‘Office air’ is ruining your makeup and seriously messing with your skin

There’s nothing worse than achieving the perfect makeup look, only for it to melt off your face mere hours later.

I can’t count the number of times I’ve stepped onto the Tube sporting impeccable glam only to arrive at my final destination blotchy, greasy, and severely peeved.

But it’s not just public transport that’s jeopardising our appearance. Several corporate workers have taken to social media to complain that ‘office air’ is making them look haggard and drained.

Breakouts, dry skin, eye bags, dark circles, and greasy hair — all symptoms that employees are blaming on this dreaded curse, and according to an expert, they’re on to something.

The rat race has already stolen our sanity; must it steal our beauty too?

What is office air?

TikTok creator and corporate employee Noa Donlan first started posting about ‘office air’ back in February, using the hashtag #officeairsurvivor.

In a video with more than 70,000 views, she posed the following question to her followers: ‘What feels like a cold but goes away when you leave the office?’

She continues: ‘You feel fine at home. You walk into the office. Suddenly, you’re dry, congested, dehydrated, and questioning everything. But then, side effects disappear immediately upon leaving the building?

‘If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. Office spaces tend to be drier, dustier, and have less circulation. You’re not going crazy — it’s just your environment’.

Testing her theory for her audience, Noa then filmed herself in the office at 9 am, checking back in at midday.

‘I leave the house feeling fine, and by 12 pm my skin is dry, my eyes look tired, and my hair is oily,’ she shared.

Many people felt incredibly seen by Noa’s observations, lamenting in the comment section about the plights of ‘office air’, with one user saying: ‘I thought I was the only one! It destroys my skin’.

Another frustrated employee wrote: ‘It makes my hair and face so oily and greasy, I don’t understand’, while one simply added: ‘I’m allergic to work’.

Why does ‘office air’ ruin our skin?

Whether you work for a small start-up or a ginormous conglomerate, Emma Coleman, dermatology nurse practitioner, tells Metro that ‘drier, duller, or more reactive skin’ is the inevitable downfall of office life.

Emma, who is also the founder of her own skin clinic, explains that although ‘office air theory’ is a recent term, in dermatology, they’ve long recognised that indoor environments can affect skin health.

‘Many people who work in an office notice their skin becomes drier, duller, or more reactive during the working week and improves at home.

‘This is usually due to factors like air conditioning, low humidity, and recycled air. Prolonged time in office settings can leave skin feeling dehydrated and tight by the end of the day’.

Even fluorescent lighting can contribute to low-level oxidative stress over time.

Emma explains that air conditioning or heating not only draws moisture out of the air but also from the skin.

This, she says, causes dehydration, which can trigger excess oil production, leading to makeup slipping and breakouts.

And if you’ve ever worked in an office building, you’ll know firsthand how poor the ventilation tends to be, leaving your skin exposed to pollutants, contributing to irritation and congestion, which can make issues such as acne or eczema worse.

Similarly, Emma adds that ‘dehydration can happen within hours in low-humidity environments, which is why skin often looks dull or feels tight by mid-afternoon’.

One of the first visible signs that your skin is suffering is makeup separation. After days or weeks of repeated exposure, this is then often followed by breakouts and congestion.

Oh, and to make matters even better, ‘office air’ might actually be ageing us quicker.

Emma notes that increased skin temperature has been associated with office workers. This can lead to increased breakdown of collagen and elastin and accelerated skin degeneration and ageing.

Great news…

How can you combat this?

If you’ve got a big night ahead of you, or a hot date on the horizon, Emma encourages corporate baddies to focus on ‘hydration and barrier support’ to keep their skin plump and radiant.

‘Use a moisturiser with ingredients like hyaluronic acid or ceramides, and if you can, reapply a light layer of moisturiser or spray some facial mist later in the day.

‘Blotting papers can help control excess oil without disrupting makeup, and remember that a daily layer of SPF is still important’.

So, keep your work desk stocked and your skin hydrated. We can’t let the office air win.

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