Most probably you’ve seen them on social media or you were poking around a friend’s medicine cabinet one day, or came across it in another friend’s refrigerator. Wherever you first encountered the soon-to-be-everywhere facial roller, it’s likely not something you’d forget easily. The handheld tool is having a bit of a moment right now, and for good reason.

The jade roller — which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like — has been around since the 17th century and was originally used by Chinese royalty and high society members. Clear quartz roller draws off negative energy of all kinds, neutralising background radiation, including electromagnetic smog or petrochemical emanations. Cleanses and enhances the organs and subtle bodies and acts as a deep soul cleanser, connecting the physical dimension with the mind. Rose quartz roller brings a deep inner healing, enhancing self love, self trust, self worth and self confidence. Made from solid crystal stone, rollers have one larger stone for bigger areas of the face (cheeks, jaw, forehead) and a smaller stone for harder to reach places (undereye, mouth). 

I know it sounds crazy, but devoted rollers can’t get enough of the tool and as a convert myself, I can vouch for the facial roller’s effectiveness at decreasing puffiness, minimizing lines and making sure your daily serums are penetrating deeply into your skin. By using a facial roller every day, you’re actually giving yourself a gentle facial massage. That massaging motion not only increases circulation (hello, plump, firm, glowing skin), it also works to break up any stagnation in the lymphatic system that may be causing puffiness or blemishes and gives your neglected facial muscles some much-needed TLC. (Tense muscles = wrinkles, FYI.)

Convinced? Here’s how to use your facial roller.

Cleanse + treat.

You should only be using your facial roller on clean skin. Like I said earlier, the massaging motion will help any product on your skin sink in deeper and the same is true for old makeup and dirt. So before you even think about picking up the facial roller, wash your face.

If you’re going to roll in the morning to decrease any I-barely-slept-last-night puffiness, consider popping your facial roller in the fridge overnight. The cool crystal stone will lower swelling by shrinking blood vessels. It also just feels really amazing on tired skin.

Rolling at night? Go through your standard cleansing routine to remove all traces of the day and apply any serums and/or oils you like before bed. After giving them a minute to sink in, roll your heart out. The facial roller will help skin drink them up before they have time to evaporate or rub off on your pillow.

Get to rolling.

Now comes the fun part. There’s no right or wrong area of the face to start, but do make sure you’re rolling from the center, out. Visually split your face in half using your nose as the divider and work on one side at a time.

Start at your chest and using gently pressure, perform outward and upward strokes with the facial roller along your skin. Pass over the same patch of skin three to four times, always moving to the outer edge of your face. When you need to return the roller to the starting point, pick it up and place it back at the start (don’t roll backwards).

From your chest, move up: neck, chin/jawline, cheeks (roll from your nose out toward your ear), undereye and eyelid (use the small end of the roller here and very gently move from the inner corner of your eye out to the temple), eyebrow (switch back to the larger side and roll out and down, following the contour of your brow bone), forehead (start in the middle and roll out).

Now do the exact same thing on the other side.

Finish with a soothing upward roll from between your eyebrows, up to the hairline. The whole process should take two to four minutes, depending on how many passes you’re doing and how many areas of the face you’re hitting. As you’re working the facial roller, you’ll see your skin start to flush — this is a good thing! It means circulation is increasing.

Clean that roller!

If you want to apply additional serum or moisturizer, go for it. If not, your final step should always always ALWAYS be cleaning the facial roller thoroughly with warm water or wipe off the excess serum with a damp cloth. This thing is touching your face every single day, so keep it clean.

In a full moon, leave your crystal facial roller under the moonlight to recharge and cleanse the crystal stone.