- Because you don't wanna be creating any more tension.
(bottle bangs on floor)
(chuckles) Oh my god, dropped the bottle again.
I head-butted the laptop. - (indistinct) You go.
- Hey, everyone, and welcome back
to the Adore Beauty YouTube channel.
My name is Amelia
and in today's video, we're gonna be talking
all about Gua Sha. (screen pops)
But, before we get into it,
if you haven't already, please make sure you subscribe
to the Adore Beauty channel
and hit that like button
if you wanna see more beauty videos like this one.
So, first things first, what is Gua Sha?
So, Gua Sha is an ancient Chinese practice
that comes from traditional Chinese medicine
where you are taking a small, smooth tool,
a flat tool as well,
and you are scraping it along the face or the body
to relieve muscle tension, pain,
and also help reduce puffiness
and help with lymphatic drainage.
So, Gua Sha isn't a new thing.
It's been around for centuries
and it's sort of been making its way into western culture
and all over social media
because of its ability to reduce puffiness
and really help with working out the muscles
and the tension in our faces.
Gua Sha has different translations everywhere.
I looked online.
First part of it means to scrape
which is what you're doing.
You're gonna be scraping your face really gently
to remove any muscle tension
and also helping with blood stagnation and drainage.
So, the benefits of doing Gua Sha on your face
are helping with puffiness,
it helps to relieve pain or tension in the muscles.
It does help to give your skin a radiant glow
and it will help to remove all the tension in your neck.
So, Gua Sha falls
under the evidence-based medicine category.
So, this isn't something that you're gonna go
to your normal GP about
and ask them to do Gua Sha on your face.
This is something that you would go
to a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner for.
So, if you're going to somebody for acupuncture
then they might be somebody
that you can speak to about cupping or Gua Sha as well.
There are articles and studies online.
So, if you go into something like PubMed
which is the National Library of Medicine,
you can check out some studies
that they've done on Gua Sha and the benefits of doing it.
So, what is Gua Sha not gonna work on?
It's not gonna work on something
like cellulite, for instance,
because it's not gonna help to recirculate your fat cells.
It's not going to work on melasma or pigmentation.
Doing Gua Sha will not break down the pigment in your skin.
This is really just to help with moving fluid,
and helping to drain your lymphatic system
and working out the muscles.
Okay, so now let's get into the technique.
In traditional Chinese medicine,
they typically used a jade stone.
I'm gonna be using the Adore Beauty Rose Quartz
and they all come in different shapes.
I personally love ones like this
where they have that more heart shape
because I find that it gets a lot better into the areas
where I need that tension worked out.
So, you can see that my face is quite shiny.
I have popped a little bit of skincare on,
but my face is clean.
So, I'm gonna be using a mist just to rehydrate it, first.
(spray bottles hisses)
And then you'll typically wanna use
either a really hydrating serum or a face oil.
I'm gonna be using the rosehip oil from Biology.
And you want to use a little bit more
than you normally would
because you don't want the product to absorb in
before you're finished doing the whole Gua Sha process.
So, I'm taking a few drops, just smoothing it onto the skin.
(smooth jazz music)
And you also wanna pop some on the neck
because we are gonna be doing the neck area too.
So, taking the stone,
I'm gonna start at the neck area.
And I always do when I'm using a Gua Sha
because I want to open up the lymph nodes
so that the fluid can drain outwards.
So, we're going from the shoulder,
and I'm gonna use the little notched part,
and rest on there.
And I'm gonna be dragging the stone up towards
that lymph node, and you're gonna do a little wiggle.
(smooth jazz music)
And you wanna repeat that process a few times.
(smooth jazz music)
And you don't wanna be going too hard,
but it's okay if it does feel a little bit uncomfortable
because you are working out that tension in the neck area.
(smooth jazz music)
Then, you can also go on the clavicle and upwards.
(smooth jazz music)
So, folks, just remember
that I'm not a Chinese medicine practitioner;
I am just a beauty enthusiast.
There's websites you can go on
if you wanna learn more of the technique
or you could even see a Chinese medicine practitioner
to know the exact technique for doing proper Gua Sha.
So, then we're gonna go along the jaw line.
And when we are going along the face, or through the face,
you wanna be keeping the stone quite flat.
You don't want to be resting it
with the sharpest side on the face.
There's no need for that.
So, you wanna keep everything quite gentle
and you are always going outwards
because the focus with this
is draining the fluid out of your face.
So, we're gonna take the stone, and go along the jaw line
and up towards the ear where the lymph node is.
Do a little wiggle
because you are opening up that node
and helping the fluid to drain.
(smooth jazz music)
You can also use your hand to keep your face kind of steady
(smooth jazz music)
and then gently take the stone across.
(smooth jazz music)
And so you can see that there's a little bit
of rosiness now on my cheek, so that's perfectly normal,
because you are bringing the circulation back to your face.
So, I'm feeling really good.
I wanna do a little bit more around my eye area
because this is where I tend to hold a lot of water
and a lot of puffiness, in general.
So, I'm gonna be really gentle around this area.
(smooth jazz music)
Then when you were done with your Gua Sha,
you wanna take it to the sink and you just rinse it
with a little bit of warm water and soap
or you can spray it with some alcohol.
And now that we're all done with the Gua Sha,
I'm feeling a lot better, a lot less puffy
than I was an hour ago.
I'm gonna pop on my moisturizer, and my sunscreen
and get ready for the rest of my day.
Thank you guys so much for watching this video.
I hope you enjoyed it,
and I hope it helped you to learn a little bit more
about Gua Sha technique.
Like I said at the beginning of the video,
make sure you hit that subscribe button
and join the Adore Beauty family.
Also, hit the like button
so you can see more videos from us.
Thanks so much for watching, bye.