Sculpt Your Way to Glowy Skin with Yilla
Reconnecting with Sculpting—Yilla’s Skincare Journey
When I finally told my mother I was going to “beauty school,” I saw a flicker of worry in her eyes. I was the only one of my sisters who experienced Chinese school (for 2 months), enrolled in art classes when I was 4, and attended extracurriculars. She wanted me to be an artist—specifically a stone sculptor.
I had just graduated with a Literature degree and to immediately pursue another career was…hard to hear. I think about my mother’s look and her dreams of marble busts and skincare is ironically the closest I’ll ever get to sculpting.
For me, skincare created space for patience, observation, and awe. I was able to reconnect with my childhood interests in Traditional Chinese Medicine, learning about plant ingredients and herbalism.
Gently massaging facial tension, releasing soreness, feeling for texture and even popping a pimple all became rituals; it was even cathartic. That feeling is even greater when someone trusts their skin in my hands.
That being said, here’s a little quarantine facial that I hope helps you destress, encourages you to move slowly, and gifts you with a moment of quiet self-care.
Scroll down for step-by-step instructions
1. Cleanse
Start with an oil-cleanse. Take a quarter size of your oil cleanser in your palm, spread it to your finger tips and massage in upward circular motions from the chin to your forehead.
Experiment with your hands. Cocoon your cheeks with your palms, and slide them upward to your forehead.
Create little cushions with your finger tips, gently skim across the bridge, and dig in circular motions behind the wings of the nose.
Layer a gel or cream cleanser right on top, repeat those motions all over your skin in a gentler motion. Feel for smoothness, dry spots, or texture. What is your skin showing you? Rinse off.
2. Refresh
My favorite step is a weekly exfoliation to reset the skin. Exfoliation helps shed the dead skin cells on top revealing a smooth base, ripe for treatment.
I prefer enzymatic or acid peels versus manual scrubs. The Naturopathica Pumpkin Enzyme Peel is my current favorite and has both lactic acid and fruit enzymes.
Apply in upward strokes with clean hands or a brush. Leave on for 4-6 minutes, enjoy the aroma, and rinse off thoroughly.
3. Treat
During the cleansing portion, what did your skin tell you?
For dry patches, use a hydrating mask like the Naturopathica White Tea Mask. Replenish parched skin with mild ingredients, like white tea, as it is rich in antioxidants to protect collagen.
Felt a breakout coming? Choose a detoxifying mask like the PTR Irish Moor Mud Mask. You may notice some purging after an ash or clay mask—your skin is ridding itself of toxins.
For hydration and detox, try the Savor Beauty Manuka Honey Mask. Manuka Honey is a humectant (attracts and holds water) with mild antiseptic properties.
For a combination of skin concerns, try mask mixing: blend equal parts Savor Beauty Manuka Honey Mask and Naturopathica White Tea Mask into palm. Apply from the chin to the forehead in upward motions for product to seep into pores. Leave on for 8-15 mins and rinse off.
4. Protect
Feed your skin. Though I love the occasional professional facial, you’ll see more results with consistency and patience. Layer your routine from the lightest to heaviest, starting with water-based toners or essences.
Apply all your serums in upward motions, then pat and press on a moisturizer or facial oil. If you have a gua sha tool, add a few more drops of oil and apply onto your face and neck.
5. Sculpt
Gua sha, or “scraping sand,” is a Chinese healing modality said to release stagnation, and relieve colds, in the blood by scraping the skin with a coin, soup spoon, or rigid edge.
Recently adapted as a self-massage tool, facial gua sha helps lift and depuff skin with more forgiving motions. When I practice gua sha I imagine the tai chi movements at the park: slow and soft, yet firm.
Glide the tool in a semi-flat angle (45°) starting from jaw and moving to the forehead. Follow your natural bone structure, occasionally slowing down to loosen knots along the jaw and around the brows.
Complete your flow by flushing the toxins. Guide the gua sha from the hairline down to the neck, and to your shoulder. Have a glass of lemon water and chill.
Here’s a more technical step-by-step:
Hold gua sha in a 45° angle. We never want to be perpendicular to skin.
Starting from the chin, hug the gua sha along the jawline, pausing to massage into knots.
Cupping the cheek, move the gua sha toward the hairline above the tragus.
Gently flow across the brow bone pulling upward toward the hairline.
Text & Photography by Yilla Chen
Video & Edits by Yilla Chen & NSC