Wellness Inside Out Part 2: Face Yoga to Banish Skin Woes- Learn It Right From the Master Vibhuti Arora

As a part of our Nmami Life wellness series, we assure you to bring the best of health & wellness experts to help you gain the maximum in wellness. Our sole motto is to bridge the gap of awareness when it comes to your health & wellbeing.

Wellness Inside Out with Payal Sen

Wellness inside out is a weekly series that is hosted by Nmami Life Expert Payal Sen. She holds an MBA in international business and Marketing & is Delhi’s active entrepreneur, influencer & lifestyle brand curator. She is a muse and dear friend to many Indian designers & has been curating exclusive pop-ups & shows for them along with international brands that she draws in. She is a full-time mom to her 2 sons aged 12 & 8 and has supported many causes such as the angel’s network. She’s a fitness addict having practiced power yoga over the past 8 years and is a self-taught nutritionist to her family with her own trial and errors over the years!

Guest of the week: Vibhuti Arora

Vibhuti, an MBA from Liverpool John Moores University is a face tools and face yoga practitioner and has her own brand called House of Beauty. 

She has hands-on experience in understanding the needs of the clients, skin related problems and how to tackle different skin types & skin ageing issues. She is well traveled and well read thus hand-picking only the best ingredients from European and Asian markets to present to our Indian needs, Under HOB retail website www.houseofbeautyindia.com

She has been practicing face yoga and face tools for a while, and promoting the same, she also talks about it on forums and live sessions to generate awareness and help spread the knowledge.

She has been widely covered by top media houses like Cosmopolitan India, Vogue India, ET Times & Times of India, Good Times, The Indian Express,  The Morning standard and more.

She has been invited as a speaker in forums, news channels and face yoga shows.

She has co-hosted yoga sessions with leading dermatologists and skin enthusiasts both in Indian and International market.

Under HOB the face yoga program developed by Vibhuti consists of pre tested methods that not only show immediate results but also help in sustaining long term skin results.

She is known for her dynamic way of teaching and incorporating powerful face tools in her face yoga techniques.

She has been invited as a speaker at forums like FICCI, YPO, EO & corporate events and more. She hosts group and personal yoga sessions for overall transformation of face, muscle toning, sculpting and helps to achieve the natural glow everyone desires. 

House of beauty is a growing network of brilliant transformation for faces interlinked to mind body & soul.

She got into it after moving to India when she faced environmental issues like pollution and she feels not always dermatologists or face creams could help and may not be suitable for every skin type and may affect adversely. While studying make-up from a French University, she got interested in face yoga and started researching, studying techniques including European, Indian, Japanese, Chinese methods of massage and toning the facial muscles. 

Excerpts from the Session

The very first session of Wellness Inside Out was held on 30 June at 6 PM. You can watch the entire video here- https://www.instagram.com/tv/CCD2VreH_Uw/?igshid=s2h1mxrx5qmy

You can also watch the entire face yoga session video here:

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CCn5TogHzlN/?igshid=yx3qwiynl8ep

But, for those who like to read or keep a note of the expert’s opinion, we bring the entire excerpt of the session so that you don’t miss out on anything. Here are the points that were covered in the live session:

House of beauty technique that she has designed is a combination of multiple methods because although face yoga has been there for almost 5,000 years, practicing face yoga doesn’t give you instant results. If you are looking for instant results, then an alternative medicine or method is botox therapy or fillers are also there.

The technique which she talked about begins with lymphatic drainage or face stretching to moving on with a little something which is more intense like a face cardio, then there are some face yoga poses like fish pose, and multiple other variants. It is similar to when  we workout our body by using a treadmill. There is also a similar cool down technique for face because it’s important as you are stretching, toning the face muscles and building muscle memory. There is a complete Masterclass of this session which is available not only on her private sessions but also going to discuss it here.

In her words:

To begin with, use any face oil to massage. Make sure to warm the face oil/cream that you are using as it activates the ingredients. Rub it on your hands and the face technique that  we are going to use today will involve bent hands, applying oil to the knuckles of your bent fingers as shown in the video.

Technique: Knuckle in the oil to the face (Warm up)

Exercise 1:

Always massage downwards around the front neck area as upward massage could lead to having a double chin or loose. Take the knuckles of bent hands and knuckle the oil by massaging it in downwards direction in the front neck area below the chin. Start from the jaw, to chin area to moving downwards gradually to the collar bone area as the area just below the collar bone is the terminus or major excretion lymphatic drainage point. Below the collar bone, we do three circles and three pull outs and release, this will activate the lymphatic drainage. To balance, we will knuckle on face to avoid the sagging of face, to lift the face tissues, we massage in upward direction. Place your thumb under your jaw so that you get some support and start with gentle circles. This knuckling should be firm and this makes it zone 1. Moving to zone 2, that is around the ears and cheeks till our temple. Next, move onto zone 3, which is our under eye and only take bent index finger to massage, giving a little bit of nudge or a massage upwards because the skin around the eyes is thinner. Place your thumbs near the lips area below your cheeks. Look up and gently do a circular massage on the bone of your under eye with medium pressure. Go all the way up to the temple, that’s a pressure point.  Do three clockwise and three anticlockwise rotations and release.

After the warm up, apply a little pressure on the mid-point of the chin with the index fingers of your both hands. Press it for 5 seconds then massage again in circular direction with clockwise and anticlockwise rounds, three each. All of us tend to have droopy lips, there is a very tiny muscle present around both the sides of the lips, lift it using index fingers and massage again in circular direction with clockwise and anticlockwise rounds, three each. 

Then we go to the pressure point, next to our nostrils, press it a little hard and feel a sweet sensation, massage three circles in clockwise and anticlockwise direction. Without lifting the fingers, you could see the natural contour of the muscle a bit above cheeks. Move your fingers down to sculpt and lift to each till temple. Practice this 20 times while doing face yoga because face is all about repetition. This process would take about a minute or a half and this should be done for about 2-3 times a week. Keep your days marked like you have for normal body workout. You’ll notice cheek bones popping out and nasolabial will be reduced and you’ll see a pink rosy glow on your cheek. It gives fuller cheeks. With age, collagen gets depleted but with these exercises if the collagen is boosted it comes to the muscle and its rebuilding itself and the connective tissue by carrying vitamins.  

Exercising makes muscle firmer and plumper. The skin is just on the top of it and it will automatically give a nice sculpt to your face.

Body builders, even in India at the age of 60s also, their body is toned and their skin is glowing but it’s only when you look at the face that you realise the age of the person. Face yoga will help match the body and face look as it will make the face also look younger. Collagen and good fat makes your face look firmer, otherwise the muscle gets sagged. The muscles are like the scaffolding of your face, it’s holding the layers of your skin, without which it will look down. 

Exercise 2:

Fill the air and move inside the mouth, in between both the cheeks, like you are inflating a balloon and do it for 20 times.

Exercise 3:

Puffer fish face

Take in air and blow both cheeks together and start slapping your cheeks. For those having double chin, fill the air and slap the jawline. This is a brilliant exercise for blood stimulation and you feel the heat on your cheek and face.   

Face yoga will also give a better appearance and toned arms as it requires the majority of the arm and hand movements. 

For plumper lips, you have to use face tools. For pigmentation issues, you cannot cure with face yoga, you’ll need a derma roller for it but face yoga works for fine lines so it depends on your skin type, issue and what do you see about how to make it fit. 

Exercise 4:

Fish face

Take in the cheeks, and make a fish face and place the opposite hand to the opposite cheek, we do a caterpillar lift which is lifting a muscle. Repeat this on the other side. You could use a roller to remove wrinkles. Hold the fish face and start ironing with medium to firm pressure.  You feel the stretch and stress in your facial muscles.

There is no bruising with face yoga or face tools but yes for first timers, face cups can give bruises but depends on your age to skin types and hours you do that for. After some time like 2 hours it starts going away.

There are two muscles, zygomaticus major and zygomaticus minor, with the caterpillar movement exercise; you are lifting these muscles without makeup. 

Word of caution: After seeking advice from your dermatologist, wait for 2-3 days and even after getting botox or fillers done, you can do face yoga so there’s more value of money. 

When talking about its popularity, face yoga has come in recently, I am one of the few people who have started and it’s just holding muscles. The European technique is just the caterpillar exercise without the fish face but fish face actually is more helpful as it gives the cheeks natural lift.

Conclusion

The instant results with regular repetition give you more motivation to perform it better. 

Self love, self motivation and self philosophy is going to give more glow inside out and it helps. It’s amalgamation of all- right nutrition, face yoga, exercise.

In case of dark circles, increase iron intake by eating beetroot and spinach or take a supplement, improve your diet and then practice face yoga to see amplified results. Face is the window to your life as it all shows up on your face- whether it’s the happy glow or the stress inside your mind and what better than learning to preserve it naturally.

While doing face yoga, you will feel the blood rush and lymphatic rush around your face, that’s when you’ll feel all the stress stored for years and the anxiety has been gone.

Footnote

Stay tuned for Wellness Inside Out every Tuesday at 6 PM starting from 30 June 2020 on Nmami Life Instagram: https://tinyurl.com/ycbd3e47