Facial rollers and Gua Sha sets, is it worth the hype?

By Angeliz Venter

If you have an Instagram account and spent a few hours online since the start of the pandemic, you would’ve noticed an influx of people posting their skincare regimes. One thing that kept popping up on my feed was facial rollers and Gua Sha sets. What is it exactly? What does it do? And ultimately does it work wonders as everyone says? I have recently started using a rose quartz facial roller and Gua Sha set from Mika and this is my opinion on it.

Let’s start with facial rollers. A face roller, as you can see in the picture above, consists mostly of two balls or rollers on each side of the handle and are used to roll on your face and use contouring lines for directions in which to roll. I use my facial roller after I get out of the shower and finished washing my face. I apply a few drops of Apicare serum and use the facial roller to lightly massage it into my skin. It is important to make sure you use a serum or cream with the roller otherwise it can have the opposite effect and cause wrinkles. It is recommended to start on your neck and roll upwards, without going backwards. Thereafter start in the middle of your jaw and lightly roll towards your ears. Roll from your eyebrows over your forehead towards your hairline and lastly roll from the start of your eyebrow to the ends. Thereafter, I use the Gua Sha, which I will explain in more detail below.

There are many claimed benefits of using a facial roller including, but not limited to:
• Improves blood circulation in your face, which ultimately makes your skin tone look brighter.
• Decreases puffiness by stimulating lymphatic drainage.
• It can improve your mood by making you relax.
• It can delay aging, although it hasn’t been proven yet.
• It cools and soothes your skin, especially if you store it in a cool place or place it in the fridge 30min before you use it.
• It can aid your application of skin care products.

A Gua Sha set is a flat tool and is used to massage your face. The Gua Sha practice is actually not as new and trendy as you might think. It is an ancient Chinese practice and although the original Gua Sha practice is much more intense, it still has similar healing properties today. I use my Gua Sha after using the facial roller to apply my night serum. I mainly use it under my eyes and jawline. The benefits that stood out for me is the fact that it can aid the sculpting of your jawline and reduce acne by going over the inflamed areas. It also reduces puffiness like the facial roller and share most of the same benefits. That is one of the most prominent reasons why I love using these two products together.

Lastly let’s talk about my choice of rose quartz. The most superficial reason is that I love the colour pink and it fits into my aesthetic, but rose quartz actually helps to get rid of toxins and negativity in your body and it the best option for smoothing your skin and smoothing out wrinkles and fine lines. Rose quartz are also associated with love and compassion, which just makes me feel more relaxed and happier when using it.

Ultimately, I am not 100% sure that I can see the results of all the benefits within a few weeks, but I can definitely say I am more relaxed after using them and I love using them as I can find time to use them properly. Saying that, I believe that the real benefits will show after a few years when aging starts setting in and I am a true believer of preventing issues instead of doing damage control later. You can purchase these products from @mika_allthingspretty on Instagram. They also have multiple other products and colours available!