Nourishing your skin requires a great skincare routine, but it shouldn’t stop there. If you’re looking for ways to naturally lift, tone, and smooth your face, then combining your skincare with daily face yoga is the way to go.
We all know that our bodies benefit from regular exercise to build strength and keep us healthy and toned. But most exercise regimes stop at the neck. Fortunately, face yoga is here to remedy that.
From lifting your skin and smoothing away fine lines and wrinkles, to boosting circulation and lymphatic drainage, face yoga has many benefits for our skin. However, the aesthetic benefits are just the tip of the iceberg.
This is a truly holistic approach to wellness that really does nourish you inside and out. Taking the time each day to give yourself some loving care and attention can do wonders for your mindset, helping you relax, let go of stress, and love the skin you are in.
As the world-leading expert in face yoga, I know how much of a difference small changes can make to our faces and to our overall wellness. I’m hoping this blog post will inspire you to start a regular face yoga practice and use it to complement your existing skincare routine.
What Is Face Yoga?
You’re hopefully familiar with yoga for our bodies, but perhaps you haven’t heard before that you can also do yoga for your face?
Some exercises work with the facial muscles, strengthening and toning them to make the attached skin tauter, firmer, and more lifted.
Other techniques are designed to release tension from your face, improving or preventing fine lines and wrinkles.
We also use massage techniques and acupressure to encourage blood circulation and increase lymphatic drainage. This brings fresh oxygen and nutrients to your skin and removes toxins, leaving your face looking brighter, fresher, and more energised.
Face yoga combines established Eastern wisdom with the science of facial anatomy to create a holistic system that emphasises your natural beauty. We work with the muscles, lymphatic drainage system, and blood circulation, but we also work with the flow of energy – known as prana in yoga or Qi in Traditional Chinese Medicine.
As a result, face yoga isn’t just about lifting and smoothing your skin. It is also a nurturing self-care practice that helps you grow your confidence, find your balance, and feel truly empowered in your own skin.
Even if you just do a few minutes a day, practicing face yoga is an opportunity to step away from the busyness of day-to-day life and spend some time connecting with yourself. It is a very intuitive system that encourages you to slow down, tune in, and let go of stress and tension.
At the end of a face yoga session, you should find that you feel more balanced, resilient, and energised. Plus, your skin will have a lovely natural glow.
How Face Yoga Works with Skincare
You can do face yoga at any time of day, but many of us find it easiest to be consistent when we incorporate face yoga with our existing skincare routines.
The great news is that face yoga pairs beautifully with skincare, especially if you are already using natural botanical products on your face.
Perhaps you already know a bit about Ayurveda, yoga’s sister science. Ayurveda is an ancient healing system that originated in India. It champions a holistic approach to health that treats the mind, body, and spirit – not just physical symptoms.
Plus, the massage techniques we use during a face yoga sequence can help your skincare products penetrate your skin more easily, taking the benefits deeper into your skin.“Just as yoga for our bodies overlaps and complements Ayurveda, so too does face yoga. So, if you are drawn to Ayurvedic skincare products that use natural ingredients to nourish and protect your skin, face yoga is a perfect extension of that approach.”
Danielle Collins
Getting Started with a Face Yoga Routine
You always want to have clean hands before starting a face yoga routine to stop dirt and bacteria from your fingers getting onto your skin. Typically, I also recommend having a clean face, especially if you are doing a full face yoga sequence.
Use a mild cleanser like Almora’s Purifying Gel Cleanser, which will remove dirt and toxins from your face without stripping it of its natural oils. This cleanser also contains marine probiotics to help bring your skin’s microbiome into balance.
Around two or three times a week, you’ll also want to exfoliate to get rid of all those dead skin cells and keep your skin looking healthy and glowing. Again, I like to look for gentle products that won’t be too harsh for my skin – this Refreshing Clay Exfoliator is ideal because it won’t irritate sensitive skin.
Once your face is clean and free from dirt, apply some serum to help your skin feel replenished and energised. Serum for Fine Lines is a great complement to face yoga, as they work together to boost the oxygen supply to your skin and improve your skin’s elasticity and firmness.
For your eye area, you want to opt for a drop or two of the Restorative Eye Serum instead to reduce dark circles and boost collagen production. Again, this is an ideal product to combine with face yoga techniques that target dark circles and help to reduce puffiness around the eye area.
Finally, apply some facial oil to give your skin a lovely glide. This will help your fingers move easily over your face while you do your face yoga. If you are doing face yoga in the morning, try the Restorative Day Face Oil which will leave your skin feeling smooth and silky – perfect to follow with some facial massage.
“I always like to start my face yoga routines by bringing my focus to the breath. Close your eyes if that feels comfortable and take some deep inhales and exhales through your nose. This helps you to find your sense of balance and starts to release tension from your body and face.”
Danielle Collins
Then, you can start with some techniques. I’ll often begin by tapping my fingers over the skin of my neck and face, which helps to wake up the energy, stimulate collagen production, and bring lots of fresh oxygen and nutrients up to the skin’s surface.
Depending on how much time you have, you could then do a variety of facial exercises to target different areas of the face. You can do a full-face routine or concentrate on a particular area.
I then like to finish off with some acupressure and facial massage. These are beautiful for getting our lifeforce energy flowing freely and for releasing tension and stress from the facial muscles, giving you smoother, brighter skin.
Finally, bring your attention back to your breath to finish the routine.
You should hopefully feel more relaxed, refreshed, and energised. Knowing that you’ve given this time to care for your face and skin can help you go about your day feeling less stressed and more resilient.
Love the Skin You’re In
A closing thought before I finish. Many of us come to face yoga first because it is effective in naturally lifting, toning, and smoothing the skin.
But the more we practice this form of self-care, the more we feel empowered to love and accept the skin we have right now. Face yoga teaches us to treat ourselves with loving kindness, instead of self-criticism and negativity.
It is this shift to our mindset that is the most important benefit of face yoga. It helps us look and feel like our best selves, boosting our confidence and empowering us to make our health and wellness a priority.
