Use a palm-sized, smooth and flattish stone to massage your face cream of choice into your skin. Photo / 123RF
Use a palm-sized, smooth and flattish stone to massage your face cream of choice into your skin. Photo / 123RF
Many women turn to Botox and expensive lotions and potions in the hope of turning back the clock, but some women are convinced that a quirky new technique is just as effective.
Inspired by celebrities like Miranda Kerr and Victoria Beckham, who swear by the healing power of crystals, women are rubbing rose quartz over their faces in the hope of enhancing their looks.
Make up artist and founder of The Colourful Dot, Laurey Simmons, who assisted Princess Diana's makeup artist, Mary Greenwell, has penned an entire book, The Inner Beauty Bible, based on the power of crystals, reports Daily Mail.
Laurey, who works with popstars Sam Smith and Jessie Ware, says rose quartz has long been used in beauty rituals across the world and is famed for its healing properties.
Georgia Louise Esk, who counts Emma Stone and Linda Evangelista among her clients, is another woman showing off the technique on social media - and has even created a £29 (NZD $51) rose quartz butterfly stone to use on her clients.
Georgia tells her clients to massage their face weekly with the stone and promises it can give them a more "contoured" look and dramatically smooth fine lines and wrinkles.
Lymphatic drainage is also apparently stimulated when using the stone, detoxifying the skin and reducing puffiness in the face and around the eyes.
The stone can also be used for relieving stress in the facial muscles, which seem to accumulate tension as we age.
Emma Lucy Knowles, Meditation Coach and Intuitive Healer at youremmylou.com, is among the women who have shared videos employing the technique.
She says she's been using rose quartz for years to help beat her acne and eczema.
Georgia Louise's tehnique and touch were perfected over 15 years. Photo / georgialouise
Elizabeth Rose, Resident Healer at Gazelli House in London, agrees, noting that fatigue and emotional stress show in the skin in the form of acne, eczema, dull skin and wrinkles.
Rose quartz, she says, is great at clearing negative emotions and stabilising and balancing your emotions.
However, Dr Yannis Alexandrides, British And American Board Certified Plastic Surgeon And Founder Of 111 Harley St and 111SKIN, isn't convinced.
He says that while massage stones are often used to heighten a facial experience, there is no clinical evidence to suggest that they have an effect on skin - even if the quartz remained on - or absorbed into - the skin, it would not have any benefits.
He explained: "When giving a facial, many of the intricate massage techniques that contribute to an improved complexion require the manual dexterity of fingers - an ergonomically-designed stone cannot replicate the movement and pressure of hands required for massaging deeply to improve lymphatic drainage, targeting specific muscle groups, or firming the appearance of skin.
"There are certain gems which are efficacious in skincare, although they are better within the formula itself, such as black diamond particles."
How to use rose quartz in your beuaty regime
Use a palm-sized, smooth and flattish stone to massage your face cream of choice into your skin
When the weather is hot, keep it in the fridge so that it refreshes skin and helps tighten pores.
The history of rose quartz in beauty
Paolo Lai, of Neville Salon, whose fans include Lisa Snowdon and Denise van Outen, also loves the technique and says that rose quartz is prized in the ancient world for its powers of physical beautification.
"Facial masks of Rose Quartz have been recovered from Egyptian tombs, thought by the Egyptians and Romans to clear the complexion and prevent wrinkles," he said.
Make up artist and founder of The Colourful Dot, Laurey Simmons, who assisted Princess Diana's makeup artist, Mary Greenwell, has penned an entire book based on the power of crystals, The Inner Beauty Bible.
In her tome, she introduces a deeper, more sacred dimension to the beauty process.
Laurey, who works with popstars Sam Smith and Jessie Ware, says rose quartz has long been used in beauty rituals across the world and is famed for its healing properties.
"In Ancient Egypt, the ladies were believed to ground rose quartz into a powder and add it to their beauty creams to enhance their beauty and stay youthful, as well as add a sacred dimension to the beauty process," she told MailOnline.
The science behind cyrstals
As Laurey Simmons writes in The Inner Beauty Bible, crystals are a particular form of mineral with a molecular structure that is a fixed, regularly repeating geometric pattern.
Because of this, crystals are among the most ordered and stable matter in the universe, remaining the same over millions of years.
The reason why this is important is because like everything on Earth, crystals vibrate at a specific frequency.
Their stability means their ability to maintain this frequency and transmit energy is used in all sorts of ways, from ensuring watches keep time - thanks to the quartz in them - to helping run computers: the silicon in silicon chips is a crystal, too.
It's believe that this ability to keep things ticking in harmony is why crystals have such healing powers when it comes to our wellbeing.
