Colder weather demands a weapon that mimics it. Cold ice cubes. Dunking face in ice is not just a beauty challenge circulating on social media. Icing your face might be the next natural ‘fix-it-all’ tool that gets all the proper attention.
Icing your face is definitely not a new technique, however, the recent resurgence in all-natural care has called for cost-effective, easy-to-do, non-toxic and reliable ingredients to rise, and most likely, even stay.
Here are the reasons people have been so interested in Icing their faces.
- It’s cost-effective. Costs almost nothing.
- Is reliable, and has almost no side effects
- Results are instant
- It can be DIY-ed with other ingredients like Aloe Vera, Green Tea and Rose Water.
- It’s popular among celebrities and social media, making it worth many tries
- Works on all skin types.
- The experience of it can be delivered professionally and medically via cryotherapy
Icing your face can be easily done with either an ice cube or a makeshift cold facial. This is how the general population would approach icing their faces. Professionally, estheticians and dermatologists deliver cryotherapy, where they use extreme cold to remove abnormal tissue. Athletes, Actors and other celebrities are keen users of cryotherapy for maintaining healthy tissue for a youthful appearance, and for maintaining their physique.
If it’s that frequented, icing your face must have some great benefits.
Benefits of Icing Your Face
- Controls Inflammation
Redness, irritation and flaking skin are key indicators of inflamed skin. Inflamed skin occurs when your natural skin barrier has been tampered with because of the frequent use of actives and other abrasive products. Your plan of action should be to calm your skin down.
How to calm your skin? The easiest way is to allow cold water and air to hit your face. The coldness of ice creates a temperature imbalance that allows necessary blood circulation to the face. This blood brings in antioxidants and necessary nutrients that were unable to reach the impact area. This calms down the tension bubbling upon your skin and one can feel the cooling and calming effect of this blood rush on the face.
This is especially helpful for people with chronic inflammatory conditions like acne and rosacea.
- Tightens Pores
The cold water or ice cubes when coming in contact with the skin, supply the necessary hydration that your damaged skin barrier was longing for. This puts your pores at rest, and they don’t need to fight for hydration anymore, so they visibly close up.
Open pores are a significant marker of a damaged barrier. Poor hydration habits and overproduction of oil cause pores to enlarge in size and find outlets to capture hydration. You can avoid letting things take that turn. Icing your face instantly tightens your face as well.
Maintaining hydration on even oily skin is necessary, or else our glands overproduce oil and enlarge pores, and become more susceptible to trap bacterial buildup.
- Reduces Oiliness
The toning and hydrating effect of face icing allows for the face to be appropriately moisturized, by balancing the natural oils in the face.
This oiliness could have been harmful when it would have paired with the bacteria in the air and combined to form blackheads and even pimples on the skin.
The ice adds a healthy shine to the face by freezing your pores, removing puffiness from the face and controlling oil production in the face.
These benefits are attractive for any skin type, and any weather. So before you ice your face, here are some tips to keep in mind before applying ice to your face.
What to keep in mind before Icing Your Face
Firstly, apply ice to a cleansed face. Any bacterial settlement will be taken away from the face. Your face is ready to be iced now.
Ice has the potential to cause ice burns if done incorrectly. Icing should be done all over the face and do not let ice stay in one spot for too long. That is how ice burns are caused.
You need to add a barrier between your skin and the ice with cotton or a muslin cloth, or you can apply ice over a dry mask. This is a precaution
Remember to apply thick moisturizer later so that you can lock in the hydration and halt your pores from acting up again. This prolongs the hydration and nourishes your skin, enhancing the skin barrier.
How to use Ice on your skin?
- Wash your face
- Take ice cubes and apply them directly. Or if you’re looking for something with less hassle, in a deep bowl, add normal temperature water, and put in 6-8 ice cubes in it.
- Rub the ice all over the face in lifting motions. Here are some face exercises that you could do with the ice on your face.
- If you decide to dunk your face in the bowl of ice, do at least 5 dips of your face in the water.
- Keep a tissue to clear up the mess as you go.
- Let it dry naturally and apply moisturizer and sunscreen later.
Pro tip: If you really want to close up your pores instantly, and want to bring down your body’s temperature, run an ice cube at the nape of your neck. The backside of the neck is a sensitive area and with the necessary pulse points to regulate your body’s temperature.
You will instantly notice your mind to be calmed, your pores clog up, and your entire body getting relaxed.
Icing your face should preferably be done first thing in the morning, after splashing your face with water. It wakes up the body and reminds your brain to begin its regular cycle, again.
The ritual of icing your face has been done for ages regardless of people’s strata. This classic technique will add a healthy sheen to your face and the experience of this is addicting enough to do it over and over again.
Here’s a detailed video to guide our readers on how to take care of their skin in the winter.