If you’re here you might have seen stories about a facial making the rounds online called Buccal Massage or it’s lesser known version- Connective Tissue Massage. Meghan Markle gets it done and whatever your personal opinons about her are, one cannot deny she has great skin. Once the press found out about her getting this massage based facial, stories about it took off.
Simply put, it’s less of a facial and more of a skeletal muscle lifting and sculpting treatment for your face that makes you look younger without neurotoxins or harsh chemicals. Buccal massage includes intra-oral massage inside the mouth. Connective tissue does not, but in it’s own way, still ends up releasing a tight jaw and cheeks.
Having been a licensed esthetician for about 15years, once I went into private practice, I wanted to offer the kind of skincare service that I wanted if I were a client with concerns about aging skin. My past employment experience is in the medical spa world of lasers and deep chemical peels, so I know whats available besides fillers and facelifts.
The kind of facial I wanted to offer needed to do two things:
Make me look younger
Help me relax
Every single one of the services I performed at the medical spa was painful, had risks, side effects and frankly were sometimes dangerous. I wanted to offer a facial that wasn’t only relaxing but effective too especially because the lasers that I was using wasn’t making anyone look any younger.
I decided to study connective tissue massage with a brilliant woman who travels the globe teaching all the best luxury spas this gentle yet effective facelift. This massage based facial is exactly what I was looking for both for myself and for my clients.
Do you know the term “beauty is more than skin deep”? That definitely applies to connective tissue massage facials. While doing the training for it, I had to be the model for my partner and when she was done, I looked at myself in the mirror and was shocked at how great I looked and how my face felt! All the tension I didn’t even know I had in my face was gone and it felt like my skin got a drink of water- more on that in a bit.
Fascia or connective tissue, is the organ of tensegrity in the body. Of course it’s not just in our body, it’s also in our face. Fascia coats every muscle, every nerve, every blood vessel and our bones including the skull.
Connective tissue massage facials manipulate the fascia in order to rejuvenate and give the appearance of younger skin. They are also relaxing which is a very important part of it.
People who dismiss relaxation as an integral part of looking younger, don’t understand how the central nervous system works. This tends to be people who are addicted to doing vs being. Constantly crossing things off a to do list, always moving around, glorifying being busy and fully accepting that in order to have great skin, it has to hurt, require downtime for healing, smell really strong, peel, damage your skin or require a prescription.
Sadly this includes some of the best known beauty magazine editors- I’ve had them in my studio, they love my Revitalize Facial, they just can’t talk about it in the magazines or podcasts because as a solo business owner, I cannot afford the millions of dollars to advertise in the magazine itself. That is a privilege that only pharmaceutical companies and large corporations can afford. The beauty industry is worth billions and they want your money at any cost.
As a holistic therapist, it is extremely difficult to go against the propaganda of big pharma and beauty. Thanks to TikTok, the big pharma propaganda has made it’s way to girls as young as 14 who are afraid of “aging”. At 14, they haven’t even grown up yet but they are already considering Botox for “prevention”. It’s insane.
When you are in fight or flight (parasympathetic state) a few things happen in your body. Your heart beats faster, you’re pumping adrenaline, your digestive system slows down (hello chronic constipation?) your bladder and anus tightens.
Guess what else gets tight- your skin! Your muscles also get tight and so does your connective tissue, the fascia. It’s an autonomic response to stress. The Revitalize facial that I offer helps you relax and puts you into rest and digest (sympathetic state). Tissues relax instead of contract in this state.
Aesthetically speaking, over time, chronic tightness of your fascia, muscles and skin will definitely start to age you and it will show. This is why relaxation is such an important part of an effective rejuvenating treatment such as connective tissue massage in a facial.
CLOSEUP OF FASCIAL FIBERS
If I was to take a magnifying glass to fascial fibers, you will see little beads of water on the individual fibers. As we age, this water dehydrates and that’s how wrinkles are made. An easy way to get access to more hydration in your face is to stretch and manipulate the connective tissue aka the fascia and the result is a younger looking you. It smoothes out the connective tissue and lifts your face.
my Revitalize Facial utilizes Connective Tissue Massage
Botox and fillers can’t do that for your skin. Paralyzing a muscle, even for the sake of vanity, is never a good thing. Muscles are supposed to move for a reason and with a connective tissue massage facial, you don’t ever need to worry about that.
I combine it with Gua Sha, lymphatic drainage and anything else I think will help you look your best. Results are cumulative and for the longest lasting outcome, 6 treatments done once a week apart is recommended.
Available in 60, 90 and 2hr increments.