Stay Fresh and Bright at Your Next Conference

Health & Wellbeing

Conferences and residential training can play havoc with your routine, and for some of us they are stressful. The air-conditioned travel and conference atmosphere, the different food, and socialising between sessions and all evening can take their toll.

It’s likely you will experience shorter nights and sleep less well. By the time you get home,  you may feel sluggish at best, exhausted at worst.

Air conditioning, coffee, alcohol and fatigue will all dehydrate your skin. Dehydrated skin appears dull, taut, perhaps flaky and reddened. If this sounds familiar, you may notice that make-up doesn’t sit so well and feels yucky.

Regardless, you are there to learn, network and look sharp! So here are some strategies I’ve found to help me stay fresh.

• Prepare your wardrobe

Get organised with your clothes. When you pack, plan your outfits for every day and evening, and iron and hang everything up on arrival. With that job out of the way, you’ll be able to walk, do a few stretches or catch nano-naps between the daytime and evening sessions.

• Drink water

Ensure you drink lots of water – from when you leave home until you return. It will hydrate you and your skin, and keep your brain alert. At the same time, it’s a good idea to keep your coffee and alcohol intake down (it’s boring, I know).

• Act ‘fresh’

Fresh fruit, fresh air, and freshen-up with sleep. It’s as easy as buying and eating some fresh fruit, going for short walks in the fresh air, and getting to bed at a reasonable time. (You’re expected to network, but there’s no need to take out the party-goer’s award.)

• Fresh skin

Dealing with dehydration is the big one:

• Pack a gentle mask exfoliator and use it as a cleanser in the shower.
• Remove your make-up every night to give your skin the chance to breathe.
• Apply a Vitamin B and C serum, as a minimum, every morning and evening – the Vitamin C will brighten your skin, and the Vitamin B helps to keep the pH balance of the surface of your skin. If you have skin that is prone to stress breakouts, the Vitamin B is essential.
• If your skin was dehydrated before you left home, add a growth-factor serum or stem-cell serum to your regime.
• Lastly your moisturiser. Take a richer one, or take two and mix them together. A moisturiser containing growth factors will help your skin fresh all day.
• An SPF is still essential too – even though you might only see daylight during your fresh-air walk, UVAs are in the air everywhere.

Good luck at your next conference, I hope you enjoy the knowledge, the networking as well as your skin.