FaceGym, the skincare brand where beauty and fitness intersect, launched a skincare line to complement its studio offering. Created by beauty expert Inge Theron, the brand started with a range of energetic facial workouts that fuse ancient massage techniques with a refreshed and modern take to lift the 40+ forgotten muscles of the face.
FaceGym’s latest release combines high-performance skincare products with tech-enabled packaging and a signature application method for a non-invasive way of lifting the face’s muscles and age confidently.
The range is presented as a “Skincare Movement” to tone, tighten and lift the face at home. Each product is formulated with bio-available trigger actives that address skin concerns at a structural level, stimulating the skin’s metabolism and promoting healthy changes from within. Divided into three steps, the PREP TRAIN and RECOVER routine includes a cleanser to tighten pores, lift impurities and replenish the complexion, a super-hydrating serum, a firming and brightening serum and a rejuvenating moisturiser, proven to reduce wrinkles and fine lines in just fourteen days. The hard-working formulas are blended into indulgent textures that promise to improve the skin and deliver visible results.
The four products also come with a first-to-market QR code attached that the customer can scan with a smartphone to unlock the matching application method. Inspired by FaceGym’s workout routines, each move complements the product’s formula to promote a more youthful and healthy face and help achieve sculpted muscles and a stronger complexion.
Affirming its relevance in both the beauty and the tech industries, FaceGym also launched a rejuvenating wearable EMS mask that sold out in just seven days, confirming the public’s renewed interest in at-home beauty devices and non-invasive ways to achieve a youthful face.
Ten effective ways to achieve youthful-looking skin at home
Achieving a youthful-looking complexion is no longer a prerogative of those who can spend hundreds of pounds on invasive, painful and time-consuming dermatologic procedures. With dedication, patience and little time, you can give yourself a facelift from the comfort of your home. The secret is a good skincare routine and facial massages.
As we age, our skin starts to lose elasticity and the production of youth-essential proteins like collagen, elastin and hyaluronic acid decreases. This depletion results in sagging skin, expression lines and wrinkles and an uneven complexion with less brightness. But following a daily regime to take care of our skin and regular working out the muscles can restore taut, toning, tightening and lifting the contours, improving evenness and luminosity. Cleaning, restoring and rejuvenating the complexion leads to healthy skin that is strong and protected against external aggressors. At the same time, facial massage stimulates blood flow and lymphatic drainage, releases tensions and shapes the face’s outline.
Let’s dive deep into the best routine to keep the skin and muscles looking strong, bright and defined:
1 – Clean and purify the complexion: the first step in all regimes, cleaning lifts impurities the skin accumulates from daily exposure to pollution, external debris and dirt, removes traces of bacteria, oil and sebum, washes of dead skin cells, regulates pore size by keeping them purified and keeps blemishes at bay. Chose a good cleanser with a pH level similar to the skin’s barrier to ensure the top layer is hydrated and strong enough to protect and ready to absorb the following products. Clean morning and night with tepid water and circular motions.
2 – Apply a good hydration serum: keeping the upper skin cells hydrated helps them function correctly to flush out toxins and carry essential nutrients to other layers. A robust upper barrier also helps retain moisture inside, rejuvenating and smoothing the complexion. Hyaluronic Acid is one of the best ingredients to add to your skincare routine at this step because it can hold up to six times its weight in water and can be found naturally in the skin, where it is responsible for keeping tissues well lubricated and moist.
3 – Apply a rejuvenating serum: depending on your skin type, it might be good to offer the complexion a double dose of serums. These concentrated formulas are available in various textures and address a lot of the leading skin concerns. After hydrating, apply a serum that targets brightness and expression lines, preferably one with Vitamin C, a star skin ingredient for even tone. If you suffer from excess breakouts look for Niacinamide and Zinc, and for aging skin turn to Peptides and Vitamin A (retinol) that help boost collagen production. Apply your serums twice a day after cleansing.
4 – Follow with a good moisturizer: moisturizing the skin is an essential step for healthy skin. The function of a moisturizer is to lock in hydration and avoid water loss, strengthening the skin’s barrier to keep irritants and other aggressors at a distance, calming and rebalancing the complexion to prevent extreme dryness and breakouts, and keeping it replenished and regenerated. Chose a moisturizer with Antioxidants to ward off premature aging and Growth Factors that help recharge the skin with youthful Collagen and Hyaluronic Acid.
5 – Wear SPF every day (even in winter): applying SPF protection should always be the last step, no matter your age or skin type. Keeping the skin protected is essential to help boost the performance of your products, avoid wrinkles and hyperpigmentation and maintain a healthy and robust barrier. An SPF offers protection against UV rays, pollution, blue light and other external aggressors that cause free radicals – these destroy the cells’ homeostatic balance and lead to oxidative stress responsible for aging skin signs like expression lines, aging and sunspots, sagginess, dryness and dullness.
6 – Apply a face oil every night: facial oils are heavier blends of essential nutrients that help the skin regenerate during sleep. They are also the best pairing for your facial workouts as they provide slip and glide. Plant-rich oils are the perfect step in your evening routine to reverse damage caused by external aggressors during the day, keep balance in check to avoid blemishes and clogged pores, strengthen the skin lipid barrier to protect the deep layers, boost the skin’s metabolism to kickstart the anti-aging process and promote healthy, radiant and glowing skin.
7- Work out your face’s muscles daily: there are more than forty muscles in the face and, just like the body ones, these too benefit from daily exercise. Just ten minutes a day with your hands can help tone, tighten and lift your skin, sculpt your contours and achieve a glowing complexion. Target moves help define your jawline, lift the cheeks, dimmish the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, smooth the complexion, reduce tension and improve the overall look. Facial massage works by increasing circulation to the face, aiding lymphatic drainage to remove cellular waste and toxins, boosting the cell’s metabolism to enhance collagen synthesis, promoting cell turnover to reveal a brighter complexion, and decreasing stress and tension in the inner muscles.
8 – Sleep eight hours daily: During sleep, the skin initiates the repair process of the epidermis, as the body increases blood flow and our cells rebuild collagen and revert the results of UV exposure, reducing wrinkles and age spots.
9 – Drink water: our body is made of almost 60% of water, and this liquid is essential to keep the cells replenished and working properly to regulate our body functions, including the skin.
10 – Try a silk pillowcase: silk is the perfect material to rest your cheeks and hair during your beauty sleep. Silk is a very smooth material that causes less friction with the skin leading to fewer wrinkles, decreasing frizzy hair and preventing skin moisture from being absorbed by the fabric.
The five best face exercises for toned and lifted skin at home with FaceGym
Did you know that your face has more than forty muscles and that you can exercise these just like you exercise your body? The face’s scaffolding is at the core of FaceGym’s workouts, the brand teaching us how to tone, tighten and lift our skin with easy-to-follow facial moves to sculpt our contours and get a glowing complexion.
The brand says that each time you step into your bathroom, it’s time to take your face to the gym and incorporate a few moves into your daily morning and evening skincare routine. These facial exercises will give your skin a non-invasive facelift that shapes the contours and transforms the complexion, revitalizing the skin, stimulating blood and oxygen flow, and aiding lymphatic drainage to remove toxins and cellular waste. Facial massages are also good to help diminish ageing signs by tightening the skin and smoothing wrinkles, increase collagen and elastin production by boosting cellular activity, power up cell turnover to reveal a brighter and even complexion, release facial tension and ease muscle stiffness, especially in the jawline and temples, and improve skin texture by enhancing cell turnover to reveal the healthy layers. Like you would do at the gym, FaceGym created different routines and workouts targeted explicitly to the different areas of the face to Warm-up, Cardio, Sculpt and Cool Down your muscles.
So, get ready to firm and tighten your face with FaceGym’s five best moves that you can add to your skincare routine and do every day at home. It’s always recommended to deep clean the complexion, removing impurities, make-up and excess sebum. Then apply a facial oil, like the brand’s newly launched Face Coach, to help the hands glide with ease on the skin. Start with full-face hand drains to promote the flow of lymphatic fluid, aid in the body’s detoxifying process and depuff the face by ridding excess water retention – or you can use the brand’s high-performance contouring tool, the Multi-Sculpt. Now, let’s dive into the best exercises to get firm skin and a healthy appearance:
- Face-knuckling: perfect to pair with your favourite cleanser, this is your starting point to stimulate circulation, aid lymphatic drainage and help to enhance the clean. Do for 30 seconds if you can.
- Caterpillar fingers: to do this move is best to pair with a serum or oil. Get the blood flowing with a cardio session and help enhance natural contours and lift the cheeks.
- Cheek hooks: another cheek move, this time targeting the cheekbones to contour and define.
- Nasal labial plucking: perfect to iron out those smile wrinkles, this move stimulates circulation and plumps out wrinkles and fine lines.
- Jawline Finger Hooks: the one move to do for a sculpted and defined jawline and keep the skin toned and tighten.
When you finish, apply your favourite moisturiser and SPF or make-up. Simply add one or two moves to your morning and evening skin routine, and you’ll soon be amazed by the visible changes in your contours and complexion. Your hands are perfect for performing this routine, but FaceGym also has a series of tools that can help make the most out of your time. And don’t forget consistency is key to achieve great results!
The secret to a youthful face is in your hands: the benefits of facial massage
Did you know that you hold in your hands the power to make your skin look more toned, tightened, and lifted?
We are talking about facial massage, a technique that dates to ancient civilisations and has become the must-know beauty buzzword. A staple to those looking for an alternative to invasive procedures or simply a more natural approach to ageing well, facial stimulation is stepping out of the healing sphere it once belonged to and into the skincare vocabulary. And even celebrities are raving about the results – check Olivia Palermo’s blog post about it! But what are the benefits of stimulating your skin and muscles? Can you really achieve a glowing, more toned, and contoured complexion just by massaging your face?
A Brief History of Facial Massage
The early records of body and face massage date back to 2700 BCE in China. Centuries after, we find mentions in the Egyptian and Japanese cultures as well. In these ancient times, the practice of touch was used as a healing method to relieve pain, treat injuries, and aid in relaxation. The Greek and Roman civilisations would also use massage to improve the performance of gladiators and athletes. Fast forward to modern times, Western Civilisations started to incorporate these traditions into a series of wellness and beauty rituals. Today, facial massage is widely accepted as one of the best and non-invasive ways to promote a firmer, more toned, and lifted appearance, increase radiance in the complexion and alleviate muscle stress.
The Benefits of Facial Massage
As we age, wrinkles and expression lines start to appear, the skin becomes saggy, especially around the jawline, cheeks, and eye area, and the complexion loses radiance. This happens due to loss of skin elasticity, subcutaneous fat, and muscle tonus. Our skin metabolism also decreases with age, and our cells become less energetic when it comes to producing collagen, elastin, and hyaluronic acid. Facial massage and repetitive moves can help counteract all these signs if performed correctly and consistently. See below a list of some of the benefits:
- Provides a moment of self-care: taking time to ourselves is more important than ever. Pick one or two of your favourite facial moves and incorporate them into your daily beauty routine. Take this time to organise the day ahead in the morning, or simply unwind and relax in the evening.
- Diminishes ageing signs: tightens the skin, smoothes wrinkles, contours the face, and lifts the muscles.
- Helps boost circulation and aids lymphatic drainage: manual stimulation of the skin and muscles helps with circulation and flow of oxygen, which increases the supply of nutrients to the cells. It also incentivises the process of clearing toxins and metabolic waste through the lymph channels to decrease puffiness and inflammation.
- Plumps out fine lines and wrinkles: repetitive massage helps boost cellular activity and increases collagen and elastin production.
- Improves skin texture: by massaging the complexion, we speed up cell turnover to reveal a brighter and more even tone.
- Releases facial tension: when we are stressed, we tend to accumulate tension in the “Stress Triangle” – face, neck, and shoulders. Massaging these areas, especially the jawline and temples, can melt away tension and stress, release pain and soothe the muscles.
From the SPA to your Home
Just search online, and you will find thousands of different guides and videos on massage techniques. Simply choose the ones you prefer and try to incorporate them into your daily routine. Even 5-10 minutes can really make a difference. Check these easy-to-follow tips on how to do it:
- If you wash your face when you wake up, it’s the perfect timing. Circular moves will promote more circulation and awake your sluggish cells from sleep.
- After a long day working and sitting at a desk, take 10-minutes to yourself. Stretch the neck and shoulders and perform some lifting moves on your cheeks and jawline.
- Watching your favourite TV show on the sofa? Bring your oil or cream with you and take this moment to perform a few more moves.
When performing these moves, there are a few rules to keep in mind: apply an oil or cream to allow your hands to glide easily over the skin; the movements should always be made outwards and upwards to oppose the natural gravity of the skin; start with small, low-pressure circular motions from the centre towards the temples to increase circulation, and then move to more specific and sculpting techniques.
Hope you have enjoyed this dive into the benefits of facial massage and that you are now excited to try this technique. Remember, even 5 minutes a day will make a difference in achieving a more contoured, radiant, and healthy complexion.
