“I burned myself with my curling iron.” These are especially good excuses for when you have a hickey on your neck. “I was straightening my hair and burned my neck with the flat iron.” “I was waxing and made the wax way too hot.” “I left a heating pad on for too long and it actually left a mark.”
A hickey is a dark red or purple mark on your skin caused by intense suction. Like other bruises, it should fade in about 2 weeks.
The green-tinted concealer is the best as it negates the red tones of the skin. Apply a foundation that's a little lighter than your skin tone, directly on the hickey (love bite) and all around it. The idea is to even out the skin tone. You can also dust a little translucent powder to hide it further.
Hickeys are like friendship bracelets - juvenile and a little bit childish. While they are great and maybe even significant when you're a kid/teenager, they tend to lose their appeal the older you get.
There's never any reason to shame someone for having a hickey mark — like all forms of consensual sexual behavior, you don't have to justify someone making out with your neck — but the paradox of the hickey is that it takes something private and creates a public, lingering effect.
The neck may be the most popular spot, but you can technically give a hickey to any area of sensitive skin. For a less visible and more intimate mark, try giving her a hickey on the top of her breast or the inside of her upper thigh.
The toothpaste method to treat a hickey
The toothpaste method works as follows: Apply a layer of toothpaste or peppermint oil directly to your hickey, the area will start to tingle. When the tingling stops, remove the excess oil or toothpaste with a clean wet cloth.
Apply warm compresses to your hickey
Your best bet is to treat your hickey with good old-fashioned warm compresses. “Warm compresses can help open up your body's blood vessels and break down the stain, taking away the red blood cells that have spilled out from the blood vessels and into your skin,” Dr. Vij explains.
"It's not the hickey itself that's making you aroused, it's the act of kissing that's causing the arousal," Dr. Jaber says. For some people, it can feel good to get kissed on the neck. The neck is full of nerve-endings, which can make a kiss there a lot more pleasurable.
Alternatively, possessive types may use love bites as a mark of possession to show everyone else you are taken. In which case you should take that as a red flag. For others it's a show of affection. Simply a regular part of a passionate kissing session.
Check for a bruise on the neck or shoulder area.
Most hickeys happen on the exposed skin above the collarbone. Those areas are kind of hard to bruise by accident, so a hickey is usually the culprit. People with hickeys usually cover them up by wearing scarves or turtlenecks.
Do hickeys hurt? If your partner gives you a hickey, the area might be a little sore for the first day or two afterward. You might also experience a tiny bit of swelling. You shouldn't have any serious pain or swelling, though.
Etymology. The origin of the word is from its earlier meaning of "pimple, skin lesion" ( c. 1915); perhaps a sense extension and spelling variation from the earlier word meaning "small gadget, device; any unspecified object" which has an unknown origin (1909).
Usually, neck areas are popular spots for giving a hickey, which is fine if your partner has long hair. You can also consider other spots like the crook of the elbow or the inner thigh. To give your partner a hickey, make an O with your lips and press them firmly on your partner's skin.
If a guy wants to give you a hickey, it could mean that he is attracted to you and that he wants to show his affection for you in a physical way. A hickey is a mark left on the skin when someone sucks on it with their mouth, and it is often seen as a sign of passion and affection.
“Hickeys are like marking territory. They represent an intimate thing that happened and make me feel like a caveman,” he said. “The adrenaline and dopamine rush from that alone is enough to get me going.” It's easy to get carried away, but consent and communication are still important.
Because a hickey is a type of bruise, some basic first aid principles can help reduce the appearance of a hickey if a person acts quickly. Applying a cold compress or ice pack to the affected area for 15–20 minutes can stop any bleeding, reduce swelling, and help the healing process.
Try a color corrector with red or orange undertones. Scibelli recommends a salmon tone if you have fairer skin, and a mango color if you have darker skin.
The green-tinted concealer is the best as it negates the red tones of the skin. Apply a foundation that's a little lighter than your skin tone, directly on the hickey (love bite) and all around it. The idea is to even out the skin tone. You can also dust a little translucent powder to hide it further.