Anti-Aging Facial Massage

As I’m 32,  I’m very interested in anti-aging skincare and treatments. I would love to retain a youthful appearance for as long as possible – WITHOUT resorting to injectables, fillers or surgery. I’ve previously posted about Facial Exercises (here) – a  method of building up muscle to replace declining facial fat. I still do these exercises weekly, and find them very effective.

Another self-treatment I’ve become interested in is facial massage. Apparently this can prevent the sagging and drooping skin associated with aging, while preventing naso-labial lines and wrinkles. I first read about lymphatic drainage facial massage in this informative book by Chizu Saeki. She details steps you can add on to your cleansing routine to keep your skin tight and firm.

The Japanese Skincare Revolution by Chizu Saeki

A lot of the steps she described were familiar to me, as I’ve had them performed on my skin during facials. Since I only get facials a couple of times a year, I wanted to learn more about these techniques, so that I could do them more frequently on myself.

In my Internet/beauty forum research, I kept hearing about “Tanaka Facial Massage“. This massage  was created by Yukoka Tanaka, a Japanese make-up artist who used it to help actors maintain their youthful looks. There is a very helpful YouTube series where Tanaka demonstrates her massage technique. Here is a link to the first part (there are 4 clips in all).

Of course, there are many different variations of lymphatic massage (just google and see!) but I think the basic techniques have been around for a while. In fact, my mother recently gave me a beauty leaflet that she received while living in Hong Kong in the 1970s. It is from the “Sylphy” skin care company, and it demonstrates massage techniques to use while applying their products. A lot of the steps are similar to the Tanaka massage.

Scan of Sylphy Skincare Leaflet

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As a beauty junkie, I enjoyed learning a new technique – I love that I can incorporate facial massage into my nightly routine (when I have the time!).

Do you do any facial exercises or massage?  Have you had any positive results?