As we get older our skin becomes less tight and elastic as it was during our prime. It is an inevitable process that often results in a few wrinkles here and there – a dread to many but nevertheless beautiful. Even though we are bombarded with anti-aging creams on all fronts, it is important to remember that no one can stop the appearance of wrinkles, you can just make them less prominent and smaller.

We should face facts – not every solution for wrinkles will come in a small but handy packaging that will cost you a fortune. Sure, you can splurge on an expensive cream now and then, but it is more important to remember that there are remedies that will not cost you a dime which will still work and can even be healthier for your skin.

Benefits of Facial Massage

Over the past few years, face massages have become increasingly popular, and with a good reason. Not only are they quite inexpensive (free if you do them yourself), but also much more natural and healthy for the skin. Using harsh chemicals on your face will definitely harm your skin even if it appears to look “better” and simply using your hands to massage your face will cause you no harm and will also give you the best results as well.

Facial massage stimulates the circulation of the blood towards the skin, it helps in the prevention of fine lines and new wrinkle formation, while at the same time helps in tightening the skin and making it nice and elastic again. Facial massages are also quite effective when it comes to getting rid of a puffy face as they stimulate all the blood vessels and facial muscles.

How to Do a Face Massage?

Now that we’ve established that facial massage does help with wrinkles, let’s move on to different techniques you can use and find the one that works best for you. It is important to remember that all of these massages should be done with clean hands and on a cleansed face as to avoid further skin complications.

Circular massage can be done in the comfort of your home and it only requires a few products. As always, start with a cleansed face and use moisturizer or coconut oil as your massage oil. However, if you have acne prone skin, try to avoid using oils to prevent breakouts. Massage your face for about twenty minutes, using gentle circular motions. Try to aim for the areas that get the most wrinkles such as the mouth area, cheeks, and the forehead.

Patting massage is a little more “complicated” but also quite fun to do. You should stand in a position where your feet are shoulder-width apart and lean forward slightly. Then pat your face lightly with the bottom side of your fingers for about twenty seconds to wake the skin up and make it nice, glowing, and tight again.

Aimed massage is performed on a certain part of your face that you want to de-wrinkle. Put your fingertips at one end of the area and press down firmly. Rub your fingers over the wrinkles for at least one minute.

The Chinese massage is also a variety of an aimed massage but with a set of rules. According to the ancient Chinese traditions, you should massage your face with your finger using light strokes. The space between your eyebrows, between your nose and upper lip, on the corners of your lips, under your eyes, and on your chin, should be massaged counter clockwise and the area above your eyebrows should be massaged lightly by dragging the finger towards your ears.

Chin massage is also very popular and important since the space under our jawline gives out one’s age most of the time. Place your thumbs under your shin and gently massage back and up. This is also a good way to get rid of a double chin!

When Should You Do a Facial Massage?

One of the most common questions regarding skin massages is when to do it? Although you can absolutely do these massage whenever you feel like it, most of the skin care professionals recommend doing this before going to sleep. One of the reasons for this is that during nighttime, when we are asleep, our faces relax, so massaging your face before bedtime can aid with wrinkle elimination quite a bit.

However, whenever you feel like it, you can do it! Just make sure you only massage your clean face with clean fingers and use a proper lubricant such as moisturizer or oil. Also, be wary of the ingredients in those moisturizers and make sure you are not allergic to any of them. Most importantly, it is always better to use natural products, so simple coconut oil or one of the homemade treatments can do miracles while avoiding the chemicals that most of the commercially produced products have.

If your skin is sensitive and does not react the way you want to the massage, maybe opt for massaging only once or twice a week instead of every day. Daily stimulation is not comfortable to everybody, so knowing your skin is definitely a must when it comes to anti-aging massage. Last but not least, remember that no matter how many wrinkles you have you are still beautiful and those wrinkles just show that your life has been a good ride and that you are still alive and kicking.