As part of Willowberry’s inaugural National Age Without Apology Month, world-renowned facialist Nichola Joss joined Willowberry Founder Jenni Retourné live, to demonstrate her expert techniques in a guided self-massage.
As an A-list favourite, Nichola’s hands have worked their magic on such faces as Gwyneth Paltrow and Gisele Bundchen. Click here to watch the guided facial in full and follow Nichola through her step-by-step techniques. All you need is a gorgeously nourishing face oil such as the Willowberry Nutrient Boost Face Oil that Nichola used.
Here are some of the top facial massage tips that Nichola shared with us:
Get hands-on when it comes to loving your skin
“If we’ve got problematic skin or a breakout or any redness or scarring, we tend to not touch our skin. But actually, part of the healing process is to massage, touch and love our skin.
“Massage boosts circulation, stimulates the lymphatic system, helps with drainage and any puffiness, pollutants or congestion that are sitting in the skin tissue. When you boost blood circulation, you immediately start to get that vibrant glow to your face. Everything feels more alive and it can make your skin look so much fresher and juicier.
“Everyone wants glowing skin, don’t they? Even if you’ve got problematic skin, if it’s glowing and fresh and healthy looking, you feel better. Glowing skin just adds that extra sparkle.
It gives you confidence.”
When massaging your face, use plenty of face oil
“Using the Willowberry Nutrient Boost Face Oil, make sure that the hands are completely covered in oil. You want to get it over your fingers as well as your palms, because fingers are important massagers.
“Make sure you’ve got enough product on your hands because you want to have that slip so you’re not dragging the skin.”
Why massage matters
“You’ll start to feel that sense of awakening and calming. It gives a sense of serenity whilst massaging your face. We hold our emotional tension and stress in the muscles around our mouth and our jawline so just by sweeping across the face, stimulating the circulation, stimulating the lymphatic system, you’re lifting your mood.
“When you start removing tension and stress, the muscle really appreciates it because it loses its heaviness and density. It sits where it should be sitting. Sometimes fluids sit in the muscle tissue so the more you massage the muscles, the better shape they’ll become.”
Expert techniques
“For those of you who struggle with lots of stress and tension, Use as much pressure as you can during face massage. If you do these moves with your mouth gently open, it releases muscle, so you get a much better massage.
“You can massage right onto the lip. If you do it right onto the lip line, you are going to help eliminate that crepiness or dryness that can come around the lip area. You’re plumping up that lip area.
“Stimulating the lymph area under the eyes will help to brighten the whites of the eyes and give the eyes more of an open look.
“I try to make all my moves connect so that it’s a flow. Once you get into the habit of knowing the moves it becomes a flow up and down the face.”
The secret skincare power of spoons
People use massage tools like gua shas or cryo tools, which are amazing, but if you don’t have any, I’m sure you’ve got soup spoons or teaspoons in your drawer. Throw them in the fridge overnight and they’re really good for cooling down and depuffing the face in the morning.”
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A favourite with top make-up artists, Willowberry's luxurious award-winning products protect skin’s natural barrier function, to nourish and revive grown-up skin without telling women to be 'anti-ageing'.
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