Defined cheekbones and a sculpted jawline are common skincare goals for many of us. The good news is you don’t need to step into a treatment room to sculpt your face. There are many face sculpting treatments and tools available at home to help depuff and slim the face or accentuate your favorite features. Keep reading to learn more about at-home face sculpting.
What Is Face Sculpting?
Face sculpting uses a device or procedure to gently refine and accentuate certain facial features. While it’s currently a notable skincare trend, facial sculpting has been around in different forms for thousands of years. For instance, gua sha is a method of facial sculpting that has existed since the mid-1600s. It continues to be widely practiced today and is a staple of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM).
How Does Face Sculpting Work?
Most facial sculpting methods use devices to manually encourage lymphatic drainage in the face. This can help open up lymphatic channels that can become blocked. When this happens, fluid can build up in different face areas, often contributing to a puffy appearance.
Sculpting techniques aim to support the lymphatic system and can also help manually clear out fluid, returning facial features to a normal appearance.
Facial sculpting devices also often encourage blood flow to certain areas of the skin, which can help visually refine the facial structure with time. These methods are non-invasive and require little to no downtime.
Other methods of facial sculpting include implants and fillers. These are more permanent solutions that involve physically altering the facial structure.
Implants and fillers may have more dramatic results, but non-invasive options are often more subtle. These options focus on gently accentuating existing features instead of altogether redefining them.
What Are the Different Methods for Face Sculpting?
If you’re interested in trying facial sculpting for yourself, you might be wondering where to start. The first thing you can do is decide which method to use.
Microcurrent Therapy
Microcurrent therapy uses gentle electrical currents to the facial skin and muscles. In addition to microcurrent reenergizing skin and facial muscles to tone and sculpt the face, microcurrent devices also provide a gentle manual facial massage which may promote lymphatic drainage. It’s easy, convenient, and typically comfortable and can be done from the comfort of your home.
The benefits of microcurrent technology include:
- Encouraging muscular definition
- Temporarily supporting blood flow
- Minimizing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles
- Helping the skin feel firm
- Encouraging lymphatic drainage
To experience the gold-standard in microcurrent technology, try NuFACE® Microcurrent Devices. These tools are FDA-cleared and clinically proven to lift and smooth your appearance.
Gua Sha
As mentioned before, gua sha has been around for thousands of years as a treatment in TCM. This method of facial sculpting involves using a carved gua sha tool, often made of bone, stone or jade to encourage lymphatic release and alleviate fluid retention.
Gua sha often involves extensive, sweeping movements and uses heavy pressure from the tool's edge to support blood flow. In traditional use, gua sha is meant to be a full-body treatment, and the device is forcefully used to “scrape” the skin, causing bruise-like marks.
In popular skincare, gua sha is focused solely on the face, neck, and decollete and is used at much lighter pressure.
Facial Massage
Facial massage is similar to gua sha but encompasses various techniques and tools. While you can certainly use a gua sha tool to perform facial massage, some people prefer to use their hands or massage rollers.
Practitioners of facial massage will often use different techniques and movements to achieve specific results. Some practitioners focus on stimulating certain pressure points or acupressure points, which may help release tension in the face and encourage blood flow to particular areas.
Facial massage can provide the following benefits:
- Support lymphatic drainage
- Relieve tension
- Encourage muscle tone
- Minimize the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles
- Gently shape the face
Fillers
Dermal fillers are a more invasive option for facial sculpting. While massage and microcurrent techniques can help refine features over time and with consistent use, fillers require far fewer treatments and typically provide more dramatic results.
Many patients choose to use fillers in the lips to enhance lip volume, in the cheeks to plump and fill sagging skin, or under eyes to fill hollows. Fillers come with significant drawbacks, including being more expensive and invasive. Most patients who receive fillers report discomfort or pain during treatment and bruising or swelling afterward.
Fillers only affect appearance, while other methods can have more holistic skincare benefits.
Types of dermal fillers include:
- Calcium hydroxylapatite
- Hyaluronic acid
- Polyalkylimide
- Polylactic acid
- Polymethyl-methacrylate microspheres (PMMA)
If you choose to sculpt the face with fillers, be sure to choose a licensed practitioner who advises you of the risks associated with fillers to ensure your safety.
How To Sculpt Your Face
Most experts will advise to begin skin treatments with a less invasive option like gua sha, facial rollers, or clinically proven microcurrent therapy to sculpt your face.
Using Microcurrent Therapy
When using a NuFACE Microcurrent Device like our Trinity® or TRINITY+, clean your skin with an oil-free cleanser to remove debris and buildup. You can also use Prep-N-Glow® Towelettes. These are designed to cleanse and exfoliate to make your skin feel like a smooth canvas for microcurrent therapy.
Next, lightly spray Supercharged IonPlex® Facial Mist onto the skin. This can help hydrate your skin and prepare it for microcurrent therapy.
Next, use the Clean Sweep Brush included with your device to apply the Microcurrent Activator to your skin. Glide the microcurrent device and then hold it to sculpt and contour the skin. Finish by adding an eye cream, moisturizer, and SPF to protect your skin throughout the day.
It is essential to remember that different microcurrent devices may come with unique instructions, so refer to the package your device came in for specific instructions or download the NuFACE Smart App to follow along with step-by-step tutorials.
Using Facial Massage
There are many different types of facial massage, each dedicated to a specific outcome. Some are designed to target wrinkles, firm the skin, ease jaw tension, or simply invite relaxation.
One easy beginner facial massage you can try is a massage for lymphatic drainage.
Clean your face and apply any serums or treatments you’d like. Then, apply a hydrating lotion or cream to your face and neck. You can use your fingertips, a gua sha tool, or a facial roller to massage the skin, moving out from the center of your face.
You can also use your tool or hands to make sweeping movements around your jawline, cheekbones, nose, eyebrows, and eyes. Make sure to distribute the pressure evenly and do each movement multiple times to help encourage blood flow. You can repeat this massage every other night or alternate it with another facial massage.
The Bottom Line
Face sculpting is a popular form of skincare that involves using a tool or device to refine facial features gently. Microcurrent therapy is one method of facial sculpting that uses small electrical currents to create a more lifted, sculpted appearance.
Whether you’re looking to sculpt your face, minimize the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, or just encourage a radiant glow, NuFACE Microcurrent Devices can help. You can also use the NuFACE Smart App to unlock app exclusive treatments and track progress.
Sources:
Types of Dermal Fillers | American Society of Plastic Surgeons
Exploring scraping therapy: Contemporary views on ancient healing – A review | PMC
