Tag Archives: wrinkles

Look Younger Naturally With These 5 Face Yoga Poses

Move over Botox, there’s a new fountain of youth in town: face yoga. A natural, non-invasive alternative to risky facelifts and expensive face creams, face yoga tones and firms the 57 muscles in your face and neck.

“The benefits of practicing face yoga are anti-aging, reducing lines and wrinkles, lifting and firming, improving skin tone, reducing headaches and eye strain, relaxing tension, giving an energetic appearance to the face, and a healthy glow,” says Danielle Collins, the world’s leading face yoga expert.

Because the muscles are smaller than those in the body, it also takes a lot less time for them to increase in strength and tone. A few minutes per day could make you look three years younger, says a new study published by Northwestern University.

Need a “natural facelift”?  We asked Collins to teach us five facial exercises that’ll lift, firm, and reduce wrinkles.

Swan’s Neck

Reduce wrinkles on the side of your neck and face  If there’s anything that shows the creeping effects of age, it’s the loose skin on your neck and face. Whether you have a double chin, drooping jowls, or a “turkey neck”—you know the sagging skin pooled under your chin that ruins your selfies and screams “gobble gobble”—it’s probably your least-favorite body part.

If the war against the waddle has you feeling like an ugly duckling, then it’s time to channel your inner swan. Turn your head 45 degrees to the upper right and pucker your mouth really hard. You’ll feel the stretch in the left front of your neck. Hold for five seconds. Then repeat one more time.

Swan's Neck face yoga
Reduce wrinkles on the side of your neck and face using Swan’s Neck, a face yoga pose

 

The Hook

Lift and define your cheekbones  It’s nearly impossible to get near the pantheon of the World’s Most Beautiful People without cheekbones that look like skyscrapers. Why? They’re a sign of a symmetrical face—meaning the two sides of your face would line up perfectly if you folded it down the middle. A universal symbol of beauty, high cheekbones also have a sexual connotation.

“Women are effectively advertising their general fertility with their faces,” says Miriam Law Smith, a researcher at the University of Saint Andrews. “In evolutionary terms, it makes sense for men to favor feminine fertile women. Those that did would have had more babies.” While makeup contouring gives the illusion of high cheekbones, you can also get them with this asana. Simply make your index fingers into hooks and stroke them under your cheekbones 10 times.

Double Victory

Banish your eye bags  Do your under-eye bags make you look like you’ve gone twelve rounds with a boxer? While your puffy eyes might be the result of allergies, fluid retention, smoking, or a lack of sleep, the real culprit is most likely age. “The most common explanation for the appearance of dark circles under our eyes is…the loss of subcutaneous fat,” says Hayley Goldbach, a dermatologist in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Looking to K.O. your under-eye bags? Make mini-Vs by placing your middle fingers on the side of your nose and your index fingers on the outer edge of your eyes. Look up at the ceiling while squinting. You’ll feel a little pulse on the outer edge of your eyes. Hold for two to three seconds. Repeat five times.

Circle the Eyes

Get rid of your crow’s feet  Whether you call them laugh lines, character lines, or crow’s feet, we’re willing to bet that if someone were to make a league table of wrinkles from most inoffensive to “ugh, Botox immediately!” the line around your eyes would come out on top.

Circle the Eyes
Get rid of crow’s feet with Circle the Eyes, a face yoga pose

The skin around your eyes is 10 times thinner than the skin on the rest of your face. Add to that your face is constantly exposed to the elements, lacks sebaceous glands that produce hydrating oil, and loses collagen—the rubber band-like substance that snaps your skin perfectly back into place—and you have the perfect recipe for dreaded crow’s feet.

Ready for them to fly, fly away? Place your middle fingers at the beginning of your eyebrows. Then gently tap your eyes following the top of your eyebrow. Continue under your eyes just at the top of your cheekbones, ending at the inside corners of your eyes. Repeat in the opposite direction. Then with your index fingers very gently stroke just under your eyes from the nose outwards four times to warm up and relax the eye area.

The Smile Smoother

Smooth smile lines  Some people consider laugh lines a badge of honor. Usually, the first signs of aging that appear on the face after we hit our 40s, “smile lines make people look warmer, happier, and more genuine, which can translate into being more beautiful.” “[They]…almost always happen when people either smile or laugh—and while anyone can fake a smile, fine lines are hard to fake,” says Belisa Vranich, a PsyD and clinical psychologist.

Whether you want to reduce your smile lines or prevent them altogether, the smile smoother is a simple no-needle solution. Start by placing your tongue on the inside of your lips, close to your lip line. Then very slowly roll your tongue around your mouth, three times one way and three times the other way.

“As a general rule, you’ll start to see more of a long-term improvement in your face and neck after 2 weeks,” Collins told Beyond Words. “After 2 to 4 months, you’ll notice you have less fine lines and less tension. Within 6 to 9 months, people have reported that they look and feel many years younger and feel more relaxed within themselves.”

Looking for more face yoga exercises?  Download Danielle Collins’ face and body yoga apps or follow her on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter.

6 Lifestyle Changes That Can Seriously Improve Your Skin

While we can probably all agree that there are some beauty products that we can’t live without, we ultimately know that achieving great skin starts with good, consistent habits. And much like a regular skincare routine, these changes will require some upkeep to make noticeable changes, but simply consider it as part of a daily routine to maintain your best skin possible! Here are six simple lifestyle changes you can start making today, for skin that will start to glow tomorrow.

 

1. Wash your face with “soft” water

At least 85% of water in the U.S. is hard water. What’s hard water? It’s water that has a high dissolved mineral content. The high mineral content prevents soap-like products from creating a rich lather and allowing substances to properly dissolve, which ultimately leaves a soapy residue on our skin. The residue that’s left can lead to clogged pores, skin irritation, and even acne.

steamy shower

While it might feel a bit strange, try using a bowl of distilled water or bottled water to wash your face. It may just be the trick in finally healing your acne. You’ll also want to cleanse your face and neck with distilled water after you’ve showered, as the residue from your shampoo and conditioner is likely to be left on your face and possibly clogging pores.

 

2. Wear your hair up while you snooze

The natural oils in our hair, not to mention the products we put on it at night, throughout the day, and even shampoo and conditioner, can all end up on our skin. Products that end up on our face can clog your pores and cause irritation, and means you might wake up with unwanted breakouts. To avoid this, keep your hair out of your face by putting it up into a loose ponytail or bun before bed.

 

3. Invest in silk pillowcases, and wash them weekly

The smooth fabric of silk works wonders at keeping the skin’s moisture intact, preventing creases and wrinkles, unlike cotton which causes more friction and resistance. A hypoallergenic silk pillowcase further works to ensure the fabric won’t irritate the skin. Other benefits of silk? It adjusts to your rooms temperature, keeping you cool in the summer, warm in the winter, and leaves you hair silky smooth in the morning.

It’s extremely important to wash pillowcases on the regular, too. We spend the bigger bulk of our days collecting oil, grease, and dirt that gets left behind on our pillowcases and ends up accumulating and spreading even more bacteria on our face. Pillowcases should get a good wash at least once a week to avoid transferring all of that grime back onto your face.

 

4. Wash up before and after your workout

If you choose to forego cleansing your face pre-workout, you risk clogging your pores by sweating up against all of the oil, dirt, debris, and makeup that is on your skin. Even when you use a towel to wipe away your sweat after a good workout, if you didn’t start with a fresh face, you’re actually pushing dirt and debris further down into your pores, leading to enlarged pores, collagen breakdown, and future breakouts.

sweat workout woman

Alternatively, if you skip a post-workout shower, or at least a good hair rinse, you’re allowing the sweat build-up to sit on your hairline and clog pores. Aim to wash up within half an hour of your workout, and while it’s tempting to run errands in your fashionable gym wear all day, be sure to change out of sweaty workout clothes right away.

 

5. Start sleeping on your back

Unfortunately, there is such a thing as “sleep wrinkles”, and they form once skin is constantly compressed against your pillow night after night and also causes decreased elasticity. Sleep  wrinkles disappear on younger skin, but are there to stay with aging skin. The key to preventing them is sleeping on your back. Not only does sleeping on your back prevent wrinkles, it also allows for clearer skin (because skin isn’t in constant contact with the dirt and bacteria on your pillowcases or sheets throughout the night), firmer skin, and even better back alignment.

 

6. Wipe your cell phone down regularly

 Our cell phones are easily one of the things with which our hands are in contact most throughout the day. And though it’s not visible to the human eye, our phones are covered in  bacteria. When you push your phone against your face to make a call, you put your skin in direct contact with that bacteria, and the pressure causes you to sweat and trap oils in the process. If you use headphones to make your calls, the dirt and oils from your phone still accumulates onto your hands, making it to your face sooner or later. Excessive cell phone use can even effect the definition of your jawline, as there is a constant downwards tug on the delicate lower skin of the face.

cell phone toilet

Ideally, phones should be cleaned daily for clear skin. Spritz a microfiber cloth with alcohol and wipe your phone down all over. In addition to that, remove your case and thoroughly clean the rest of your phone once a week.