Since 5000 BC, Chinese society has considered the green gemstone, Jade, to be a symbol of beauty and immortality and is thought to have healing properties. Ancient medical treatments utilized this stone to massage the muscles of the face and neck, stimulate acupuncture energy points, and promote lymphatic drainage.

How a Jade Roller Improves Your Skin

The act of rolling a jade gemstone across your skin can improve circulation and the flow of lymph fluids. Altogether, this can aid in detoxification and skin tightening. People who have tried this treatment have reported glowing, more radiant skin, along with decreased signs of aging, such as fine lines and wrinkles. Like a body massage, gentle rolling also helps to calm your skin and relieve stress.

What is an Ice Roller?

An ice roller is essentially an ice pack on a stick. It’s convenient and easy to use straight out of the freezer. The goal in using ice is to calm down inflamed skin.  In the case of inflammation due to a cut, burn, abrasion or after a pimple extraction, darker skin is more at risk for hyperpigmentation (HP). HP is when your melanin (color producing cells) become triggered to protect your skin. Once triggered, they send out a collection of cells carrying the dark pigment. These cells stay in your skin in the affected area making it look like a stain, scar or dark spots. Depending on how fast your cells turnover (exfoliate), this can last a few weeks to a couple of years. It is especially important to use brightening products and quickly reduce inflammation in people who have higher amounts of melanin in their skin. In other words, if you tan easily instead of burning you have more melanin.

How an Ice Roller Improves your Skin

When I have a client who has congested skin, I typically pull out my ice roller from the freezer and cool their skin down for about 5 minutes. Then I instruct them to either buy a roller for their home use or make an ice pack out of cubes, a plastic bag and a wet towel. Icing your skin should always be done in 20 minutes or less. Over-icing can lead to frostbite, meaning your skin will freeze.

Both rollers are similar in the fact that they gently calm the skin and can be used as often as desired. The ice roller can be used for more specific purposes such as inflammation while the stone roller is more general in its application.

Roller Care

Thoroughly washing your rollers with soap and water before and after each use is important. If you happen to roll over broken skin you can take the cleaning part a step further and use a pad saturated with rubbing alcohol to disinfect the roller. At the spa, we have disinfectants and cleaning protocols for all of our tools.

To summarize, rollers may benefit your skin if you have the time or inclination. My favorite time to roll is during old episodes of Scandal. If you watch that, remember to use gentle pressure even through the exciting parts.

Thank you for reading The Freckle blog! Please subscribe to stay informed of all things relating to skin care. Also, check out my website and YouTube channel for product news and recommendations.

[ocinsta-carousel]