How to massage your face: Tips from ‘Skin Witch’, the facialist behind Hailey Bieber's glow

The witches of childhood fairytales have green warts, mix deathly potions in their cauldrons and rarely remove their pointy hats. Luckily, the Wicked Witch of the West tropes are confined to fiction, and modern witches look much better in reality. Like Los Angeles-based facialist and healer Emma Goodman, also known as the Skin Witch on Instagram.

One of Hailey Bieber’s go-to facialists, Goodman has assumed the role of “witch” as it was defined before the world (and the patriarchy) rebranded them as “evil”. “Witches were healers and midwives in the beginning, they were people who you went to for different types of remedies when you were sick,” she explains over Zoom. “I use crystals, moon cycles, intention setting and a lot of energy work in my facials and, after a client called me a ‘skin witch’, it just stuck.”

Now, Goodman offers an array of souped-up facials nothing like those you’re used to. They comprise facial reflexology, massage therapy, chakra balancing, breathwork, body scanning, craniosacral therapy and gua sha—depending on what you need emotionally and physically—as well as microcurrent and microdermabrasion and more straightforward facial massage. Her aim is to encourage the body to shift into healing mode. “Eastern-based philosophy says that the body has the innate wisdom to heal itself—all you have to do is give it the right tools,” she says. “I start with things like guided meditation and breathwork, because most people are very ‘go, go, go’, and we live in our heads, rather than our physical bodies. It’s important for them to be able to slow down and take inventory for their bodies to heal.”

As our skin is as much a reflection of the way we feel as the treatments we have and products we use, Goodman’s facials are centred around making her clients’ bodies and minds as calm as possible. From the amethyst bio-mat they lie on to “help relax the nervous system”, to an oxygen mask which helps cells function well, she is also passionate about avoiding what she regards as trauma to the skin, something many aestheticians administer by way of regular peels, lasers and so on. “When you traumatise it consistently I think it can cause more ageing, because you’re masking the symptom. Your skin directly communicates to you that there’s something wrong, whether that’s via a blemish, hyperpigmentation, rosacea or eczema.”

To help slow the hands of time and detoxify the skin, you can try gua sha—a technique Goodman uses in many of her facials—at home. “Gua sha is about slowing everything down and working on fascia and connective tissue release,” she explains. “We hold so much stress tension in our faces and, as we get older, the connective tissues—which are webbed right above the muscle and just below the skin—get very tight. It’s important to relax that tissue because otherwise it leads to a shortened neck and jowls.”

Follow the Skin Witch’s nine-step guide to getting gua sha right at home.

• First, choose a tool—there are many different shaped stones and crystals, with a number of different healing benefits—find one that you connect with the most. Sensitive skins might like rose quartz for its cooling benefits (try Angela Caglia’s Rose Quartz Gua Sha Lifting Tool—this one also has corrugated sides to help release tension).

• To provide some slip and avoid dragging the skin, apply an oil or balm before you begin your gua sha massage.

• In terms of position, ensure that the gua sha stone is as flat to your skin as possible—the more contact, the better.

• Use light pressure—the aim is a very light, delicate, pumping action. It should feel cooling and the pressure as light as you would pet an animal, not aggressive nor painful.

• For your face, always pull, don’t push—pushing requires too much pressure. Always hold the muscle that you are working on with the opposite hand as a base, then gently pull your tool pumping along the face, up and outward.

• Work from the midline of the face, out towards the ears and down the neck. When you get to the ear, always wiggle your tool at the end of your stroke and then take it down the side of the neck to drain. Repeat these strokes in each section, three to five times.

• When you are finished, thank your body for everything it does for you. Appreciate your beauty, appreciate your skin, appreciate yourself.

Amen to that.

This article was originally featured on Vogue.co.uk

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