Expert In-Flight Beauty Tips from a Top Makeup Artist

When Fathom's Stephanie March isn't traveling the world or filming a television show, she's working at Rouge, the New York City beauty salon she recently launched with makeup artist Rebecca Perkins. It took one quick visit for it to become our absolute favorite place to get pretty. So of course we couldn't finish travel beauty week without asking the Rouge ladies how to primp on a plane.

30,000 FEET ABOVE NEBRASKA – My partner, Rebecca Perkins, and I opened a makeup salon last December called Rouge — think Drybar, but for cosmetics. Rebecca, who was in charge of the makeup department at Law & Order: SVU, has long been my beauty guru. I was on the show for years, which means I got to know her very well in all kinds of situations and stress levels. In addition to work, we also share a love for travel. And because Rebecca is such an accomplished traveler, she understands that products need to do double duty and last all day.

The other day, on a flight from NYC to Portland, I had to dash from airport to meeting with no time to stop at the hotel to freshen up. I asked her for foolproof tips for in-flight skin care and on-arrival freshening up. Only instead of just following her advice (as I always do) in the airplane bathroom, I add an element of difficulty: I did it in my seat. As my selfies hopefully show, her advice really is foolproof.

BEFORE YOU GO

1. If you are seriously committed to keeping your look chic, the day before a big trip, definitely make an appointment to have your lashes tinted so that you don't have to worry about mascara smudge if you are headed somewhere tropical/beachy.

2. Why not have a blow-out too? But tell them to go easy on the product. A fresh, no-product blow-out will last longer.

Mirror, cleanser, lip balm, mist, moisturizer. That's all you need! Sugar and oil not shown, but you know what they look like.

DAY OF

3. Planes are notoriously dehydrating, so you want to make sure you are pounding the water (sorry, aisle seatmate! stretching legs and hydration is key!) and moisturizing your skin.

4. To prep at home, do a good exfoliation and cleansing. DIY with a mix of pure cane sugar and coconut oil or grapeseed oil. If you have sensitive/oily skin, use sugar and Cetaphil. Then layer on your regular moisturizer and a good lip balm and you are plane-ready. The combo of the glycolic acid in the sugar and the dissolving grain and then the moisturizer does the best double duty chemical and physical exfoliation.

THROUGHOUT THE FLIGHT

5. Pack your TSA-approved 3-ounce bottle of mist and, whenever the mood strikes you, use it to hydrate your skin. Ask your seatmate if s/he would like a spritz!

6. Moisturize! I can't say it often enough.

BEFORE LANDING

7. Take a final bathroom break. Examine your hydrated, glowy skin, the skin that your fellow passengers are jealous of.

8. Add a touch of tinted moisturizer, mascara (if you didn't do the pre-tinting), and a moisturizing lip color dabbed on to lips and cheeks.

Gorgeous! You are more than presentable for whomever is picking you up at the airport, for the meeting you are dashing to, for the dinner you'll soon be enjoying.

GET PRETTY

For a total Rebecca Perkins-style primping, go to the salon in SoHo.
Rouge
130 Thompson Street
New York, NY 10012
+1-212-388-1717

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE

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