Recently after a particularly amazing remedial massage, I noticed that I was entirely relaxed and stress-relieved – but only from the neck down.

My jaw and forehead were actually holding enough tension to make my face hurt, made all the more apparent by how relaxed the rest of me was.

So after a longtime casual interest, I decided that it was time to investigate facial rolling – and have gone ahead and ordered myself a quartz facial roller online.

Designed to release tension in the face, a facial roller is typically a small handle with a little quartz or stone roller for massaging and rolling the face and neck.

Based on the traditional Chinese medicinal practice of gua sha, facial rolling is perhaps a bit more ‘entry level’, but offers a myriad of benefits including reducing puffiness, improving elasticity and increasing circulation.

Gua sha, meaning to ‘scrape away illness’, has been in use for over 700 years and is used for both body and face. It involves using a smooth, round stone with a liniment to scrape parts of the patient’s skin repeatedly in one direction to activate blood circulation and stimulate the skin.

Gentle enough to use everyday and with a long list of benefits, I’m planning to use my roller with a facial serum and looking forward to introducing this new – ancient – tool into my wellbeing routine.