“The reason most women come to me is because they’re concerned with gravity’s effect on their face, where it’s actually starting to droop and look haggard,” Perrone says. She cites the numerous benefits of facial exercise—it strengthens and tones muscles in the face, it reduces puffiness by stimulating the lymph and circulatory systems and flushing out toxins, it increases collagen production to diminish fine lines and wrinkles, and it creates a healthier complexion by boosting blood and oxygen flow to the skin.
“Anyone who believes in the benefit of working out your arms, legs, and back would understand why working out your facial muscles will have the same benefit,” Perrone says. “There’s an analogy I use when people wonder about the connection between muscle and skin: Your face is like a bed. Your muscles are the mattress and your skin is the sheets. If your mattress is saggy, you can put tighter new sheets on, but the foundation is still going to be soft. You need to get a new mattress.” This is why skincare and facials will only go so far. “A lot of estheticians focus on health of the skin, restoring collagen and elastin, which is great, but they’re not addressing what’s under your skin—your muscles.”
Perrone’s program consists of exercises that use the hands and fingers for resistance while muscles are contracted and held for a few seconds before release. The exercises take about 20 minutes to complete, and for the best results Perrone prescribes repeating them twice a day for four weeks. After the first month, a maintenance schedule of once or twice a day for a couple of days a week can be implemented.
Perrone was hooked on facial exercise after trying it almost two decades ago when she saw her stressed, fatigued face responding after just one week. She says that, depending on your age, you can see results in as little as five days to one month when following the program conscientiously. For issues like puffiness caused by poor circulation of blood and lymph, you can see results after just one session.
Light therapy
Maria Ferguson, founder of the Hudson Valley School of Advanced Aesthetics Skin Care in New Paltz and an esthetician for 32 years, offers the GentleWaves LED (Light-Emitting Diode) photomodulation system at her clinic. A noninvasive option for treating a variety of facial conditions, it is the only instrument approved by the FDA for medical claims relating to cosmetic improvements and treatment of sun-damaged skin.
According to Light BioScience, the manufacturer, the machine uses low-level, non-thermal, pulsating LED lights to treat skin conditions caused by aging, stress, smoking, alcohol, pollution, and the sun. The light emissions trigger the skin’s natural rejuvenation process and penetrate the epidermis to reach the deeper skin layers, where collagen production is stimulated. It’s been proven to minimize fine lines, wrinkles, pores, freckles, age spots, and redness, resulting in softer, smoother, more radiant skin.
A session is simple—the client arrives without any cosmetics on and sits or lays on a table. Rectangular, curved light panels are placed near the face and turned on for the duration of the session. The whole procedure will take less than a minute; clinical studies have proven that it only takes 35 seconds for the light to permeate the skin layers and maximize collagen creation.
Ferguson also offers Versaclear, a therapy that uses different colored lights to help with different conditions. “The blue light is good for acne treatments, it works on just the epidermis of the skin,” she says. “The red light goes deeper into the skin, and that rejuvenates the activity in the deeper layer, where collagen is.” The Versaclear light treatment takes 20 minutes to complete.
Light therapy requires a number of sessions to see results.“The light treatment requires one or two treatments a week for up to eight weeks, then once a month for maintenance,” Ferguson says. “You’re not going to see immediate results. It’s going for tightening effects, which you’ll see over time.” Clients will generally start to notice changes after the third session.
Microcurrent facials
Developed by an acupuncturist, the microcurrent machine esthetician Mary Kuntz (and wife of Ted) uses at One Roof Holistic Center addresses facial concerns based on the model of Chinese medicine. “We’re working on the meridians in the face and clearing what in Chinese medicine causes aging—stagnant chi,” she says. “We’re getting the chi, or the energy, to circulate.”
