Face care routine: face massage, face gym and self-massage
Dear readers,
When we talk about face care, the first things that come to mind are cleansing and moisturising. Sometimes you also think about scrubs and masks, but do you know that there’s much more to face care than that?
The world of well-being offers a wide selection of very effective techniques which can give your face a gorgeous new glow while you get the most amazing relaxation!
Talented and highly skilled experts with techniques that go beyond the usual facial treatment
Most of us are familiar with the purifying, cleansing, moisturising and anti-ageing benefits of common face care products. There are many specialised techniques which go beyond that, offering a whole new radiance to your skin, considerably reducing wrinkles and giving your face the plumpy effect you are after.
- Expert face massage with the famous French facialist Delphine Langlois
Delphine is THE French face expert. After working for 13 years at the prestigious George V Spa in Paris, creating bespoke expert treatments, Delphine took on a new challenge and trained with experts all around the world to gain further in-depth expertise and learn specialised techniques such as anti-ageing face massage, Jacquet Pinching®, the Kodibo® technique by Japanese Master Shogo Moshiuzuki and the Buccal Massage® by Dr. Yakov Gershkovich.
Delphine truly is passionate about beauty and well-being, and has a comprehensive expertise on natural face-lift using sophisticated rejuvenating massage techniques.
Many men and women and even celebrities looking for a unique treatment tailored to their face type and shape trust Delphine’s expertise. Why not you?
To know more: https://www.delphinelanglois.com
- FaceGym, the face workout by pioneer Inge Theron
FaceGym is a brand founded by British Inge Theron in 2016.
While travelling on a six-month journey around the world, including some time in India, Inge discovered the benefits of massage and spa. She later became a spa consultant, working for spas around the world, and writer of the Chronicles of a Spa Junkie for the Financial Times.
Unfortunately, 3 years later, falling into the trap of ‘never enough’, Inge became obsessed with wrinkles, getting injection after injection, until she crossed the line and ended up with a badly damaged face at age 37.She spent some time in an ashram in Mexico, benefiting from Inca traditional face treatments, several times a day, hoping to get her original face back and got amazed by the results. She found out that your face is just as ‘workable’ as the rest of your body is; you can sculpt your face muscles and tone-up.
That’s how the idea of creating a face workout was born, using the same steps as a body workout; warm up, cardio, modelling and relaxation. The results are simply astounding, leaving your skin plumped-up and rehydrated!
Inge now has about a dozen studios across the world (London, New York, Los Angeles), and her concept has proven successful, even convincing many celebrities like Ellie Goulding and Adriana Lima.
To know more: https://www.instagram.com/facegym/?hl=fr
No doubt these unique techniques will inspire many entrepreneurial souls to create their own Glow Studio, like these new Parisian brands have done, Aimee and Seasonly.
Aime – Glow Studio: https://aime.co/fr/content/12-le-glow-studio
Seasonly – Skin Studio: https://seasonly.fr/pages/skin-studio
Self-massages
Facial self-massage has travelled the world and centuries, from Japanese ancient traditions to Middle Eastern body-care routines, and still offers the same well-being benefits it always has, showing an almost immediate effect on your skin radiance. All well-being experts highly recommend it.
Face self-massage enhances your basic skincare product efficiency by improving its absorption, and goes beyond that by relieving tension (mostly eyes area, temples and jaw) and stimulating both blood and lymph micro-circulation, giving your skin an immediate revitalised radiance.
Learning self-massage helps you get to know and love your body better. This way, you better apprehend the signs of ageing and can use soft non-invasive techniques to gently embrace your well-ageing journey.
- The How To Spa technique, by Fabienne Crocq
Looking for easy efficient self-massage techniques? Try our online tutorials and videos, designed with our in-house spa expert Fabienne Crocq.
Free tutorials (booklets) gratuits à lire ici : http://preprod.howtospa.com/en/create-your-own-relaxation/
Free trial face self-massage tutorial (video) gratuits à essayer ici : http://preprod.howtospa.com/en/enjoy-a-spa-experience-from-home-in-video/
Give yourself time to heal
Dear readers,
It’s been a while since I last took the time to write to you. I recently took a much needed step back in my life, and I wanted to shed some light on it all in this new article.
I wanted to share with you a very valuable lesson I’ve learned recently ; give yourself the time to heal. It’s OK to go through difficult times and experience different types of emotions, including negative ones. Instead of forcing yourself to move on, allow things to be just as they are, it will help you better bounce back.
It can be very hard to do this in a world of ‘hyper-positivism’, where ‘be positive!’ and ‘keep smiling!’ seem to have become ‘must dos’. It is only human and normal to get through hard times. Embrace them as they can give you a clearer perspective on yourself and your social interactions.
Remember to respect your body and emotions rather than burry all the negative life can bring.
I recently got to practice what I preach. Over the summer I made the decision to slow down and take the time to heal. Life at work and at home was becoming overwhelming and I started to feel early symptoms of burnout. As I’ve learned to listen to my body and emotions, I’ve managed to embrace my feelings early enough instead of disregarding them, and I can say today that it turned out salutary.
Through this time of refocusing I gave myself time to explore the depths of long-burried emotions and learn to respect and understand them.
Meditation, conscious breathing and mindfulness are wonderful resources which greatly helped me get through my healing process. I advice anyone who’s going through a rough time to give them a go.
Gratitude is another good exercise ; every morning, you can place a hand on your heart and say outloud or in your head all the things you are grateful for in your life. It can be something or someone in your life that brings you happiness. Feel this wellbeing fill you up and be grateful to receive it.
Gratitude avoids frustration and expectations as when you are grateful, you are thankful for what you have and wait nothing in return.
This whole introspection process helped me bounce back and be ready to tackle new exciting projects from September, and I am looking forward to sharing them with you soon !
Let’s finish on a hopeful note with this lovely poem I recently came accross, ‘For a New Beginning’ by John O’Donohue.
« For a New Beginning », par John O’Donohue
In out-of-the-way places of the heart,
Where your thoughts never think to wander,
This beginning has been quietly forming,
Waiting until you were ready to emerge.
For a long time it has watched your desire,
Feeling the emptiness growing inside you,
Noticing how you willed yourself on,
Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.
It watched you play with the seduction of safety
And the gray promises that sameness whispered,
Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent,
Wondered would you always live like this.
Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
And out you stepped onto new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dream,
A path of plenitude opening before you.
Though your destination is not yet clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
That is at one with your life’s desire.
Awaken your spirit to adventure;
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;
Soon you will be home in a new rhythm,
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.
Unique herbal teas and drinks for your relaxation
Dear readers,
How To Spa was very lucky to get to meet with two brands, both offering a wide variety of herbal teas and other relaxing drinks you can enjoy all day long. We loved these innovative natural quality drinks, so we’re excited to share with you these new finds!
Herbal Drinkers Club : a French modern twist on herbal teas
We loved the fun and unconventional approach Thibaud Bergasse – the founder- has on Herbal Teas ; often seen as « has-been », or « old ladies drink», Bergasse revives herbal tea. He founded his brand as an ‘Amateur Herbal Tea Drinkers Club’. The website says « No more shame, no more lies. Let’s get together and proudly let the world hear who we are! No more hiding, no need to wait for sunset to come out! We are proud women and men, young, active, thirty (ish…) year-olds who love herbal tea! »
Herbal Drinker’s innovative concept brings herbal tea to a modern and exciting level through 6 clever mixes ; Le Champion, Le Prodige (prodigy), Le Tranquille (calm), Le Festif (festive), L’Irrésistible and Le Sociable are well thought names for herbal teas, though unconventional indeed !
And, it does what it says on the tin (well, the box) ; Le Prodige will give a boost to your concentration and memory with the help of mate, sage, mint, pepper and cardamom while Le Festif will help you recover from a full-on party with green yerba mate, coconut and gingko. For a more traditional effect, Le Tranquille will help you relax with verbena, Chinese cinnamon and cloves. All likes are covered!
Find out more on : http://herbaldrinkersclub.com
Evoleum : tasty and efficient beauty drinks
Evoleum is committed to helping you improve your daily wellbeing with a range of tasty quality products. The range covers four themes, each tailored to a specific need; Improving your complexion, detox, immunity boost and slimming. Not only are these drinks effective but also very tasty!
The Detox drink contains birch sap and apple and lemon juice concentrate. The Immunity Boost contains Rhodioa Rosea extract, vitamins B8, B6 and C as well as minerals. If you’re dreading the ‘dull skin complexion’ effect, you’ll find what you need with Evoleum’s blend of ascophyllum nodosum algae extract, hyaluronic acid and wheat lipids extract. The last blend contains slimming-aid ash, dandelion and fucus (a type of brown algae) extracts.
We love the quality of these products as much as the elegant design of their glass single-shot doses and packaging. We love their ready-made boxes which include 14 single daily doses and a selected cosmetic product to go with it (oil, body scrub or slimming gel).
Find out more on: https://www.evoleum.fr
Massage for mums-to-be and babies
Did you know that there’s a whole world behind mums-to-be and babies’ wellbeing?
An increasing number of spas and wellbeing institutes offer specific massages tailored to pregnant women. You can enjoy them either lying down on your side with a cushion between your legs, or simply sitting, or sometimes lying face-down on a massage table especially designed to accommodate your belly. These specific massages are designed to help ease lower back pain, relieve swollen legs or reduce fatigue when pregnant.
These are well deserved and much needed relaxing moments for both baby and mum-to-be. What makes mum relaxed will have a soothing effect on baby.
Here are some tried and tested spas approved by our team in Paris :
Try the ‘cocooning feel’ at Six Senses Spa
For a smaller budget, try the Thémaé Spa
For the ultimate pleasure, treat yourself to a massage at the George V Spa or the Mandarin Oriental Spa
After giving birth, you can stay in your relaxing bubble by massaging your baby. Beyond the soothing effect of massage and the benefits of a pleasant moment together, you will find many health benefits in massaging your little one, helping them with tummy aches or improving their muscle tone. Many brilliant books cover the subject; we like « Baby Touch: Massage and Reflexology for Babies and Children by Wendy Kavanagh » for example.You can also take your baby to a children’s osteopath, they will help release any strains from pregnancy and birth.
Our favorite brand :
We highly recommend Skinhaptics products for you and your baby. These organic preservative-free skincare products are recommended by many midwifes and birth centers. They are ideal for your daily skin-care routine or for massages, that’s why you can find their massage oils in many spas in Paris for example (Six Senses and many others).
Most Skinhaptics products are designed for the whole family; shower gel, shampoo, massage oils, face cleanser, face cream and oils equally.
Cotton, plum and sunflower cold pressed oils are the main ingredients, giving every Skinhaptic product a delicate scent made for sharing with you (little) loved ones!
Last but not least (and certainly our favourite!), Skinhaptics goes one step forward, offering online baby massage tutorials as well as a well-thought easy-to-use baby carrier scarf.
To know more: https://www.skinhaptics.com/fr/accueil/
You like what you read? Go and treat yourself and baby to a delightful moment!
