14 Shortcuts for Everyday Tasks

Dry Your Tears

“I stick my head in the freezer for a couple of seconds after I cut onions,” says Todd Ginsberg, a chef at Manhattan's Alain Ducasse Restaurant, at the Essex House. Cold air stops the tears and reduces redness and puffiness by constricting blood vessels, explains ophthalmologist Marguerite B. McDonald, a professor at the Tulane University School of Medicine, in New Orleans. If you’re not in the kitchen, try dabbing―not rubbing―away the wetness. Then use an over-the-counter eye whitener to get the red out, or disguise it with blue eyeliner. “Draw a line on the inner lower rims of your eyes,” McDonald says. “Blue will make your eyes look whiter.”