While cryo facials administered by estheticians in spas have been gaining in popularity on more established social media sites, a lower-tech version of the same type of treatment called “ice facials” has been rocketed into popularity by tik tokers. While cryo facials use advanced technology to shoot cold, vaporized nitrogen onto the skin of clients in order to shrink pores, decrease inflammation, decrease oiliness and add radiance to the skin; numerous tik tokers have simply been rubbing ice on their faces in “get ready with me” beauty routine videos. The idea of using cold temperatures to achieve skin benefits is the same for both cryo facials and ice facials so let’s explore the ins and outs of this beauty trend so that you can perform it safely and confidently should you decide to give it a try.
Words Of Caution For Ice Facials
Ice facials may seem like a harmless beauty treatment due to the wide availability of ice and the innocuous constitution of water but, performed improperly, ice facials can cause injury like frostbite, nerve damage and discoloration and redness. There are some safety measures which you can take to help prevent these types of injuries from occurring. First, you should wrap the ice in a cloth instead of placing it directly on your skin. This not only prevents injury from too much contact with the ice but actually slows down the melting of the ice itself. Second, instead of using ice, you can stick a sheet mask facial in the freezer for ten minutes and use that instead of ice. Finally, if you are just trying to treat one spot of your face like a puffy under-eye area, you can simply put a spoon in the freezer overnight and press that against your skin in the morning. This way, you are not exposing your entire face to ice or extreme cold unnecessarily.
Benefits Of Ice Facials
Although the claimed benefits with regards to ice facials are only anecdotal and not scientifically validated, many people do stand by these claims. The claimed benefits are reducing oiliness, reducing acne, reducing puffiness around the eyes, reducing wrinkles and other signs of aging and soothing sunburn.
Alternatives To Water Ice
Some people don’t realize that the ice used in ice facials does not have to be water ice. Some people replace water ice with aloe vera ice or green tea ice in order to combine the benefits of ice facials with the natural benefits of the underlying ingredients. For instance, green tea is said to have antiviral and antibacterial properties. Therefore, someone looking to treat acne with an ice facial might choose to use green tea ice so that the ice can decrease inflammation while the green tea kills some of the bacteria responsible for acne in the first place. Similarly, someone looking to treat sunburn with an ice facial might choose to use aloe vera since aloe vera has its own properties to improve the severity of sunburn.
Conclusion
While dermatologists probably won’t soon be recommending ice facials due to the lack of medical evidence with regards to their benefits as well as the small chance of injury if the treatment is practiced improperly, ample anecdotal and video evidence does exist on social media which has made ice facials extremely popular. If you do decide to give ice facials a try, make sure you follow the safety precautions as we mentioned above. Then, if it gives you the benefits you are looking for, you may want to try a cryo facial at a spa to see if that works even better.