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Skin cardio is the new facelift.
Exercise for your face is becoming more mainstream among men and women who want to achieve a naturally ageless look sans cosmetic surgery.
“It’s almost like having a trainer for your skin,” Thuyen Nguyen, a celebrity facialist who has worked with the likes of Cindy Crawford, Amal Clooney, and Katy Perry, told FOX Business.
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Nguyen coined FaceXercise, a blood-pumping, skin-toning and sculpting treatment he developed using massage techniques to increase circulation as a relaxing, non-invasive way to maintain skin elasticity and firmness. Stars have hired him as their personal face trainer before big events like the Met Gala. Now, he’s teamed up with New York City’s Equinox Hotel to bring his complexion cardio to its spa.
The Best Face Forward treatment is 90 minutes featuring Nguyen’s trademarked FaceXercise technique, which costs $660, just shy of the average cost of an annual gym membership in the US at $696 per year, according to the Statistic Brain Research Institute.
Nguyen’s FaceXercise starts with lymphatic drainage, in which Nguyen gently strokes the skin along its surface to get rid of puffiness and bags under the eyes. This also helps to remove water retention. Then the “cardio” part of the face workout comes in where Nguyen rapidly applies pressure by running his fingers around the face using a line of organic elixirs with vitamins A, B, C and E along with antioxidants to lift up muscles and tighten pores. The method is said to help reduce wrinkles and lines. The FaceXercise ends with facial cupping in which Nguyen takes small rounded suction cups that squeeze and release to increase circulation.
“It works the lymphatic system more intently than a typical facial. It focuses on muscle toning, pushing the blood through the skin to speed up detoxing,” Nguyen said.
The result is a healthy glow-up Nguyen says clients flock to that helps unclog pores and enables them to wear less makeup.
“It leaves your skin feeling like you just walked out of a training session or sauna,” Nguyen said.
The skincare fitness hybrid has taken off in recent years. FaceGym, another non-invasive workout, has studios in London, Los Angeles and New York City. “Workouts” like the “I Gotta Have It All,” combine tightening and lifting techniques with a deep-clean facial comprising antioxidant-packed anti-aging ingredients like kale, green tea, and spinach along with a shot of cryo-oxygen facial treatment. It costs $340 for 105 minutes. The latest outpost opened up inside New York City’s flagship Nordstrom location last month.
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And Gwyneth Paltrow’s wellness website Goop has touted the myriad benefits of Face Yoga, a series of movements like massaging your temples to strength-train face muscles along with produces like the Jade Roller, a tool users glide over skin to tighten and reduce puffiness.
“I worked with one woman for six weeks, and her daughter thought she’d gotten a facelift,” founder of happy Face Yoga in Providence, Rhode Island, Gary Sikorski told Goop.
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