Just 20 Minutes Of Facial Massage
Will Make You Look Younger,
Improve Your Breathing
And Leave You
Blissfully Relaxed.

One of the key skills in aromatherapy is facial massage. Apart from being wonderfully relaxing it's a very simple way of stimulating both your lymphatic system as well as your accupressure points.

What's great about it is it's a treatment that you can do for yourself, which will mean that you can see and feel benefits straight away.

I would recommend trying this for yourself to

Unblock sinuses

Exfoliate dead skin

Improve fluid retention problems like puffy eyes

General relaxation.

If you are using our Hayfever or Sinus treatements then really the most effective way that you can use them is to rub them into the skin over the sinus tracts as shown in figure 2

The migraine treatment is best rubbed onto the forehead as shown in figure 3.

If you decide to do a full facial massage, use a carrier oil or one of our blended massage oils and follow the diagrams.

If I were to do this as part of a full massage treatment or as a facial massage for a patient, the full treatment would last about 20 minutes, just to give you a guideline.

Obviously the way that this is done is using firm but light sweeping strokes and the larger part of your hand you use to "pull-up" the skin, the more relaxing it is.

We call these strokes effleurage.

So, come on then. Let's have a go....just follow with me.

Let's start with some lovely light effleurage strokes on neck, always massage upwards, so as not to drag your skin.

Now use your index finger to draw tiny circles along the jawline. You will feel that some of the points are tender and feel a bit sore to the touch.

Don't worry. These are accupressure points.

To empty the tension and unblock these points, just keep a gentle pressure on until the tenderness goes away. Suddenly it just won't be there anymore.

Feel along where you have tension in your jawline and really smoothe it away.

When I am stressed I grit my teeth and this can start off being a bit painful for me because it is almost locked but it is a real stress buster. How's it feeling?

Good?

I'll bet.

So now do some nice, deep, circular strokes on your chin and lower lip.

Really work at it until you feel a kind of graininess under your fingers.

This is the dead skin cells sloughing off, which we call exfoliation. This will reveal a lovely fresh new layer of skin which is much brighter and healthier looking.

If you have any doubts of how much of a difference this can make to the appearance of your skin, let me tell you that this is reputed to be one of Cleopatras very own beauty secrets and if it's good enough for the woman that is reputed to have been the most beautiful woman in all of history...then I reckon it's definately worth a go, don't you?

Then effleurage on the sinus areas, across your cheekbones and the sides of the nose. This will usually take some exfoliation but it is worth it. Actually facial massage here is really good if you have acne, because sinus congestion can be a big factor. Now gently work around the ears. (Apologies for the strange diagram!) Kind of gently pinch as you gradually move up the ear.

This is very important because there are accupressure points for the entire body in your ear, in a similar representation to the reflexology points on your feet.

Ok, so as you get to the top of your ear where is all cartillidge, try to unfurl and straighten it out. Interestingly this curls inwards with stress. (Babies ears are not curly!!)

touch, even if it's your own!

This should have you totally blissed out!! It's amazing, the power of Next you want to work the accupressure points to the sinuses which are in and just above the eyebrows. There's another set just under the cheekbones. To do this trace the line along with your index finger.

To do your facial massage, do your tiny circles and feel where the blockages are. Again if it is tender...leave your finger there for a little while longer. Really pay attention to clearing them, so that you can get the energies running just right.

This will have you breathing easier in no time.

Something a bit different now. Any kind of fluid retention, for example puffy eyes is a sign that your lymphatic system is a bit sluggish. By tracing the lines across your forehead, out towards your ears and then down the side of your face to your collar bone, you can can push that lymphatic fluid into where it empties in the subclavian. (It actually empties in two places, here and in the groin).

Do the same, working from your nose, along under your eyes to the side of your face and down to the subclavian again.

The most effective method is to use your two index fingers to alternately push the fluid forwards (you may feel it under your skin).

It take a tiny bit of practice but it really reduces puffiness.

Moving up to your forehead, you can really get to work with effleurage and little circles because not only is it full of accupressure points, especially along the hairline, but also it will be absolutely full of tension.

Really stroke the stress away but be careful to exfoliate the skin here too.

The forehead is an area that will see dramatic changes from facial massage. The skin will look, smoother and brighter, but younger too because of the fresh blood supply. Smoothing out the stress and tension gives you a more relaxed and younger expression to your face. This site has lots more information about the benefits of massage therapy if you have enjoyed learning about facial massage. Relaxed and younger looking! You can't ask for much more than that can you?

When I do a facial massage I always go on to take a firm , just grip of the hair at the roots and gently tug on it and that really releases a load of tension.

Work carefully and gently around the head. It's generally better to grab a bigger handful than a smaller one, so that it doesn't hurt so much.

If you want to get the very best from your facial massage treatment try using some of the specially designed skin care ranges from The Apothecary. Back to aromatherapy-natural-products.com home page.