Deep breath in
Deep breath out
So what am I doing here? Well I decided to stick my face in a bowl of ice water
every single morning for a week. Why? I read a Health Line article from last
year that says applying ice to your face can eliminate puffiness, especially
around the eyes. Reduce oiliness, ease acne, soothe sunburn, reduce swelling
and inflammation, reduce signs of aging - such as wrinkles
and boost the skin's healthy glow. Know these claims are only supported by
anecdotal evidence. There's no definitive clinical research indicating that ice
facials can address these conditions, but you know me - I like experimenting on
myself and seeing what the results are for me
and my body. I have been wanting to try this ice facial challenge for the
longest time now so thank you to Summer Friday's for sponsoring today's video.
I recently added their Summer Friday's soft reset
aha exfoliating solution into my nighttime skincare routine and my skin
has pretty much been looking the best that it's looked in months so
I'm really excited about it and stay tuned until the end of the video
I'm going to talk a little bit more about it. I've tried a week of cold
showers, a week of sleeping on the floor, a week of eating fermented foods for
better gut health and so much more and if you followed my videos recently,
you'll know that I've been experiencing some adult acne issues as of late so I
wanted to take matters into my own hands and see what works.
So this week I woke up every single morning and stuck my face in a bucket of
ice water for 15 seconds.
Day one was probably the most difficult because I just didn't know what to
expect. I haven't put on any creams, serums,
face wash nothing. So I'm just about to gather a bowl of ice and stick my face
in it. Let's do it. I took the first bowl that I
saw in my parents kitchen cabinet which was probably a little bit too shallow.
This size. I took some time preparing my bowl of ice and water.
Got my bowl of ice ready to go. Will you set a timer for me for 10
seconds? Maybe 15? Do you think I can hold my
breath in ice for 15 seconds? Okay 15 seconds.
Wait I need to take a couple deep breaths.
and just before I started I remembered that I needed a towel to dry off. I think
I need a towel for when I get out. No i'm not sure of anything.
Oh I'm scared. You would almost think I was wasting time, because I was a
little nervous to start. 15 seconds I can do that. Ready?
But eventually I took the plunge for 15 seconds.
I'm not sure why but with my face submerged in such cold water
I kept feeling the urge to swallow it was like an unconscious reaction in my
throat and if i bump up the volume here you can
hear these swallows pretty loudly. Michael even said to me
I'm not drinking it I just have an impulse to swallow for some reason.
Ah that was kind of nice. I normally do my morning skincare
routine first thing when I wake up, but I skipped it so that I could do it after I
iced my face. So as soon as I was done I went upstairs
and I went through my entire skincare routine
of the moment. If you're interested in knowing what skin care products I've
been using click on the card up above and watch that video next.
On day two I made my ice water in a bit of a deeper bowl.
I wanted to be able to get more of my face into the cold so I knew I needed to go with something a little bit deeper than the day before.
I filled up the bowl with ice and water and then I sat down at the table for my
15 second dunk. I found I didn't need as much preparing
as I did on day one. but I just took one big deep breath and
then dove right in.
When the timer went off I was definitely freezing
but for some reason I could only think to do one thing.
I filmed a little bit of what my face looked like right afterwards and
obviously it was a little bit red from the blood rushing to the surface but
I also did sort of feel like there was a freshness to it.
There's an article in Vogue about how putting ice cubes on your face
could be the best kept skin secret. Apparently youtuber Lisa Eldridge swears
by ice. And as I learned Kate Moss actually does
this submersion technique too. A celebrity facialist quoted in the
article suggests a modified alternative to the face plunging technique.
He says to fill a bowl up a third of the way with whole milk
which contains vitamin a and naturally exfoliating lactic acid
and then to add ice cubes and instead of sticking your face right in it.
He instead drenches a face cloth in the mixture before holding the freezing
cloth on his face for 15 seconds. So that's a good idea to try out if you
don't like the idea of sticking your face directly into the water.
On day three, Michael and I did an outdoor workout first thing in the
morning and I intentionally didn't wash my face
or apply any creams or serums before this.
I knew that I would sweat from doing this workout outside and i knew that it
would feel great to do the ice plunge right after the workout. Since Michael
had worked out with me and was sweating alongside me,
he joined in to ice his face with me. We just did a morning workout and
I haven't even washed my face yet. I figured
I would just wash after we ice our faces so let me move this back so you can see
us both. So you know what you're doing right? So
we're just sticking our faces in and holding our breath
for 15 seconds, okay? Ready? Three, two
one.
The moment we pulled our faces out of the water, Michael asked, oh why do you do
that? Oh god I can't see. How does it feel?
I feel like I only got like here. So yeah personally I feel like I got
my whole face in. It felt especially good after a workout.
Wanna do it again? No I find it kind of difficult to breathe.
Yeah I do. Well you're not supposed to breathe but like I find it difficult to
hold your breath in ice water.
This whole challenge had me thinking a lot about Wim Hof.
He's a Dutch athlete who's best known for his ability to withstand freezing
temperatures. Michael and I watched a piece about him
and we were fascinated with his accomplishments and his methods.
One of his main techniques is a breathing technique that can when you
commit to it consistently help you withstand plunges in freezing
temperatures. Now Wim Hof's methods don't necessarily
apply here since we were holding our breath during these face plunges, but I
definitely feel a sense of tenseness when my face is in this water
and I feel like if I would just relax a bit more and not be quite as
tense, I could feel a little bit calmer and maybe be able to stay in the water
for longer. So on day four I decided to up my game
and get a bigger bowl. I wanted to sink my face deep into the
bowl and really feel the ice all around my face so I got a giant
silver mixing bowl. I filled it with ice and water and then
I dunked my face into that. 15 seconds in the bowl. Ready?
I was using my dad's phone as a timer and he was getting text messages
throughout the entire time I was in this
water.
You're getting text messages. You're getting text messages up the wazoo.
Oh no! My final takeaway from day four - that wasn't that bad. On day five I asked
Michael to join me once again. After all everything is more
fun when we do it together. Can you open this? Okay.
We just had Indian food. Oh! We just had Indian food which caused Michael's face
to sweat. Well i was cooking hot food and then I ate hot food.
He was cooking hot food, then he ate hot foods so he's sweating so I suggested
why don't we do ice face. So now we're carrying our ice buckets outside
and we're gonna stick our faces in them. So we've got our two bowls big enough
for our faces. Maybe you want this one you have a bigger face.
Yeah okay I do and we don't have our phones.
A very sharp piece of ice. I know we don't have our phones
so we're just gonna count with tapping and I'm gonna count to 15.
Okay sounds good. Three, two, one.
I must have used a smaller bowl this time accidentally because
my face didn't quite fit in this one and neither did Michael's.
So my face didn't fit in the bowl. Me neither. Okay
so i'm just gonna take a piece of ice out
and ice my whole face.
Yours looks like an animal carcass by the end we just decided to pull out
individual ice cubes and ice our faces that way. That's nice.
When I look at the way my skin looked at the start and end of the week
I suppose it looked like there was a little bit less discoloration
in general at the end, but the truth is my skin has been improving every day
because of my new skincare regimen so I can't really say that the
improvement is caused by these ice facials. I believe that these facials are
a fun thing to do especially during the summer especially
after workouts or a hot meal when you're really hot and sweaty.
But I don't think this is a good replacement for true skin care and
this definitely won't cure cystic acne for most people.
So now I want to tell you a little bit about this exfoliating solution that I
have been loving, but first a bit about Summer Fridays.
They're a clean skincare brand. Their products are vegan and cruelty free
so i've added their soft reset aha exfoliating solution into my nighttime
skin care routine just after cleansing and before I add
any of my serums or my moisturizer. The bottle is made from glass and the
cap and the bottle are both recyclable which is really great.
Also Summer Fridays has a recycling program right on their website which is
amazing so I'll put the link for that down in the description box.
So for this nighttime solution I just put some of it onto a reusable cotton
pad and then I just sweep it over my face
and my neck you can also just apply it directly with your hands if you want but
I always feel like it comes off a bit more evenly if it's on a cotton round
and I love these reusable cotton rounds I featured a few in my all the
sustainable products that I use in a day video
which I'll link for you up here. They're incredible. You just throw them in the
washing machine and reuse them over and over again. aha stands for alpha hydroxy
acid so one of the ahas in this solution is
glycolic acid which helps re-texturize and brighten the skin
and another aha in there is lactic acid which is plant-derived and helps smooth
the look of fine lines and also reduce other visible signs of
aging. The solution is a really gentle formula it has soothing aloe and also
hyaluronic acid in it so you can use it every night. My skin is
generally pretty sensitive and this has been a great addition to my nighttime
skincare routine you know that I love experimenting with products and things
like ice facials to see what works for me.
So I'm really excited to share this product with you and it's available at
Sephora so i'll pop the link down in my description box.
And now let's go back to my final takeaway from the ice facials.
Every time I was done with one of these ice baths and I lifted my head from the
bowl I felt fresh clean and clear. Let me know
in the comments section if you've ever tried this before
and if not, give it a go and let me know how it feels. Don't forget to give this
video a thumbs up if you liked it and be sure to subscribe to my channel for more
videos like this one also let me know down below what else
you'd like to see me try for a week at a time and I will give it a go.
See you next time! Tell us more I have nothing else to say
it's been great ice facing with you have a good night!
We're still here.