Face Gym: A Facial Workout Experience
When you think of facials, you might imagine a serene environment with soothing music and gentle pampering. Well, Face Gym is nothing like that. Instead, it’s a high-energy workout for your face! Face Gym aims to sculpt and lift your facial muscles, and it’s truly more about snatching up the facial muscles than relaxation. In this article, I’ll speak on my honest experience and whether this trendy treatment lives up to the hype!
The History And Concept Behind Face Gym
Face Gym was founded in 2014 by Inge Theron, who wanted to create a non-invasive way to work out facial muscles and achieve a more toned, youthful appearance. Drawing inspiration from her own experiences with various beauty treatments, Inge developed a facial workout that combines massage techniques with tools and technology to help tighten and lift facial muscles. The ultimate goal of Face Gym is to enhance blood circulation, boost collagen production, and leave you with a sculpted, radiant complexion.
What To Expect During A Face Gym Session
Typically, a Face Gym treatment lasts about 45-60 minutes, depending on the session type. However, 10 minutes of that timeframe is meant for skin consultation. It’s broken into different “exercise” steps that work your facial muscles, increase oxygen flow, and improve lymphatic drainage. Again, this isn’t your typical facial where you may fall asleep during the session. It’s actually a workout for your face, and like any workout, if you’re not use to ‘toning’ and massaging your face like I’m not, there might be some significant discomfort along the way.
My Face Gym Experience
I went into my Face Gym session feeling naively excited. I did some research but clearly not enough. My “trainer” (that’s what they call the estheticians) asked me about my preferred massage pressure level—soft, medium, or deep. I opted for medium, thinking it would be manageable. (Foreshadowing: If the pressure I got was medium, I’m terrified to think about what deep pressure feels like!)
The session began with a cleansing step, preparing my skin for the workout. Then came the infamous red ball, which is used to stretch and warm up the facial muscles. It helps to stimulate blood flow and release muscle tension, creating the groundwork for the lifting techniques to follow. It was an interesting sensation, but nothing too uncomfortable—yet.
Next came the “quick slaps” to the face, which my trainer explained helps increase oxygen flow to the skin. The technique stimulates blood circulation, making the skin look more awake and refreshed. The slapping wasn’t painful, actually. In a weird way the repetition was relaxing – almost like sitting on a vibration chair.
And then we reached the dreaded deep massaging. This was the part that made me question my life choices. My trainer used an oily lubricant to help glide over my skin and applied intense pressure, moving from the center of my face back toward the gonial angle (the back corner of the jaw). It felt like she was massaging my bones! I tried to relax, but honestly, I could feel myself fighting the clenching.
She also used gua sha (a traditional Chinese scraping tool) to help reduce puffiness and sculpt the face. Gua sha is typically done after warming up the muscles and helps improve lymphatic drainage and blood circulation. It’s great for breaking up fascia adhesions, which can lead to tighter, more lifted skin.
When the EMS (Electric Muscle Stimulation) came out, I thought I was finally in my era as I’ve used nuface which has the same technology. It basically feels like a facial workout on steroids. If you’ve never experienced EMS, it’s a treatment where tiny electrical currents are sent to your muscles, causing them to contract. Even though I’ve tried EMS before, this was definitely stronger than anything I’d felt. The goal was to lift my cheeks and create a more contoured look, which it definitely achieved but on areas like my forehead it was genuinely painful. It even made my shoulders lift uncontrollably when the trainer moved down to my neck!
Because my trainer ran late to start my appointment, she made up for it by throwing in some hyaluronic acid and phyto-retinol serum. My skin ended up looking quite oily, but I didn’t mind—it was that glazed donut look I secretly love.
The Extras: Add-Ons and Costs
Face Gym offers add-ons that you can incorporate into your treatment, but they can be pricey, ranging above $100. Considering the facial itself costs around $130, it can get expensive quickly. My trainer didn’t have time for most of the add-ons, so I passed on them this time, but I was curious about the ampoule treatment, where they blast serums into your skin. Maybe next time!
Results: Sculpted, But at a Cost
After my session, I noticed an immediate difference in my jawline—it looked sharper, and my cheeks appeared slightly lifted. My skin had that post-workout glow, and I felt like my face was snatched! But as the days went by, the soreness set in. For almost four days, my face felt tender, especially around my cheeks and jawline. I couldn’t even apply pressure in those areas!
Final Thoughts
So, would I do it again? I’d rate the Face Gym facial a 6/10. While I enjoyed the immediate sculpting effects, the pain (during and after) wasn’t worth it for me, and the results were too temporary to justify going through the process again. I can see how this treatment would be fantastic before a big event if you want to look extra snatched, but for the everyday person, it might not be worth the soreness or the cost.
If you’re looking for a unique facial experience and don’t mind a bit of discomfort for those sculpted results, give Face Gym a try. Just make sure to brace yourself—it’s a workout!
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