This new skincare tool will leave your face tighter, brighter and happier

I am a skincare maximalist—I embrace new products, tools and techniques with the enthusiasm of a five-year-old’s love for new candy. Last year, I welcomed two exciting, and completely polar opposite, tools into my skincare routine—the first is a time-honoured beauty apparatus that’s rooted in tradition and ancient wellness wisdom (a jade facial roller to make my serums and essences sink in better); while the second is straight out of a Spielberg movie. Foreo UFO is a high-tech and futuristic Roomba-like device that packs in LED light, cryo and thermo therapy, and T sonic pulsations. Both changed my skincare game for the better—the roller made me see the merit of slowing down and treating myself to simple self-care, and the other tech-ed up the basic ritual of masking to leave my skin plump and glowy in 90 seconds.

Early this year, I brought in another tool to assist my army of lotions and potions—a Gua Sha board. An ancient Chinese healing medical technique, Gua Sha is a practice that involves scraping of the skin using a thin, curvy piece of stone (often made with jade or rose quartz) to enhance circulation. Think of it as giving your facial skin a mini workout, with benefits that include lymphatic drainage, sculpting and even a reduction in puffiness. A few YouTube tutorials later, I was all set to introduce Gua Sha into my night-time ritual.

One of the tutorials I saw and instantly fell in love with was by the founder of Treatment by Lanshin, Sandra Lanshin Chiu. An acupuncturist and Chinese herbalist, Chiu has practiced and taught Gua Sha for over a decade and made hundreds of complexions tauter and tighter. Her blog is a treasure trove—I have spent hours on it looking at skin problems through the holistic lens of Chinese medicine. In her 20-minute video on Gua Sha for beginners, Chiu doles out advice on everything from how to prep skin to the kind of products to use with easy-to-understand directions. Her video simplified the technique for me (and her other 500K+ viewers) and while it played out in front of me that night, I drizzled a few drops of marula oil all over my face and performed Gua Sha on my face for the very first time. The whole ritual felt incredibly calming, and I noted my facial muscles relaxing with every stroke. I woke up less puffy and with firmer cheekbones.

The next morning I wanted to know more. How does the Gua Sha work? What’s the science behind it? Will it help me deal with my hormonal acne? Would I be able to give up my bronzer altogether? And so, I wrote to Chiu with a million questions. Two weeks later her answers arrived, and here’s what she had to say.

What is Gua Sha?

Gua Sha is a Chinese medical technique that is commonly done on the body, particularly on the neck and back areas. Facial Gua Sha is an adaptation of this technique, and is softer, gentler and designed more for the face. With body Gua Sha you will often see people getting these red marks (Google at your own risk), which are signs of stagnation (in the form of swollen lymph nodes or inflammation) in the tissues—Gua Sha brings these out. The technique breaks down adhesions and encourages circulation in the tissues. For the body, Gua Sha is usually performed on the back and the neck, but it can also be applied to other areas of the body like the ribs, on the front of the chest and around the joints, and anywhere else you may need relief from pain and stiffness. The facial Gua Sha is an adaptation of the original technique.

How does it work in your skincare routine?

Gua Sha improves and strengthens the flow of circulation. It is largely a movement-based massage technique that stimulates circulation and releases facial tension. Our face, neck and sometimes even upper chest tend to hold a lot of tension. When Gua Sha is glided across the skin, it stimulates the circulation to improve the healthy function of the skin. An increase in blood circulation can lead to smoother skin texture, brighter complexion, a de-puffed and toned visage, a reduction or elimination of congestion on the face, and even a decrease in the number of wrinkles and tension lines.

How to you perform Gua Sha?

Your best bet is to learning the technique is through watching and observing a video tutorial. Creating heat for the Gua Sha tool amplifies its ability to encourage circulation in the tissues. Heat is a powerful way to minimise and reduce congestion—which is why I work with heat especially when I’m working on acne patients.

As Chinese medicine practitioners, we are very vary of using cold tools because cooler temperatures do not stimulate movement—it actually contracts it and slows it down. So I would use a cold Gua Sha treatment only for a rash or inflammation, or when there’s a hypersensitivity reaction where skin is red, hot and irritated. When skin is angry, you want to put off the fire with something cold; only in such conditions would I recommend using a cold tool. Otherwise I would use a warm or hot tool, or even a tool that hasn’t necessarily been heated, because as you use a Gua Sha tool on your body, it actually starts to heat up because your body heat gets imbued into the tool.

What are the different stones used to make Gua Sha? What is the significance of each stone?

There are many different stones used to make the Gua Sha, but the most common is jade. Our stones are made of two types of jade—the most common one is called Xiuyan jade, which is a very common and less expensive form of jade; and then there’s our Nephite jade, which is of a higher value. Nephite is also a much more dense—it’s a luxurious stone that is valued and prized in Chinese culture for its healing properties. As far as their healing energies are concerned, the difference between each stone is very subtle. What makes Gua Sha effective depends on how you use your tool, it’s the correct use and the technique you apply that gives you the result—you could use a porcelain soup spoon if you know how to use the right technique. I’ve even used a very smooth river rock on vacation and it has worked. The type of stone you use is more about the experience you’ll have with it in your self-care ritual. Pick a stone that you’re attracted to and that you really love—different stones will speak to different people and since the results are really more based on your technique, you can choose whichever stone catches your fancy.

What are the different shapes available in the tool? What do they do?

There are a lot of different shapes available in these tools. Our Lanshin Pro has a sculpting V-shape so it could have a really good contact with areas like the jawline, cheekbones, brow bone and the tight muscles like in the neck. So that shape is useful for sculpting, contouring and massaging to release the facial tissue there. Our Lanshin Pro almost looks like a lady like with a curvaceous waist and an hourglass figure, and is designed to fit around the curves of your face such as the cheekbones and the forehead. Our face is round and curved, so it makes sense to have a tool that can work with the shape of your face in that way.

Can Gua Sha be used on acne-prone skin?

Absolutely. The product that you choose is key for using Gua Sha on acne-prone skin. You have to hydrate and moisturise skin so there’s a bit of slip while using the tool. You don’t want to use it on dry skin and create heavy friction. I always recommend starting with a hydrating toner and then applying some light facial oil on top, meant for acne-prone complexions.

When it comes to acne, Gua Sha is useful for different severity levels and types of acne, but it only helps topically and does not actually cure acne. But it helps move the congestion, which aids in reducing acne faster. Performing Gua Sha helps sluggish and stagnant acne like cystic acne move faster, and reduces the its topical appearance (it reduces the redness and the size of the breakouts). Basically, it can help encourage acne out of the skin versus having it just sit there.

Can the Gua Sha tool be used to correct dark circles and hyper pigmentation?

If you have dark circles, you need more sleep, period. It can be very helpful with hyperpigmentation, which is considered a stagnation of blood in Chinese medicine. So where your blood and energy don’t move very well, facial gua sha as a technique generates movement and circulation in the tissue. Combine it with the right products to boost better results.

How does Gua Sha lift sagging skin and help lines and wrinkles?

Everything comes back to circulation. In the case of sagging skin and wrinkles, I would say in addition to improving circulation, Gua Sha also releases tension. A lot of times, sagging and wrinkles are actually due to tension patterns that make the skin organise itself differently over time. By releasing tension, we can correct some of that.

In comparison to Gua Sha, how do facial rollers work in your skincare routine?

Facial rollers are similar, but I don’t think they offer as much—you can’t do as much with a roller as you can with a Gua Sha tool. A Gua Sha tool is more dynamic. I often say that a roller is like a bicycle with one speed setting, and a Gua Sha tool is like one with 10 speed settings. You just have a lot more options and a lot more techniques available to use with a Gua Sha, which can deliver specific results like sculpting versus smoothing. You can’t really use a roller around the eye area since it’s really clunky and doesn’t cover every crevice around the eye. However, with a Gua Sha tool, you can work around all those tiny little features in your face (the edges of your nose or the inner corner of your eye) that are too small to get into with the roller. A roller is definitely easy to use—it’s pretty self-explanatory—whereas facial Gua Sha takes a bit of instruction and guidance.

How to make the most out of practicing Gua Sha?

Be slow, gentle and mindful with your Gua Sha tool. You’re not doing a deep tissue massage to your face. Always use as much of the flat surface of the tool as possible. Always keep the strokes in an upward motion. Be comfortable; if your hand begins to hurt, relax your arm. Wash your Gua Sha tool with hot water and soap after you use it every time. Enjoy yourself—I think that’s really important.

Should we have convinced you to give Gua Sha a try, scroll through our gallery to take a look at our favourites.

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