has a lot to do with sleep. A review in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research states that, at all doses studied, alcohol helps you fall asleep faster, makes the first half of the night more settled and disturbs the second half more. So you fall asleep quickly but still wake up less rested. Puffiness and dullness usually fade over the course of the day, and no cream measurably speeds that up.

Does alcohol dry out your skin?

Drinking alcohol dries out your skin less than is often claimed. It does have a diuretic effect, but at normal amounts the effect is small and short-lived. In a randomised study in the journal Nutrients, 20 older men each drank 30 grams of alcohol as beer, wine or spirits, or the same amount of the alcohol-free version. Wine and spirits increased urine output in the first four hours, but over 24 hours there was no longer any measurable difference. Beer made no difference at all. The authors describe the diuretic effect as small and short-lived. If your skin still feels tight the next morning, there are usually other reasons: dry indoor air, too little or restless sleep, and an evening routine that simply got skipped after a long night. The tight feeling is then more a sign of water loss in the outermost layer of skin than of dry skin in the true sense. The difference between the two is explained in the article on dehydrated skin and how it differs from dry skin. You do not need any extra skincare products because of it.

Does drinking alcohol regularly make your skin age faster?

In studies, regular and especially heavy drinking is linked to more visible signs of ageing, but nothing can be concluded from this about the occasional glass. In the survey of 3,267 women from the US, Canada, the UK and Australia mentioned above, heavy drinking, defined as eight or more drinks a week, was associated with more pronounced lines in the upper face, puffiness under the eyes, downturned corners of the mouth, loss of volume in the mid-face and visible thread veins. Moderate drinking was only linked to puffiness under the eyes and loss of volume in the mid-face. The women reported both their faces and how much they drank themselves, so the study shows associations, not causes.

A second example concerns the blood vessels. In a cohort study in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology involving 82,737 women from the Nurses’ Health Study II, the risk of rosacea diagnosed by a doctor rose with the amount of alcohol. At 30 grams of alcohol a day or more, the risk was a good half higher than in women who never drank (hazard ratio 1.53). This, too, is an observed association. For context: UV light remains the biggest external influence on skin ageing; you can read more in how to slow down skin ageing. Smoking and a lot of sugar are also discussed, but they are topics of their own.

How should you care for your skin the night and morning after one glass too many?

After one glass too many, you care for your skin exactly as you would on any other day – you just do not skip the routine. That evening, your skin does not need a rescue mask, an exfoliant or an extra active ingredient, but a short routine you can still manage when you are tired. Reddened skin tends to react more sensitively to fragrance, rubbing and too many products, so the rule is: less, and more gently.

1. In the evening, remove your make-up if you are wearing any, then cleanse your face with lukewarm water, not hot.
2. Gently massage in a serum with humectants, from the centre of your face outwards, without rubbing.
3. Apply a cream on top that supports the skin barrier. If your skin is dry, you can use a little more.
4. In the morning, follow the same routine, then apply sunscreen separately, because neither serum nor cream contains any.
5. For the puffy feeling, cool water helps as a home remedy, without really making the swelling go down any faster.

That is exactly how The Duo of The Essential and The Shield is meant to be used: The Essential, with niacinamide and hyaluronic acid in three molecular sizes, provides moisture, and The Shield, with ceramide NP and squalane, supports the skin barrier. Both are fragrance-free and contain no ethanol or Alcohol Denat.; they do contain the skin-conditioning fatty alcohol Cetearyl Alcohol. This will not help with flushing, swelling or redness caused by alcohol, but it can help your skin look calmer and suppler in the morning.

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