A facial massage might sound like a luxury, but if you think that it’s an occasional treat that only your beautician can do for you, allow us to share with you some insider information that will persuade you otherwise.
With some easy-to-follow tips and great skincare from The Natural Beauty Pot, you can enjoy some at-home facial massage, every day.
Facial massage is actually much easier to do than you might think, and adding it into your daily routine (even if just for a couple of minutes) can be extremely beneficial for your skin.
Here’s just a few of the benefits that regular facial massage can bring:
- Promotes lymphatic drainage
- Reduces puffiness and fluid retention
- Reduces tension and stress
- Increases and improves circulation
- Eases sinus pressure
- Allows deeper penetration (and therefore higher efficacy) of skincare
Our lymphatic system drains away toxins and reduces puffiness and congestion, but it can sometimes become stagnant in our facial muscles. Massage is a great way to give it a helping hand, as it encourages the lymphatic flow to kickstart and get to work. It also works to give your circulation a boost, promoting cell renewal and reducing dullness in the complexion, giving you back a gorgeous natural glow.
As you’ll probably already know, massage on any part of the body reduces stress and tension – and your face is no different. If you find yourself clenching your jaw out of stress, you’ll find that facial massage can really ease the tension and the aches that this can cause, loosening the jaw and helping you to feel more relaxed.
Massaging the face can also help improve the muscle tone, and help prevent skin from sagging – think of it as a facial workout!
With all of these benefits literally at your fingertips, we encourage you to give facial massage a go. You don’t even have to make it a separate step in your regime; you can incorporate it into your regular cleansing routine or when moisturising. Just remember to use a product with plenty of slip, like an oil cleanser/balm or facial oil, to avoid dragging your skin as you massage it.
Here’s our step-by-step guide:
Forehead: Use your fingertips to make small circles on your forehead, working across the skin. As a guide, always stroke in an upward motion – we want to go in the direction that we want our skin to stay, which is not down!
Eyes: Using your ring finger (generally the weakest finger, hence least likely to pull on the skin), tap lightly around the eye, and make small circular or stroking motions above and below the eye, remembering to include the brow bone area.
Cheeks and sides of face: Again, using those upward strokes, use your entire hand to apply light pressure to these areas. Use your fingertips in a circular motion (as you did for the forehead), or try making a loose fist and using your knuckles to massage deep into the muscles along the sides of the face – this is great for lymphatic drainage.
Jawline: Use long, upward strokes from the bottom of the neck, up to your jawline to create movement and improve circulation. Around the lower edges of your face, try pinching the skin in a gentle motion to encourage definition in this area.
Will you be trying these facial massage techniques? Let us know how you get on!