Face Icing: Is This The Secret To Great-Looking Skin?

Jennifer Aniston splashes her face with ice water to wake up her skin, Kate Moss reduces puffiness by immersing hers into a bowl of iced water and cucumber slices, Demi Moore is partial to a cryotherapy facial, while Irina Shayk and Hailey Bieber perk up their complexions with a skin-icing device. It might be popular right now, but face icing is far from new. Indeed, Old Hollywood stars, including Marilyn Monroe, were famous for prepping their skin with the same refreshing facial ice bath, and in the 1990s, original supermodel Linda Evangelista shared her top pre-cover-shoot tip: rubbing ice under her eyes. More recently, aestheticians such as Joanna Czech have been using everything from frozen aloe vera ice cubes to icy teaspoons and face rollers as part of their famous A-list facials.

“I learned about the benefits of icing in beauty school more than 30 years ago, and I’m still using variations of it,” says Czech. “It’s not a gimmick – it really works.” To reap the most skin-firming benefits, use your chosen tool – gua sha, face roller, ice globes – straight from the freezer (if using ice cubes, Czech recommends first wrapping cubes in gauze rather than using them directly on the skin) and roll or slide it, starting from the inner area of the face, moving outwards and upwards, along your jawline and across your cheekbones and forehead, for a sculpted, lifted effect.

Czech uses herbal-tea ice cubes and chilled chamomile tea bags to help depuff her eyes in the morning. She also recommends applying your favorite sheet mask, then using her Facial Massager tool (chilled in the refrigerator) to work over it, which is excellent for giving loose skin that tight, super-hydrated, glass-like finish. Alternatively, using 111Skin’s clever Sub-Zero De-Puffing Energy Facial Mask over a skin-plumping serum or cream face mask is a speedy way to contour a puffy complexion and give dull skin a great glow.

While it can give you a firmer skin texture, tighter pores and defined, puff-free features, icing is not for everyone – it can also leave skin feeling ‘frosted’, dry, bumpy and dehydrated. “It’s not for every skin type,” warns Czech, “especially if your skin is reactive, or if you have had any laser burns in the past.” She also points out that icing – unlike a great serum, cleanser or peel – is not an essential part of every skincare regimen, but it can be a great technique to boost lymphatic drainage and give an instant lifting and tightening effect. “If your skin can’t tolerate something cold from the ice box, then try something cool from the refrigerator instead,” says Czech. Sheet masks, eye gels, gua-sha tools and face rollers are all fine to store in the refrigerator.