By Bena Deva

Face icing has been a thing for many years. Famous Hollywood stars like Marilyn Monroe made it part of their morning routine with a fresh bath and ice cubes for the face. Skin icing has become a popular morning and evening trend for glowing-looking skin.

WHAT IS SKIN ICING?

This at-home basic form of skincare is simply using an ice cube and rubbing it all over your face in circular motions to reduce under-eye or facial puffiness. It gives the skin a rejuvenated, tight feeling and smooth look. When ice cubes are applied to the skin, it causes blood to rise to the surface (kind of like that red look after a long walk on a freezing cold day), which soothes and tightens the skin. Also known as an ice facial, skin icing is a cryotherapy treatment where vaporized nitrogen is used to cool the skin of the face.

BENEFITS OF SKIN ICING:

• REDUCES PUFFINESS AND INFLAMATION

• EXFOLIATES THE SKIN

• PROMOTE SKIN BLOOD CIRCULATION

• IMPROVES THE RESULTS OF SKINCARE BY HELPING THE SKIN ABSORB BETTER

• GIVES SKIN A RADIANT GLOW & FIRM FEEL

It's been used in spas and skincare treatments for several years and for a number of reasons, including cryotherapy (treatments using cold temperatures), to destroy fat cells

Face icing is far from new: way back in the day, Hollywood stars (including Marilyn Monroe) started their morning with a refreshing face bath in a basin filled with ice cubes. In the 1990s, original supermodel Linda Evangelista shared her pre-cover-shoot tip of rubbing ice under her eyes. More recently, cryotherapy (aka cold therapy) has been on the menu of every good spa, while aestheticians like Joanna Czech have been using everything from frozen aloe vera to icy teaspoons as part of their famous A-list facials for decades.

HOW TO PERFORM SKIN ICING?

STEP 1: Clean an ice cube tray and fill it with water. Put it in the freezer overnight until ice is solid.

• Inside Beauty Tip: For best skin results and benefits, mixing the water with fresh lemon or rosewater and then creating ice cubes is a true skin booster. Rosewater acts as a toner which soothes, hydrates, and controls oil. It may also combat acne, sunburn, and skin aging.

• Fresh lemon juice may improve the appearance of aging skin, freckles, dark spots, pimples and oily skin.

STEP 2: Think of a routine of when you will ice your skin. Staying CONSISTENT is KEY.

STEP 3: Apply the ice to your face. Start with gentle circular motions on the forehead, nose, below your nose, cheeks, under eyes and jawline.

VOILA! Tightened and rejuvenated skin with just 10 minutes of your time at home.