You probably have heard of gua sha or even tried it on your body in a TCM clinic. This is a traditonal Chinese therapy that involves scraping your skin with a tool and is said to improve micro-circulation and improve your “qi” so that inflammation can be reduced and healing can occur.
Did you know that gua sha facial is a variant of this technique and is gaining popularity because of how it is able to achieve several skincare benefits?
You may associate gua sha with red, scary-looking marks for the TCM body treatments. Good news: gua sha facials aren’t the same. While they use a scraping tool and works using the same concept, they are a lot gentler and hardly leave behind any marks, if at all. Gua sha facials are sought after for their ability to deliver firming and lifting benefits, and to improve complexion’s overall radiance.
If you want to give gua sha facial treatment a try, consider one of these salons that offer them. We even reviewed one of them to find out what it’s like!
1. Kuko Beauty
Reviewer: Lim Jia Ying
The moment you step into Kuko Beauty, you’re likely to feel calm and at ease. The salon has a minimalist vibe, a quiet corner that looks out to Orchard, and a suite of treatments that are dedicated to your overall wellness.
One of its most popular treatments is the Gua Sha facial treatment. I was told by the therapist who did my facial that our body has to be healthy first before we can achieve healthy-looking skin. This is why the Gua Sha facial treatment is so effective – besides addressing problems you can see on the skin’s surface, such as improving texture of skin or reducing the appearance of wrinkles, it is more focused on treating health issues from the inside of your body, to generate a natural, healthy glow to the skin.
This facial is an all-rounder that rejuvenates the overall health and treats troubled issues in your body by stimulating lymphatic drainage through traditional Gua Sha treatment.
To start off the treatment, my therapist scraped my scalp in vertical motions. She explained that this helps to boost blood circulation, which in turn open up pores on my face as a prep for the rest of the facial. It also acts as a head massage to get customers to relax.
The therapist then proceeded to put a few drops of hyaluronic acid serum on my face for a moisturising effect that will enhance the entire treatment. This is optional but is recommended so you can get the best out of the facial.
After all the serum has settled in, she started performing the scraping on my face – that’s when the real deal happened. As this treatment is designed to dispel toxins for a natural healthy glow from the inside of your overall body wellness, my therapist told me it would be a little painful – and that it would depend on how much toxins I had in my body.
Since scraping works deep into the tissues of your face, you’ll feel aches on certain areas and where the aches happen are telltale signs of health issues. The deeper the aches you feel, the worse your issue is likely to be.
When my therapist started scraping on my cheeks, I felt an intense ache on my right cheek – she told me this was likely because of I’ve been consuming too many chilled beverages and sleeping too late at night (both are absolutely true!). I like that the therapist wasn’t just treating my skin problems but was also sharing with me health-related concerns that I should take note of.
After learning where my troubled areas were (cheeks and dark eye circles), my therapist focused more on these areas to treat the problems. She shared that the facial session differs for each customer. For me, I did not have severe acne problems, but instead swelling and dark eye circles, so she focused mostly on that during my treatment.
When we were done with the face-scraping, she proceeded to treat my neck area, explaining that this was to scrape all the toxins released from the face, otherwise they’ll stay in the face areas and cause breakouts after the facial if the toxins weren’t released properly.
To finish the treatment, my therapist applied a facial mask over my face that gave a cooling sensation. I swiftly dozed off as we waited for the facial mask to sit on my face – thanks to the comfortable and quiet ambience of Kuko Beauty.
After the facial, my complexion definitely looked much brighter and healthier! With the intense scraping on my cheeks, I also noticed that they looked less puffy after the treatment. My severe dark circles seemed to be lighter and I certainly felt more refreshed and rejuvenated!
Kuko Beauty
Address: 181 Orchard Rd, Orchard Central, #03-12, Singapore 238896
Telephone:6634 8255
Opening Hours: 11am – 9pm (Mon – Fri), 10am – 7pm (Sat & Sun)
Make an online booking here
2. Renaza Wellness Lifestyle Lab
Image for illustration purpose only.
Gua sha treatment is also a great therapy for your eye area. The detoxification benefits of gua sha can help with eliminating the look of wrinkles, spots, dark eye circles, eye bags, and promote blood circulation around the eye contours.
If you’re giving your eyes the pampering they deserve with a gua sha facial for your eyes, consider the Eye Rescue Gold Therapy with Jade Gua Sha at Renaza Wellness Lifestyle Lab. This facial begins with an acupressure massage followed by a gentle gua sha therapy around the eyes, and finishes with a lymphatic drainage massage.
The super luxurious facial uses jade, a traditional tool for massage, during the gua sha step. Jade is used because of its ability to balance the “qi” in body, cool down skin’s temperature, and ability to soothe and detoxify. A gold-infused mineral mask will also be applied to further pamper your eye area.
Renaza Wellness Lifestyle Lab
Address: 8A Marina Boulevard, #B2-23 Marina Bay Link Mall, Singapore 018984 | 390 Orchard Road, #03-10, Palais Renaissance, Singapore 238871
Click here to redeem this eye therapy at SGD58 instead of SGD220.
3. Skin Lab 360
Light therapy can be used to improve the function of your cells by enhancing the benefits of the facial products that were used on you. So the combination of gua sha to improve micro-circulation and light therapy is rather powerful – both make sure that the active ingredients of skincare products are able to penetrate even better and work more effectively on your skin. This is why the LED (Energy) Light Treatment with Guasha treatment by Skin Lab 360 is so popular.
The facial treatment uses green light therapy, which is good for anti-ageing. This facial also helps improve dilated capillaries, sagging skin around the eyes, under eye circles, and pigmentation. The light therapy is supported by a gua sha treatment. The therapist scrapes skin with a combination of short and long strokes to stimulate micro-circulation so that skin can look brighter and more lifted.
Skin Lab 360
Address: 1 Jalan Anak Bukit, Bukit Timah Plaza, #B1-14, Singapore 588996
Click here to redeem this treatment at SGD139.
4. Beautti Slim
The 360° Signature Facial with Gua Sha Treatment by Beautti Slim combines advanced technology with traditional techniques to help improve skin’s firmness. Besides using the gua sha technique as a facial massage, ultrasonic treatment is used to help skin look even firmer.
You’ll also be pampered with an eyebrow shaping session, shoulder massage, and scalp massage so you’ll not just look your best but feel even better when you step out of the salon.
Beautti Slim
Address: 1 Maritime Square, Harbourfront Centre #03-15, Singapore 099253 | 391B Orchard Road, Ngee Ann City Tower B, #14-05/06, Singapore 238874
Click here to redeem this treatment at SGD88 instead of SGD168.
