The at-home freeze facial that will cost you $0
Ice ice baby!
I was recently having a work date/beauty sesh with my gal pal and fellow Saucette, Zeenat on Zoom. The ever-so-wise Z was telling me about a little beauty technique she had learned about back in India which promises to banish under-eye baggies, calm angry breakouts, sculpt your cheekbones, reduce inflammation and redness and wake your skin up.
This beauty secret did not contain a jar of $500 product, nor did it contain the use of needles or even a beauty therapist. No, all that was required to achieve a puffless, glowing face was a humble cube of ice!
I left our work date feeling both intrigued and slightly apprehensive at the prospect of a cube of ice being able to cure pretty much every single one of my skin concerns. But hey, I’m never one to shy away from a beauty review or product trial, especially if it involves making my face look better so I agreed to test this theory out in the name of beauty and report back my findings.
I decided to wait for the perfect time to test the ice cube theory out. A time when my eyes were puffy, my skin was looking dull and when a cluster of angry breakouts had taken up residence on my face. Obviously, I only had to wait until my special lady time of the month for the basis of this experiment, lucky, lucky me. The perfect trial day arrived, the night prior I had had a hormonal crybaby sesh and my sleep or lack of was riddled with insomnia, cue the puffy, red eyes! My pre-menstrual skin was dull and bumpy and my face just felt tight and dry. Awesome, I look like shit, let the experiment begin!
The test drive
I grabbed two ice cubes from the freezer and a face towel and got to work on half of my face for comparison. I massaged the cube of ice in circular motions around my puffy eyes and all over the rest of my face, dabbing the watery residue with my towel. The ice was a sharp shock to my skin, waking me up instantly, but just a little side note- don’t hold the cube on your skin for too long otherwise it starts to burn...like really burn! My icing session took about a minute and I used both cubes until they were melted. I then returned back to my desk for a few minutes to wait for the magic of the ice to take effect. Before even looking in the mirror the side of my face I had iced felt refreshed, less dry and less puffy and after looking in the mirror I was amazed to see that the ice had in fact done exactly that. My eye baggies were noticeably less baggy and the puffiness had reduced, actually, my whole face looked less puffy, which kind of gave me Bella Hadid lookin’ cheekbones- Okurrr. My skin even looked glowy, you know that post glow you get after walking though a brisk wind or being at the snow? This little ice trick really worked.
And of-course the google searches
Of course, I had to jump online to see if anyone else in the world was in on this beauty secret and duh! Of course its a thing. Famous faces all over the world have this technique to thank for their perfectly taught and glowing skin, think Kate Moss and Victoia’s Secret Angel, Jasmine Tooks. Basically how it works is that the cold constricts the blood vessels so that less blood goes to the suface of the skin, eliminating inflammation and swelling and the ice also tightens and shrinks enlarged pores. A little tip I learned is to use your favourite serum on your skin first then apply the ice over top, the capillaries restrict and it creates a pulling effect that helps ingredients penetrate deeper.
The final verdict
So the next time you’ve woken up from a restless sleep or your eyes are puffy and red from a cry fest, or you’ve got a big event and you need your skin to be on point. Ditch the expensive serums, creams, treatments and face masks and grab a cube of ice from your freezer instead. Not only is it super effective but it’s also super free! And that’s a win-win in my books.
Image source — here
Words — Nina Franklin
