From The Beauty Closet

Mode d’emploi

9 years ago by

Mode d’emploi

How do you apply your facial moisturizer?

If you have taken the time to read the usage instructions on the back of the packaging, you may have noticed a significant amount of variation in the suggested modes of application between products.

There are moisturizers that instruct you to spread gently with your ring finger, and those that suggest gently patting the product into your face with the palms of your hands. Some will tell you to plop a generous dollop on each zone of your face before spreading, while others recommend meticulously placing tiny dots of the product all over your face before pressing them in with light taps of the fingers until fully absorbed. Massage in upward circles to emphasize your bone structure, or touch as little as possible. There are countless contradictory methods out there.

Whichever way you decide to go, there is a common thread that runs through just about every moisturizer tutorial, which is probably far more important than the specifics of the particular mode of application, and that is to apply the product gently and evenly. It would be a shame to irritate, and potentially damage, our skin by forcefully dragging our hands across our freshly cleansed face in the name of health and beauty.

When it comes to application, which school of thought do you subscribe to?

8 comments

Add yours
  • I just put some on my face and spread it out, haha!

  • Haha. Exactly my thought!

  • i take some and spread it all over my palms and then all over my face and neck. i do my hands next if there’s any left! :)

    http://littleaesthete.com/

  • I hadn’t noticed there was so many ways to apply cream … Well I am not really paying attention when I do. I just know you shouldn’t make downwards movements since it is not very good for the skin and the muscles.

    https://whiteandpinkpeony.wordpress.com/

  • Ai-Ch'ng August, 13 2015, 11:56 / Reply

    I don’t really pay much attention to application instructions, except to confirm how often or when I should apply my facial cream.

    One thing I did notice, however, is that the skin on my legs and arms was so much better in elasticity and skin evenness than my face.

    Since I use the same cream for both my body and my face, I decided that all the gentle patting and smoothing wasn’t doing any where near as much for my facial moisture and elasticity levels as the really firm, deep and vigorous movements on my arms and legs.

    So, for the past eight months, I’ve squeezed a generous amount of my body cream onto my face – about four times as much as I previously used – and when my face is completely covered in a thick layer of the cream and my face feels like it is wet with water, I use really small and deep circular motions all over my face, starting from the centre (nose and forehead) working outwards to the sides of my upper face (around eyes— oh my word, they feel absolutely refreshed and I swear I can see more clearly, temples) and downwards to the chin, then up along jawline and up and out past the lymph nodes and down the sides of my neck.

    It’s changed my face for the better – the effect is immediate – and I feel so much better – especially my sinuses – no more sneezing these past two winter, no more morning nose-clog, eyes aren’t puffy in the morning or throughout the day…. It’s like a miracle massage that amps up circulation and hence improved colour, tone and elasticity.

    Just don’t do it if you’re skimping on the cream – this kind of slow, deep vigorous facial massage needs to really lubricate your face so it feels like it’s “water-wet”. Stop as soon as you even begin to feel your fingers drag. And you can also just open your mouth really wide and tight like the lady in Edvard Munch’s “The Scream” every so often for a couple of seconds while massaging around your mouth – it helps to hold everything firm while you massage… and you feel so calm and centred after that – it’s like yoga, or deep tissue massage for your face and a mini-meditation for my brain twice a day. And at less than two minutes per massage – it’s so worth it – plus you save on a gazillion of costly anti-ageing products…and your fingers start to get more nimble and stronger with massaging the face so firmly. It’s a win-win!

    I don’t mind getting sagging or lines at all. What I want is for my skin to lose that tight, dry feeling, and – instead – feel really comfortable and moisturised and alive: and this massage certainly does that for me. My skin belongs to a forty-six year old woman: wrinkles and lines are part of parcel and a rite and privilege of passage into middle – then old – age.

  • I am 55 years old and I still get mistaken for 40-ish … even though I have a history of sun worship as a teen. (Thank you to my European genes).

    I massage my moisturiser in upwards and circular motion – but reasonably firmly, while pulling faces to keep my skin taut. There is numerous information on skin massage to keep your face from sagging – I do my massage (mainly around the jaw and forehead) while I moisturise – and always apply on damp just washed skin.

  • I just apply it gently with my middle and ring finger in a way that maximum product goes onto face rather than getting absrbed in the palm of my hand.

  • I just massage it upwards, apparently it’s invigorating… and as for special movements, I only have them for my eye cream which I apply in small drops and massage gently with one finger to the base of the nose.

    -maria
    http://thestoryletters.com/

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