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Introduction & History
Healing, therapeutic and zen-like, isn’t that the first thing that comes to mind when one thinks of a face massage? Well, as customised Skincare regimes continue to remain popular, essential techniques for face massage have been always an add-on to enhance your skin. The origin of face massage dates back to ancient Chinese culture. However, Ayurvedic facial massage has also been instrumental in naturally transforming the skin cells and giving them a better definition.
Ayurvedic Medicine teaches us how our lifestyle, emotional and physical stresses often lead to imbalances and blockages in both our body and skin. This is why Ayurvedic facial massage also known as ‘Mukha Abhyanga’ is designed to stimulate the right pressure points on the face that in turn helps relax the facial muscles and rejuvenate the facial skin.
Although hand massage has been the oldest form of Ayurvedic facial massage, there are many more enriching techniques like the Marma Therapy, Gua Sha and Face Rollers that equally contribute to enhancing the impact of facial massage. Moreover, carrying out these DIY and at-home face massages for men and women is extremely easy and just needs a few minutes each day. However, it is important to understand the face massage benefits before you begin incorporating it into your skincare routine.
Benefits of Face Massage
As an extension of your daily skincare routine, a short facial massage can accentuate your facial skin to a great extent. Although it is advisable to do a quick skin massage at least 2-3 times a week, investing 5 minutes every day for an at-home face massage benefits your skin with immense reparative properties like –
- Increased blood circulation – Light movement and strokes of skin massage around the face help relieve the tension in skin cells while creating a surge of blood and oxygen flow to your skin. This deflates the skin puffiness, evens out the skin tone, helps detoxify the skin and improves collagen production and cell growth.
- Lymphatic drainage – The lymphatic system is responsible for carrying white blood cells throughout the body, clearing away toxins. Face massage stimulates the movement of lymph fluid, which in turn supports the skin’s natural cleansing processes and eases the swelling in your tissues.
- Deep penetration of serums or face massage cream – Massaging gently on the face in an upward and lifting movement also helps with deep penetration and absorption of skincare products. This helps with intense nourishment and transformation of the skin while also giving you a relaxing self-care time.
- Firms and Tones – Stress and busy lives often take a toll on the skin and start to reflect on the face in the form of fine lines and wrinkles. Regular face massage with a lifting movement especially around the neck, and jawline areas helps tighten and tone the skin thus reducing the fine lines and wrinkles.
Although our hands are an easy tool to use for an Ayurvedic facial massage, some facial tools are specially designed to give immense benefits that hands alone cannot provide. For example, Gua sha or a Jade roller is a way ahead and offers the perfect solution to hug all facial contours. Here’s a Step by Step guide to each of these so you can choose your ideal skin massage and ensure your face is healthy, glowing and well-toned.
How To Do Facial Massage At Home
1. Start with gentle exfoliation
Our skin goes through a lot of dirt and damage during the week and it is essential to gently exfoliate to remove all impurities from the skin. Wash your face well with a gentle facewash and lukewarm water and pat dry. Gently begin the exfoliation process by gently hand massaging in circular motions but make sure you are not harsh on the skin. It is important to choose the right product as per your skin type and we recommend going with a natural exfoliator. The Forest Essentials Deeply Nourishing Facial Cleansing Paste Almond, Pistachio & Honey is an excellent exfoliator that deeply cleanses and nourishes your skin and is best for normal to dry skin.`
2. Moisturise your skin
Once done, move on to moisturise your skin with emollient skin cream. acts as the base to start the skin massage but when one is looking to incorporate a heavy face massage routine, we highly recommend going with a rich and nourishing day cream that is best suited for your skin type. The Forest Essentials Soundarya Radiance Cream With 24K Gold SPF25 is an excellent face cream that blends precious natural herbs with 24k Gold. Its Ayurvedic ingredients like Pure Cow Ghee and Saffron help deeply moisturise the skin, increase skin elasticity and smoothen the fine lines. If you choose to do this face massage at night, the Forest Essentials’ Tejasvi Brightening Emulsion is a great pre-massage cream that can be used.
2. Do a gentle hand massage
Hand massage is one of the oldest forms of face massage and is a great way to relieve stress in the face muscles and relax them through a soft motion. Using hand movements helps improve blood circulation, reduce puffiness, help with lymphatic drainage and soften ageing lines and wrinkles.
To begin your face massage, you can start using your index and middle finger to move in a circular motion from your forehead to your temples to your cheek. Gently roll your fingers through the face including the area around your eye. Next, using your finger apply mild pressure from your chin towards your cheekbone muscle in an upward motion. For lymphatic drainage, you can start massaging from below your earlobe, going in a downward motion following your neck to your collarbone.
You can massage in a unidirectional motion, and repeat each step 3-5 times. This simple hand-skin massage can be incorporated into your morning, evening, or bedtime skincare routine for about 5- 10 min to feel more relaxed and calm.
3. Use facial tools like gua-sha or face rollers.
For deeper penetration and firming and lifting effect, you can follow up a quick hand massage with a gua sha or a face roller. These East Asian stones have gained immense popularity in recent times and are an excellent tool to sculpt your face in order to relax stiff muscles while relieving pain and tension as well as improving blood circulation. Just like the hand face massage, this is a quick way to do a DIY face massage at home. However, in this case, it is essential to understand the right strokes and pressure to follow
FAQs:
Is it ok to massage your face every day?
Yes, of course! In fact, it is great if you can do a face massage every day for 5 minutes. This helps repair and detoxify the skin. Ensure you use a good day or night cream before starting your skin massage. We recommend using the Forest Essentials’ Tejasvi Brightening Emulsion as a pre-massage cream.
Can face massage change your face?
Face massage does not completely change your face. However, it does help sculpt the face and tone it. Face massage benefits the skin by helping from sagging, and improving skin elasticity.
Which face massage is best?
It really depends on each person. There are many types and techniques for skin massage. however, using facial tools definitely helps improve the effectiveness of the facial massage on your skin. Gua Sha and face rollers are great tools to do a quick DIY face massage at home.
Does face massage have side effects?
Although every skin type is different, mostly face massage does not have any major side effects. However, if you do notice redness and irritation on the skin, stop the massage and apply ice to your face to help it cool down. If the problem still continues, visit a dermatologist to treat it well.
Should I wash my face after a face massage?
You can wash your face with cold water so it helps reduce redness if any and cool your skin from the massage. If you cannot bear cold water, you can go for lukewarm water but avoid hot water.
References:
https://eminenceorganics.com/ca/blog/2019/09/12/how-do-spa-level-facial-massage-home
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/treatments/21768-lymphatic-drainage-massage
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/324518#how-to-perform
https://www.glamour.com/story/gua-sha-jade-roller-how-to-use
