Having a fresh facial piercing and maintaining your daily office makeup routine are challenges that most aftercare guidebooks don’t address. Most pieces of information you’ll find online cover how to keep it clean and what to use when it’s painful, or talk about signs of infection. These instructions are important too. But they don’t tell you the dos and don’ts when you’re standing in front of your mirror holding a foundation brush, getting ready for a wedding or Eid.
Our expert piercers and aftercare guides say that you can keep wearing makeup, but with some conditions. Bonus point, people with belly piercings have a version of the same problem with clothing rather than cosmetics, and we’ll get to that, too.
There are clear guidelines for which cosmetics can be used on freshly pierced areas, and you should know about them instead of making guesses. So here’s everything you need to know.
The First Two Weeks Need Extra Care
A freshly pierced site is a wound that is meant to stay open and gradually form a channel. This process in the early weeks is fragile and can restart even with the slightest discomfort. So anything that introduces bacteria, oil, dust mixture, or powders needs to be avoided.
If your jewellery constantly gets stuck to clothing and gets snagged, it can irritate the area too. Likewise, friction or any habits like sleeping on it that put pressure can lead to complications. This includes forming the stubborn bumps we all dread. These delay healing, and sometimes you might even have to take the jewellery out completely.
But this sensitive phase doesn’t restrict you from putting makeup on. You just need to be careful about what you’re putting and how close you’re putting it to the piercing.
The Products That Cause the Most Problems
Make-Up Setting Sprays: This is the one product that easily slips from people’s minds because it feels like spraying water. But they forget that you apply them to your entire face and that the mist can seep into every corner. This includes directly onto a nostril or lip piercing, or whichever facial piercing you have.
Either skip the setting spray for the first few weeks or hold a clean tissue over the pierced area before you spray.
Full-coverage foundations: Heavy or silicone-based foundations are a no-no for newly pierced parts. They can either go into or sit over the channel that’s forming. Also, these are sticky and trap bacteria, which slows down healing by not letting the skin breathe properly.
If you really need something to cover acne marks or any pigmentation, you can opt for spot concealing instead of doing the full base.
Powder products: these fly everywhere and get into the piercing site pretty easily. Loose makeup setting products, or powdery ones like blush or contour that are typically applied with a fluffy brush, cause the most fallout. Since they’re used across the face, areas like nose or cheek piercings are the most affected.
These are much harder to control than liquid products, which could be applied with precision, so it’s better to avoid them completely.
Waterproof cosmetics: the stickiness and stubbornness of these formulas are a problem, not because of their waterproofness, but because of how you remove them. Getting them off requires rubbing, which causes friction and sometimes can even reverse the healing process.
How to Avoid Facial Piercing Areas While Applying Makeup
A small brush or your fingers give you enough control to stay away from the piercing site. A damp beauty sponge doesn’t. So it’s better to use your hands, especially for cream or liquid cosmetics.
Secondly, stay a centimetre or more away from the jewellery and work in light layers rather than trying to get heavy coverage in one pass near the area. This way, you don’t risk applying too much makeup that reaches the affected area.
Around a nostril piercing specifically, applying foundation from the centre of the face outward and stopping short of the piercing lets you get your coverage without products touching the pierced site.
These are some tips that might not feel important enough to follow, but trust us, they really do make a big difference in how painful or smooth healing is.
How to Gently Take Makeup Off
Makeup wipes are not the right thing to use around a healing piercing. The aggressive rubbing and the chemicals in most wipes are irritating to healing tissue. Yet some people still use them because they are not aware of their effects.
A much better option is fragrance-free micellar water or a gentle cleansing oil used softly around the piercing, not on it.
After the makeup is off, rinse with clean water and do your regular saline aftercare or use our STUDEX® Advanced 2-IN-1 Piercing Cleanser, Aftercare Lotion. After making the area go through the trouble of chemicals in makeup, aftercare is mandatory.
The Belly Piercing Problem Is About Clothes and Makeup
A belly piercing during healing usually doesn’t get exposed to makeup. But for some people who use foundation, creams, or that sort of stuff on the navel area, the previous tips apply too.
Now we’ll address the more common problem of inconvenient clothes.
High-waisted jeans, culottes, pencil trousers and if you’re a bride, heavy lehengas all of them sit right where the piercing is. They press against the jewellery constantly throughout the day. The repeated compressions and friction are how bumps usually form. And once they do, they can take months to go away.
Low-rise cuts are the best solution, and wearing waistbands below the navel. Opt for loose fabrics that don’t grip the belly area, unlike denim or stiff fabrics. If you wear belts at the natural waist, set them aside for a few months because the buckle and the pressure of the strap are both harmful.
Then What’s Fine to Use?
Mineral-based products, fragrance-free formulas, and non-comedogenic water-based foundations are ideal choices when searching for piercing near me aftercare tips. Tinted moisturisers and lightweight BB creams, which are easier to control than thick foundation and tend to contain fewer ingredients, are better at not causing problems. Mascara, eyeliner, and brow products are all fine as normal unless the piercing is in the eyebrow or bridge area, in which case the same logic applies.
Conclusion
If you haven’t gotten a facial or belly piercing yet, this gives you a clear idea of the cosmetics you will have to avoid and what you should expect. Many people assume makeup has to be completely avoided, but that’s just a myth. A fresh piercing doesn’t mean you’d have to give up on makeup. The only thing that changes is being more picky about it.
Finding a place to get a facial piercing, like getting a cheek or eyebrow pierced? If you are, our studio is your trusted stop. Contact us today and book your appointment.
