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Soft touch: The benefits of facial massage
Want younger-looking skin? Here's the rub: Facial massage can firm, smooth and sculpt.
By Malena Harbers
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Other products come with tools to assist with your technique. The Eye Concentrate from La Mer is applied with a silver-tipped wand to help massage away dark circles and puffiness. "The applicator is key for seeing results," says Paul Tchinnis, director of research and development for Max Huber Research Labs. "It helps move pooled blood out of the area, and the metal's cooling effect increases micro-circulation. It's much smoother than your finger and gentler on delicate under-eye skin." Giorgio Armani's Crema Nera comes with a polished black obsidian stone that is designed to touch the face in vertical movements. Depending on whether you preheat it in hot water or cool it down in the freezer, it can relax or revive the skin.
Upper hand
"The whole idea behind dynamic wrinkles - those caused by facial movement - is that when your muscles contract in the same direction, it causes wrinkles," says Dr. Jody Alpert Levine, a New York-based dermatologist. "I use Botox to get rid of and prevent wrinkles because it relaxes muscles and stops wrinkles from forming. Massage also relaxes facial muscles, though the effects are more subtle than with Botox." It helps decrease puffiness as well. "If you move the muscles and skin on your face, it increases blood flow, which brings oxygen and nutrients to the area," she says. "As [the lymph] flows away from the skin and back to the heart, it is, essentially, decongesting the skin."
Most experts say that massage is good for your skin at any age - but its benefits are most visible after 40. "This is the beginning of the slackening of the skin," says Marie-Hélène Gaudinat, scientific and medical communications manager for L'Oréal Paris. "When you're young, your skin tissue is very strong. But over time, it becomes more susceptible to gravity due to the breakdown of collagen and elastin fibres that hold all the layers of muscle, fat and skin together." Regular massage can help keep these layers in place. "Muscles relax and circulation increases, which not only creates that youthful glow but also helps key ingredients in serums, oils and creams penetrate the skin more easily," she says. L'Oréal's latest offering, Collagen Remodeler, comes with DIY instructions for massaging in two collagen-boosting ingredients; combining the product with the daily application technique actually holds off the aging process in the long term, says Gaudinat. "It sends biological messages to increase production of collagen and elastin."
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