The popularity of skincare over the last decade has skyrocketed, with an increased focus on self-care and prioritizing wellness every single day. However, establishing a skincare routine using jade rollers or gua sha doesn’t only help the appearance of your skin but also your health. While these skin tools have been advertised as methods to massage products into your face or simply destress at the end of the day, gua sha is actually one of the oldest traditional Chinese medicine treatments.
With a million different products on the market nowadays, it is difficult to distinguish what is legit, versus what is a money-grabbing gimmick. Healthline has confirmed, though, that jade rolling and gua sha do not fit into this category, and each of these facial instruments promotes healthy blood circulation and relaxation. For jade rollers, it is recommended to start on your neck first and roll outwards in order to begin the process of lymphatic drainage, which is described as “a form of massage that pushes fluids to your lymph nodes, which subsequently process and filter them out of your system.” Rolling the tool over your neck with medium pressure before moving onto your face, once again pushing it in an outward and upward motion to flush the fluids out of your face.
Gua sha is a slightly different shaped tool that has a heart-like, shark tooth appearance and was designed in traditional Chinese medicine to allow one’s ‘qi,’ or energy, to flow throughout the body. HealthEssentials shared that using gua sha not only on the face but all over the body, is essential in “helping to ensure a better blood supply and proper nerve conduction so that everything is moving through your body as it should.” Additionally, “Gua sha has been proven to help relieve tension in the face, reduce puffiness and inflammation, and it can even help reduce sinus pressure,” begging the question of why everyone doesn’t incorporate gua sha into their morning and night routines on a daily basis.
Multiple different stones are beneficial for facial rolling aside from jade, with rose quartz, blue aventurine, obsidian, and amethyst all producing similar effects. If you finally want to take your wellness to the next step, here are the most popular jade roller and gua sha options available at Sephora.
