The age-old practice of face massage can give your face a youthful, healthy glow by stimulating blood and lymph flow in the face, thereby increasing nutrient and oxygen delivery to the skin and boosting its detoxification processes.
Facial massage can also help relax tight facial muscles alleviating any negative effects (wrinkles or asymmetricities) created by muscle tension.
Despite the well-known benefits, getting regular facial massages may feel like something time-consuming and expensive, but it does not have to be.
To save both time and money, learn a simple face massage sequence yourself and incorporate it into something you are already doing.
Taking a shower can be the perfect time to spend a few minutes massaging your face. The warm and steamy environment will enhance your experience and help you get better results.
The massage sequence given below was created by esteemed UK facialist Abigail James. It is designed to achieve lifting and rejuvenating effects and takes about 5 minutes to complete.
It is important to lubricate your skin before starting the massage to ensure your fingers and knuckles glide smoothly across your face.
Any plant-based oil can be used as a lubricant. Jojoba, almond, avocado, and sesame are all great choices. Keeping a small bottle of your favorite oil in the shower can make the process more convenient and serve as a reminder.
🟢 Start with cleaning your face with your preferred cleanser.
🟢 Put a small amount of the oil – somewhere between ½ and 1 teaspoon – in your palms, then spread it all over your face, down your neck, and around your decollete.
🟢 Stimulate the lymphatic flow with wide strokes of your palm covering the side and some of the front of your neck. Move your palm several times from the area under your ear down to the shoulder and back up on each side. Apply more pressure on the way down.
🟢 Do a bit of pumping with both hands in the area above the collar bone to encourage lymph drainage.
🟢 Place your thumbs under your chin so your chin is in between your thumbs and index fingers. Then push your hands out from the center of your jaw contour all the way to your ears several times. Keep your index fingers straight and let them slide over and massage your cheeks from your nose to your ears as you do this movement.
🟢 Follow the same path from you chin to your ears, but this time pinch along the jaw line with your hands held in relaxed fists. Use the knuckles of all the fingers on the top and your thumbs on the bottom, under the jawbone. This movement should feel like kneading.
🟢 Massage your cheeks with your fingers in big circular motions, increasing the pressure during the upward part of the circles.
🟢 Make small circles all around your mouth.
🟢 Make upward movements with your palms from you chin to just under your eyes along the central parts of your cheeks next to your nose, where the nasolabial lines tend to form.
🟢 Push your knuckles from your jaw upwards over your cheeks. Prop your cheeks up with your fists, hold for a few seconds, then move your knuckles toward your ears. Do it a few times.
🟢 Quickly and repeatedly, slide both your palms, one after another, up your cheek on one side starting from under the jaw and ending at the eye level. Make your palms follow each other in quick succession. Cover all of the cheek area, then repeat on the other side.
🟢 Slide firmly upwards along the midline of your face: from under the corners of your mouth, along the nasolabial area, then along the sides of your nose, continue upwards through the area between your brows, and to the top of your forehead. Finish by moving to the sides and sliding down to where you started. Repeat several times.
🟢 Drain the area under the eyes by sliding you palms from the sides of your nose horizontally and a bit upwards to your temples.
🟢 Lift the brows with your fingers, hold for a couple of seconds, then circle down around the outer eye corner.
🟢 Switch between the last two moves a few times.
🟢 With the fingers of both hands opposing each other, do vertical criss-cross movement close to the outer corners of your eyes, in the area where small wrinkles (crow feet) tend to form.
🟢 Go up and down vertically (in a zig zag motion) across your forehead, then do the same horizontally. Include the area between your brows.
🟢 Work through the hairline massaging it in very small circular movements.
🟢 Applying firm pressure, push up with upward strokes from your brows to the hairline.
🟢 Applying firm pressure, push up with upward strokes from the jaw line to the area under your eyes and up the temples.
🟢 Slide firmly from the centre of your face to your temples – repeat on different levels of the face – the forehead, the cheeks, and the jawline.
🟢 Slide your palms from the jawline down the neck, ending above the clavicles.
🟢 Finish with pumping with both hands in the area above the collar bones to encourage lymph drainage.
Make sure that you don’t use too much oil, so it would not end up on your shower floor and make it slippery – you don’t want to fall.
If you face feels too oily when you get out of the shower, gently wipe it with a warm wet towel and then rinse with cold water for some extra glow boost.
Do this massage at least twice a week for the best results.