How to make your face mask work even harder

Many of us peel one day, mask another, but make the peel-then-mask two-step regime the basis of your skincare routine. A pre-mask peel ensures that dead surface skin cells are removed, so the active ingredients in your mask penetrate better and work harder.

Anything that’s used warm on your skin will help to relax tension and so release lines (great at the end of a day spent staring at your screen), plus it brightens up dull, tired skin by getting that rosy glow back with better blood circulation. Alternatively, anything chilled will firm up the skin and help de-puff the face and features. Drop a sealed sheet mask in your bath water to warm it up, and keep a selection of face and eye masks (both sheet and cream versions) in your refrigerator to use as and when your skin needs.

Whether using a sheet, cream or gel mask, apply it and then use a face roller or massager over the top – this helps push the mask’s ingredients into the skin, and it does double duty to relax and sculpt your face. And Joanna Czech’s best-selling Facial Massager tool gives the same firm muscle lifting as her hands do in her famous facials. But almost everyone is rolling the wrong way: only roll upwards and outwards, never back and forth – you want to move any puffiness and trapped lymph. Even better, use the newer vibrating rollers (I love LA facialist Angela Caglia’s Vibrating Rose Quartz Face Sculpting Roller), as these work brilliantly on defining the features. Caglia recommends either keeping your roller chilled in the refrigerator or dipping just the roller head in hot water to warm it, and then drying before use.

Simply layering a favorite hydrating hyaluronic acid serum or brightening vitamin C serum (or powder) under your sheet mask will make the most of your time and delivers extra benefits for your skin, making it look even better.