Performing gua sha facial massage on yourself or getting a gua sha treatment from a professional provides your neck and face with real, visible results! Certain facial lifting, de-puffing, and contour can be seen directly after a gua sha treatment. The more consistent you are with these facial massage rituals the more you’ll be able to see long-lasting results. When working on both myself and facial clients I have been able to achieve results like a clearer complexion, overall more youthful/lifted look, minimizing of puffy areas, and minimizing of fine lines.

The orange dots you see in the first picture mark the areas we saw a change.

scrub me secret: April and May of 2020 I took an in-depth online course for facial gua sha. My husband was lucky enough to be my test model for all my gua sha work. Over the course of about 2 months, we slowly but surely saw some really great results. Puffiness in his face went down, helping his nose appear smaller. His skin overall also looked smoother and felt firmer.

For the past 15 months, I’ve been incorporating gua sha into my skincare routine about once a week. I wanted to put my gua sha work to the test and see what amping up my routine would do for my skin. My goals were to achieve a more lifted look in my cheek and eye area as well as evening-out small bits of redness in my complexion. For 25 days straight I incorporated a 5-20min gua sha massage into my skincare rituals. I’m going to go over how I incorporated this into my daily routine, the benefits of consistent face massage, and finally my results from my 25 days of gua sha!

scrub me secret: find great beginner gua sha stones on amazon or grab yourself my favorite one from Wildling Beauty.

Why consistent gua sha treatments work:

Facial massage, gua sha especially is a treatment that will give you your desired results over time. While we can see some de-puffing, lifting, and skin radiance results after one facial massage your real results come from an accumulation of gua sha work. When your face and neck are treated to lymph drainage, collagen/elastin stimulation, and fascia lifting on a daily basis your results keep on building. The more you gua sha the more considerable your results will be.

Here are some results you can expect from consistent facial gua sha massage:

less inflammation and fluid retention in the face
a more contoured look
natural lifting of sagging areas
minimizing of fine lines
a more even-looking complexion

scrub me secret: there’s a fine line between being really diligent and consistent with your skincare and over-doing it. in order to protect your skin’s tissues and barrier, you’ll only want to incorporate gua sha into your routine once a day at the most. Any more than once a day would be a little too taxing on your skin and could cause sensitivity, damage to tissues, or broken capillaries. I suggest aiming for an at-home facial gua sha massage 2-7x a week.

How to incorporate daily gua sha into your skincare routine:

Incorporating something new into your daily skincare routine can seem like a big task but I have some tips that can help. With a little bit of planning and discipline, you’ll be able to create the time in your day to fit in 5-20min of gua sha massage. Because facial massage needs to be performed on clean skin you’ll want to aim to fit it in after your AM or PM cleansing. If a midday gua sha session is the only way you can fit this into your daily routine then you can use a toner or skin essence to refresh your face before applying your facial oil for the massage.

scrub me secret: in my blog post “Skin care layering - the proper order to apply your skincare products” I talk about the best order to apply your skincare. My last scrub me secret in that blog post tells what step of your skincare regimen you can fit facial massage into.

Here are my best tips for fitting a daily gua sha session into your day:

put it on your to-do list or in your google calendar. I have a daily planner with a checklist and each day gua sha is on that list.
do you watch TV, TikTok, youtube, etc? You can easily gua sha for 5-20min during that time. My personal favorite is to watch 20-30min of TV while I perform a facial massage for myself.
set your alarm for 15min earlier in the day and sit in bed while you gua sha your face and neck. your skin will still be clean from your PM routine so you can just wake up, grab your facial oil and gua sha stone and start.
use gua sha as your daily meditation or self-care. We all need to take time for ourselves each day!

My results after 25 days of gua sha:

The left side is a picture of me before I started my 25 days of gua sha. Picture on the right was the day after I finished my 25 day streak.

I am happy with my results after these 25 days! My overall skincare goals are to look naturally youthful and to keep my complexion even and redness-free. While gua sha doesn’t give drastic, face-changing results like some professional cosmetic procedures it is a great way to improve your face and neck naturally. Another benefit is that it’s really amazing for overall skin health and detoxification, unlike botox and fillers. These healthy improvements were made in less than a month, and if I keep it up I know I will see even more.

This is what I am experiencing after my 25 days of daily gua sha:

My skin complexion feels more even and smooth
My cheeks and jowls look more lifted
My undereye area looks less tired
I feel my jawline is more sculpted
I wake up looking well-rested and not puffy
I have peace of mind knowing I’m preventing aging
scrub me secret: a lot of times after a long day of work at the skincare studio my neck, jaw, and shoulder feel tight or locked up. performing gua sha treatments on myself after a long workday aided in some relief for my stiff feeling muscles.

Are you ready to start incorporating gua sha into your own skincare routine? I am here are your gua sha guide and resource! I have quite a few blog posts with helpful gua sha tips, insider gua sha info, and inspiration for ways to use your gua sha stone at home. Enjoy posts like “Let's all try facial gua sha”, “Facial contour massage!”, “Look fresh-faced for video chat”, “Gua sha tips for beginners”, & “Quiz! Test your gua sha knowledge”. You can also follow me on Instagram at @_scrubme for even more content.

25 days of gua sha.