I’ve done the long haul between Ireland and Thailand more times than I’d like to admit. Family visits, the odd work trip, and the occasional “we’ll just pop home for Christmas” that turns into a three-flight odyssey.
The flights never really bother me. The face I arrive with does.
Flying east doesn’t help. The CDC says eastward travel is the harder direction for the body clock, which adjusts at about 1 hour per day. With six or seven time zones between Dublin and Bangkok, that’s most of a week of waking at odd hours.
So this time I paid attention. Hour by hour, mirror by mirror, from Dublin’s departure gates to Suvarnabhumi arrivals. Consider this a field report from someone who has, frankly, looked better.
Hour Zero: Dublin Airport, Looking Almost Human
At the gate in Dublin, I’m fine. Rested-ish. A full Irish breakfast in me and a coffee in hand.
This is the version of my face I’d like to keep.
But I know what’s coming. The air on board an aircraft sits at around 20% humidity, compared with 40 to 60% in a typical office. That’s bone dry, and the UK’s aviation regulator says it’s not unusual for skin, lips and eyes to feel drier after a flight.
The thinnest skin on the face goes first. That means the eyes and the lips. Every single time.
The Eye Creams And Lip Balms I Packed This Time
In past years, my in-flight routine was a bottle of water and a hopeful attitude. It didn’t work.
This trip, I actually packed a small kit. A proper skincare routine sounds fussy for a grumbly travel blogger, I know. But the eye creams and lip balms from Comfort Zone’s eye and lip cream range earned their spot in the carry-on.
Here’s what went in the bag:
- A depuffing eye cream. Comfort Zone’s Hydramemory Depuff Eye Cream is made for exactly the kind of puffy, tired eyes a red-eye produces.
- Hydrogel eye patches. Their Sublime Skin Eye Patches are made with peptides and pitched as an immediate pick-me-up for tired eyes. Ideal for the final hour before landing.
- A caffeine eye cream. The Skin Regimen Lx Caffeine Eye Cream, for the morning after, when the dark circles arrive.
- A plumping lip balm. Applied often, because cabin air is relentless on lips.
- An SPF stick for the sensitive bits. The Sun Soul stick, for Bangkok, which is a different kind of trouble.
Everything fit into one clear pouch, which matters when you’re juggling liquids rules at two airports.
Hours 1 To 7: The Dry Air Gets To Work
Somewhere over Europe, the first signs show up. Lips feel tight. Eyes feel gritty.
I did the classic mistakes on earlier trips. A couple of glasses of wine with dinner, then coffee to stay awake for a film. Both make it worse, according to that same regulator, especially for dry eyes.
This time, it was water, lip balm every hour or so, and a thin layer of eye cream before trying to sleep. Not glamorous. Surprisingly effective.
The Layover Mirror
Every long-haul route from Ireland to Bangkok includes that moment. You stumble off the first flight, find the nearest bathroom, and catch sight of yourself under airport lighting.
It’s never kind.
Science backs up what the mirror shows. In a sleep deprivation study published in the journal Sleep, people deprived of sleep were rated as having hanging eyelids, more swollen eyes, darker circles and paler skin. The sleep-deprived faces in that study had been awake for 31 hours. A Dublin to Bangkok trip gets uncomfortably close.
So the layover became maintenance time. Splash of water, eye cream, fresh lip balm. Two minutes, and I looked a little less like an extra in a zombie film.
Hour 14: Suvarnabhumi Arrivals
Landing in Bangkok always feels like a reward. The warm air hits the moment you leave the aircraft, and suddenly the dryness of the cabin is replaced with something else entirely.
Before landing, I used the eye patches. I’ll be honest, I felt a bit daft lying there with two gel crescents under my eyes. But the face that walked through immigration was noticeably less puffy than usual.
The lips needed one more coat. Then I was off to find a taxi and a bowl of noodles.
Day One In Bangkok: Heat Meets Jet Lag
This is where things get tricky. Bangkok is hot, humid and very sunny for most of the year. Your skin goes from desert to sauna in a single day.
Lips get sunburned faster than you’d think. The American Academy of Dermatology’s lip care advice recommends a lip balm with SPF 30 or higher before heading outdoors, reapplied about every two hours. It also suggests skipping products that sting or burn, and avoiding the urge to lick dry lips.
Then there’s the jet lag I mentioned earlier. A week of waking before dawn and fading by mid-afternoon is not a recipe for bright eyes.
Which, of course, shows up on your face. Mostly around the eyes.
What Actually Helped (And What Didn’t)
After all that, here’s my honest scorecard.
Helped:
- Applying lip balm far more often than felt necessary
- Eye cream before sleeping on the plane, and again on landing
- Eye patches in the final hour before arrival
- Water instead of a second glass of wine
- Morning daylight in Bangkok to help reset the body clock
Didn’t help:
- Trying to “power through” without sleep
- Wine, coffee, then more coffee
- Forgetting SPF on day one
None of this is complicated. It just takes a bit more effort than I was ever willing to give on previous trips.
Last Minute Musings
I’ll never look like those travelers who step off a long-haul flight looking freshly rested. That’s just not me.
But I’ve learned that the face I arrive with is at least partly within my control. A small kit, a few habits and a little discipline with the wine trolley make a real difference.
Next time someone asks how I survive the trip home, I’ll tell them the truth. Lots of water, plenty of lip balm and a decent eye cream. And a very large coffee on arrival in Bangkok.