Facial skin icing or cryotherapy is probably one of the simplest skin treatments to achieve smooth and glowing skin. This big skincare trend is the talk of the town for this one simple reason: it’s affordable, easy, relatively safe, and benefits the skin in multiple ways. Skin icing is a simple trick that everyone can try on their own. You can do it yourself at home or head to a skin professional for more advanced skin icing treatments.
1. What is skin icing?
It involves subjecting your skin to coldness by gliding an ice cube or a frozen tool (e.g. ice rollers and globes) over your skin. You can easily purchase an ice roller for a few bucks. You will just need to fill it up with some water and pop it into the freezer to freeze it. Once frozen, you can simply glide it across your skin. Alternatively, you can leave a spoon or jade roller in the fridge for some time and then glide it across your skin.
This beauty technique isn’t new and has been around for ages. There were stories of 18th-century Russian empress Catherine the Great icing her skin every morning.
2. Skin Icing Facials
There are also facial treatments done at beauty salons or aesthetic clinics which use an advanced technology called cryotherapy which chills the skin to below freezing point. It’s believed that this form of treatment stimulates microcirculation in the skin, reduces pore size, and increases the firmness of the skin. There’s another form of skin icing treatment where vaporized nitrogen is used to cool the skin. The cold sensation on the skin can be quite relaxing during the treatment.
I did a similar icy cold facial at Indulgence Beauty in Singapore and you can read more about my experience here. This facial treatment involves the use of a machine to expose the skin surface to sub-zero-degree temperatures. The skin is applied with a thin layer of gel before subjecting it to coldness. It really helps to soothe the skin and reduce redness. And it is usually done right after extractions. The facial treatment ends of with a mask and it is one of those soothing facials which I often look forward to.
3. Benefits of Facial Skin Icing
- It helps to reduce puffiness on your face and reduce swelling.
- It also helps to soothe sunburns or reduce inflammation in the skin.
- It gives you that instant glow as it causes the blood to rise to the surface.
- It minimizes the appearance of your pore size and tones the skin temporarily.
- The process of massaging the face with ice can also promote lymphatic drainage.
4. Things to take note of before icing your face
Before you expose your skin to coldness, make sure that your skin is cleansed thoroughly. For a smoother experience, you can apply some moisturizer or oil on your skin to protect the skin barrier before gliding the ice roller over.
Avoid skin icing if you have broken skin, capillaries, or sensitive skin.
5. Potential Side effects of skin icing
If you’re going for cryotherapy facials, do ensure that it is done by a well-trained professional because over-icing the skin can cause cold burns, frostbite, scarring, or nerve damage. Subjecting your skin to the ice for a prolonged period can damage the blood capillaries so it is important not to leave the ice on the same spot of the skin for too long.
Such treatments usually involve subjecting the skin to sub-zero-degree temperatures which can result in such risks if not done properly.
