You might call it a hickey or kiss mark or a love bite, these marks are the signs that you got too passionate in your most intense moments! But the moment you realize you have to attend a party or meet your family members in that small family get together, these hickeys become an embarrassment. Your hickeys cure itself within five to twelve days or at the most, two weeks, just like other bruises because hickeys themselves are a form of bruise. You get hickeys when the capillaries or the small blood vessels underneath your skin get ruptured. This damage to the blood vessels is due to biting or sucking hard on soft skin like the skin of your neck or arms. Blood oozes out of the broken blood vessels and clot underneath skin. Your skin there first becomes red and then turns dark purple and brown as the blood dries out under your skin. The faster you act after you get a hickey, the more are the chances to cure hickeys fast and make it disappear within a day or two. Here are some natural remedies to get rid of hickeys faster.
How to Cure Hickeys Fast
1. Ice it to Cure Hickeys Fast
Just like you would do with any other bruise, do it with hickeys too. Apply ice, or icy cold compress, to your hickeys as soon as you notice them. Placing ice on hickeys would heal them faster and also reduce the swelling, if any. Ice makes the blood vessels constrict and thus it restricts initial blood flow to the injured area allowing recirculation of the blood in the area. When you prevent clotting of blood, you prevent hickeys from leaving darker marks on your skin. However, never use ice directly on your skin, it may give you an ice burn. Here is how to use ice on your hickeys.
Get this
- Ice
- Clean towel
Do this:
- Wrap the ice in the towel.
- Place this ice compress on your hickeys and hold it there for few minutes or as long as you can.
- Do this for 15-20 minutes.
- Repeat this process every hour after you notice the hickeys on the very first day.
2. Use Chilled Spoon to Cure Hickeys
If you can’t find ice or you don’t want to use ice on your hickeys, simply chill a spoon by keeping it in the deep freezer for few minutes and hold it against your hickey. It will work as good as an ice compress would. Just remember that your spoon has to be made of metal which can become really cold. It works like ice by constricting blood vessels and preventing blood clotting. Here’s how you can cool down the spoon and use it on your hickeys.
Get this:
- Metal spoon, preferably stainless steel spoon- 1
- Ice or chilled water- 1 bowl full
Do this:
- Place the spoon in deep freezer for 15-20 minutes.
- Take out the chilled spoon and place it against your hickey.
- Hold it there in a way that you feel the coldness with pressure on your hickey.
- When the spoon gets warmer, which it will, within a few minutes due to your body warmth, place it into the ice filled or chilled water filled bowl for few seconds. It will again become cold.
- Now place the spoon again on your hickey and hold it tight.
- Repeat the process for at least 15 minutes every hour.
3. Massage the Area to Get Rid of Hickeys
You need to prevent blood from clotting under your skin so that you don’t get those dark areas. For this, in turn, you need to allow blood to circulate away from the damaged vessels. Massage is one of the good ways to do this. When you massage the area having hickey, you help decoagulate the blood clots so that they can be re-absorbed into the bloodstream. The blood will get dispersed as you stimulate the area through massaging and this will lighten the skin there.
Do this:
- Place two of your fingers onto the area where you have got hickeys. Don’t exert too much of pressure though.
- Now gently rub the area with these two fingers in circular motions.
- Do this for about a minute.
- Then start rubbing in one direction instead of circular motions.
- Do this again for a minute.
- Now again change the direction of rubbing your fingers.
- Keep on doing this by changing direction of rubbing every minute.
- This helps dispersing blood towards wherever it can be.
- You can do this for 5-6 minutes.
- Repeat the process several times a day.
4. Peppermint Oil to Cure Hickeys
If you have peppermint oil at home, nothing like this to cure hickeys. From among many benefits of peppermint oil, one is its stimulating effect on blood circulation which prevents clotting and thus save you from having dark colored marks on your skin due to bruises like hickeys. Take a few drops of peppermint oil and apply this to your hickey injured area 4-5 times a day. However, if it is due to biting and there is a broken skin anywhere around your hickeys, do not apply peppermint oil. When you apply peppermint oil, you will feel a tingling effect which goes away in a few seconds. However, if you don’t like this sensation, dilute your oil and apply as given below.
Get this:
- Peppermint essential oil- 3 drops
- Lavender essential oil- 3 drops
- Sweet almond oil- 6 tsp (2 tbsp)
- Gauze or bandage
Do this:
- Mix all the oils.
- Apply a little on your hickeys.
- Wrap it up with gauze or bandage. Don’t make it too tight though.
- Repeat this 4-5 times a day.
Peppermint oil not only helps circulate blood to prevent clotting and coloring of skin but also reduce swelling while lavender oil relieves pain.
5. Arnica Salve to Cure Hickeys
Arnica salve has been traditionally used to cure sore muscles, bruises, sprains, strains etc. and you may use it well for hickeys too! While arnica herb is popularly used to make a homeopathic cream and gel which is widely used for topical pain relief, it can actually get you rid of hickeys due to its blood circulation stimulating properties. This herb is said to increase circulation by stimulating the activity of white blood cells. This in turn, decreases the amount of time required to heal an injury along with curing inflammation. You can make your arnica salve for hickeys right at home. And yes, do not start making this salve after you get hickeys. It is more effective when applied as soon as possible after getting a hickey. Although, you can’t predict whether and when are you going to get hickey, you can always make and store arnica salve for even general uses like for bruises, sore muscles etc.
[Don’t Miss: How to Get Rid of Bruises Fast]
How to Make Arnica Salve to Cure Hickeys?
Get this:
- Coconut Oil – 2 cups
- Dried arnica montana flowers- 12 tbsp (about ¾ cup)
- Beeswax granules – ½ cup
- Peppermint essential oil- ¼ tsp
- Lavender essential oil- ¼ tsp
- Double boiler or crock pot
- Cheesecloth
- Mason jar
- Bowl
- Whisk
Do this:
- Add dried arnica flowers to the coconut oil.
- Place the mixture in double boiler and keep the stove on lowest setting. If using crock pot, use warm setting. Don’t let it get hot, you just need to keep it warm.
- Let the herb infuse in coconut oil on low heat for 12-24 hours. You may stir it in between whenever possible. However, you need to keep the herbs submerged into the oil.
- After 12-24 hours, turn off the heat and let the infused oil cool down for only an hour. You have to ensure that the coconut oil doesn’t gets solidified upon cooling.
- After letting it to cool down a little, using the cheesecloth, strain the oil and pour it into a jar or bowl.
- Now again place the filtered oil into the double boiler and set the heat on low.
- Add the beeswax to this oil and whisk continuously till it gets melted.
- When the beeswax melts, turn off the heat and allow the mixture to cool down for about 30-40 minutes.
- Add the essential oils to this and stir well.
- Pour the salve into your choice of container to store.
- Take some of this arnica salve out of the container to apply to your hickeys 2-3 times a day.
6. Warm Compress for Hickey
One of the previous remedies for hickeys, when used just after getting a hickey, will sure get you rid of hickeys. However, if your hickey doesn’t go away even after 48 hours, you may then try warm compress on it. Remember, never use warm compress initially on hickeys. It has to be used later on, at least after 2 days from when you get a hickey because blood keeps on coming out till many hours after your skin is injured. Once the blood stops spreading around your injury, in this case, hickey, applying heat may help. Heat will then dilate blood vessels and speed up the process of dispersing blood away from the bruised area. Try to apply wet warm compress as the moisture helps wick the heat beneath your skin.
Get this:
- Hot water
- Washcloth
Do this:
- Soak the washcloth into warm water.
- Take the wet hot cloth and wring out the excess water.
- Now place this warm cloth on the damaged skin area and hold it against your skin there for about 3-5 minutes.
- Repeat thrice a day.
7. Coco Butter to Cure Hickeys
Cocoa butter, also called theobroma oil or theobroma cacao, is a vegetable fat which is extracted from the cocoa bean. It is an excellent natural moisturizer which is considered ideal for skin due to its benefits that come from its cocoa mass polyphenol. Oleic, stearic, and palmitic acids as well as vitamins A, B1, B2, B3, C, and E present in coco butter makes it not only an ideal moisturizer but also a great healing agent for skin including bruised skin. It is so effective that it is used effectively for the treatment of skin conditions like eczema and dermatitis too.
Do this:
- After you apply a warm compress to your hickeys, take some cocoa butter.
- Apply this butter to your damaged skin area.
- Massage the area gently for 3-5 minutes helping the blood clots break. This will also stimulate blood circulation.
- Repeat 4-5 times a day.
8. Apply Aloe Vera Gel to Cure Hickeys
Aloe gel has long been used to soothe skin and to heal bruises, minor cuts and burns including sunburns. The good news is that you can use aloe vera gel to cure hickeys too, even those that have broken upper skin resulting from love bites. The healing properties of aloe vera gel not only repair the broken blood vessels underneath your skin but also protect your skin by creating a moist barrier on your wounded outer skin. It provides just the right conditions for your hickey bruise to repair itself quickly.
How to Apply Aloe Vera Gel on Hickeys?
- You may either get pure aloe vera gel from a health store or get a fresh aloe leaf.
- If using store bought aloe vera gel, apply it directly on your hickeys 3-4 times or even more during the day.
- If using an aloe leaf, cut a slice from it.
- Using a knife, cut open the sides of the leaf slice.
- The pure natural aloe gel would be there under the leaf’s skin.
- Using your finger or a spoon, take out this gel.
- Apply it directly on your hickeys.
- Store the rest in a small container and place it in the refrigerator to use later on. However, finish it within a day or two. Don’t use it after that.
- Apply aloe gel several times a day to assist faster healing of hickeys.
9. Use Witch hazel to Cure Hickeys
Witch hazel has many properties that go to make it a good remedy for hickeys too. The tannins present in witch hazel help tighten skin proteins. This in turn makes a protecting covering which speeds up healing and also stops bleeding. So, if you have got a love bite along with outer lesion, witch hazel is the remedy for you. Its anti-inflammatory properties will also ensure that your hickeys get cured fast.
Ways to Use Witch Hazel for Hickeys
- Soak a cloth in witch hazel tea. Place this on your hickeys several times a day.
- You may also mix witch hazel with your arnica salve and apply this to your hickeys.
- If you have wounds too on your kiss marks, add some rubbing alcohol to witch hazel and apply this to your hickeys.
- Or you may do nothing and just apply plain witch hazel to your hickeys to get all the nourishing healing properties of it undiluted.
10. Apply Vinegar to Your Hickeys
This may prove to be the best remedy for your hickeys. Vinegar is a good natural agent that may help increase your blood flow towards the surface of your skin. This may make your body capable of readsorbing some of the blood that has got pooled underneath your skin with hickeys. As you need to mix vinegar with warm water, do not use this remedy before at least 24-36 hours of getting hickeys.
Get this:
- Warm water- 1 bowl
- Vinegar- 4-5 tbsp
- Wash cloth or gauze
Do this:
- Add vinegar to the warm water.
- Soak the washcloth or gauze into this.
- Wring out the excess solution back into the bowl.
- Place this cloth onto your hickey.
- Let it be there for a minute.
- Now gently rub your hickey with this cloth for a minute.
- Again dip the cloth in the vinegar solution and repeat the process.
- Do this for 10-15 minutes.
- Repeat 2-3 times a day.
11. Pineapple to Cure Hickeys
This is a rather sweet remedy for hickey. The delicious pineapple fruit contains an enzyme known as bromelain which can help dissolve blood clots along with fading bruising. Even doctors use bromelain to treat bruises and other injuries to skin. When bromelain is applied topically, it helps reduce inflammation and pain. It also breaks down the blood proteins coagulate or clot to form the bruise, in your case, hickey. So, to speed up the process of fading away your hickeys, you may consider having pineapple or pineapple juice. Here are some more ways you can use it to cure hickeys.
Ways to Use Pineapple for Hickeys
- Rub pineapple pieces gently on your hickeys.
- Soak a cotton ball in pineapple juice and apply this to hickeys several times a day.
- Take bromelain health supplement under the guidance of your doctor.
12. Parsley for Hickeys
Parsley is one herb which is loaded with vitamins and other nutrients that can work wonders to heal your darkened black and blue skin. It has such volatile oils as myristicin, limonene, eugenol, and alpha-thujene. Parsley also contains flavonoids like apiin, apigenin, crisoeriol, and luteolin. These components not only cure swelling but also prevent further damage to your blood vessels. Vitamin C also goes to help reduce blood clotting.
How to use Parsley for Hickeys?
- Take some parsley and crush it to get a paste like consistency.
- Apply this to your hickeys.
- You may use an adhesive bandage to hold it in place.
- Replace the paste after an hour or so.
- Keep doing this till you get rid of black and blue skin.
13. Foods and Supplements to Speed up healing of Hickeys
Food is the ultimate savior from anything, including hickeys. There are some foods rich in vitamin K and C that they may help you in different ways to heal hickeys. Then there are enzymes like papain and bromelain that too have healing effects on your hickeys. Here are some foods that you may use to speed up the healing of your hickeys.
- Foods rich in Vitamin K- These foods make blood more viscous and thus less likely to leak from blood vessels. Vitamin K is present in cabbage, spinach, kale.
- Foods rich in Vitamin C- Vitamin C helps repair skin as it is essential to synthesize collagen. Have oranges and other citrus fruits, guava, papaya, all rich in Vitamin C.
- Foods rich in Papain- papain is an enzyme present in papaya. It helps break up the dead materials that cause bruises including hickeys.
- Pycnogenol- Pycnogenol is made from the bark of pine trees and is considered an antioxidant. It is composed of proanthocyanidins and red pigments that help strengthen capillaries, arteries and veins and thus prevent bruising. Consult your doctor about taking this supplement.
- Bilberry extract- This extract contains anthocyanosides, yet another antioxidant that helps reduce and eventually eliminate bruising, even due to hickeys. It stabilizes collagen which increases vitamin C levels in body cells and thus strengthens your capillaries. Consult your doctor or a medical herbalist about taking bilberry extract for hickeys.
These were the top remedies for hickeys. Some of them might work for you and others might not. Find out the one that works best for your skin and get rid of hickeys fast.
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