Face yoga 101: Expert practitioner Vibhuti Arora explains everything you need to know

Vibhuti Arora is a certified yoga and face yoga master teacher, and has trained over 500+ face yoga teachers so far

While the manifold benefits of yoga on the mind and body have been long known to us, it turns out we had been missing out on its positive effects on our faces all this time. Well, the world is swearing by the practice of face yoga, and it’s about time you catch up with the trend too.

Face yoga is the science of exercising, toning, lifting, and sculpting over 57 facial muscles, without any salon or dermatological interventions. The techniques involve working these muscles to improve blood circulation and stimulate the production of collagen, relaxing tension on your face, de-puffing it, and also improving facial symmetry. We speak with face yogi Vibhuti Arora, co-founder at House of Beauty, who decodes the techniques, teaches us some stretches, and spills the beans about her personal skincare regimen.

Tell us a bit about yourself, and take us through your journey of becoming a renowned face yogi. 

I suffer from an auto-immune skin condition called lupus. When all the doctors couldn’t help, I found relief in yoga and face yoga. I started reading all about the adverse effects of sulphates and parabens on our skin, heavy metal toxicity that we go through, and all the microplastics we end up consuming daily. That is where my quest to a cleaner, better life began. I studied yoga in depth and went on to take my certification from the Ministry of Ayush. I was always inclined towards beauty, and got to know that there are eight face yoga exercises mentioned in the RigVeda.

My curiosity to dive deeper into the topic grew, and I embarked on my journey into corrective skincare backed by the science of face yoga. I studied facial muscles and structure, did my research on the topic, and wrote a book with all the face yoga exercises and massage techniques that I developed. Today, I am on a mission to assist anyone who seeks assistance with untreatable skin conditions or issues. I am a certified yoga and face yoga master teacher, and have transformed over 10,000+ faces globally and trained over 500+ face yoga teachers so far.

Face yoga is the science of exercising, toning, lifting, and sculpting over 57 facial muscles, without any salon or dermatological interventions

What are the key benefits of face yoga?

Face yoga has multiple extrinsic and intrinsic benefits. Some of them are anti ageing, puffiness reduction, lymphatic drainage, face lifting and tightening (non-invasively), fixing facial asymmetry, assistance in facial paralysis, migraine, and tinnitus, fixing blepharoplasty, fine-line reduction, skin texture improvement, and collagen boosting.

What inspired you to come up with House of Beauty?

House of Beauty is a holistic beauty-wellness brand started by my husband Sumit and I, after we saw a gap in the market for clean beauty. There were hardly any effective and result-oriented skincare products that were ‘issue specific’ and not limited to ‘issue suppression’. When we started out first, our vision was to launch an integrated line of holistic skincare, face tools, wellness oils, nutraceuticals, and face yoga practices. We wished to give end-to-end hand-holding to our consumers by assisting them in achieving their beauty-wellness goals. And five years since our inception, we have been blessed to curate and deliver exactly that!

Share with us a few face yoga techniques that are most effective for anti-ageing and skin rejuvenation.

1. The Butterfly Squint: This exercise is used to reduce under-eye fine lines by strengthening the extrinsic muscles of your eyes and reducing droopiness of the upper lid. For this, place your index and middle fingers on the outer corners of your eyes, and then stretch the two fingers to form a ‘V’ or make a 45-degree angle like the wings of a butterfly. Focus on a point near you and hold your gaze straight. Squeeze your eyes shut and pull your crow’s feet skin (wrinkled lines around the outer corners). Let the eye muscles move backwards while your focus is still on the centre. Relax for a few seconds, and then, close and open your eyes while creating a resistance and relaxing again and again. Repeat the same exercise for at least eight times.

2. Pinky Pinches: This exercise is used to enhance the cheek muscles. The pinching motion used in this exercise sends false signals to the brain to send repair cells that gush through blood to the affected region. All you have to do is use your thumb and index finger and start by mildly pinching your cheek region. Be gentle but firm while pinching all the way up to your temple. The next step is to pinch and twist mildly without pulling or tugging any skin and only pinching the muscles of the face. Repeat this all the way on zone 2 to the count of 20. Repeat this exercise at least three times.

3. Cheek Caterpillar: This is the perfect exercise for those who are looking for face lifting, face sculpting, and cheek contouring. To start this exercise, ensure that your spine and neck are straight and start the caterpillar finger massage by slowly putting your fingers deep below your zygomatic muscles, lifting the two muscles and creating the perfect contour for your muscles to build memory. Do this exercise for at least 20 seconds, and repeat at least three times.

What is your personal daily skin regimen like?

Skincare is an emotion that is neuro-stimulated by your brain. There are days when your skin is inflamed, dull, and tired and just needs to breathe without having anything applied on. Other days, it is in its healing mode and is receptive to everything you layer. So, my personal skincare regime also oscillates between minimal on certain days and elaborated 10-12 steps on others accordingly. I start my day with an amla-haldi shot in the morning. I wash my face with HOB Hydrabright face wash, and apply my kumkumadi oil to begin my one-minute signature face yoga massage. Post shower (where I only rinse the excess oil with water), I start my layering with peach toner, hyaluronic serum, eye cream, and sunscreen. Using my HOB oud hair perfume is a must for me as it really starts my day on a pleasant note. At night, I ensure to remove all my make-up, use a collagen cream followed by night serum, and finish off the routine by massaging with a face tool.

Three skincare products you can’t live without?

My Hydragel eye patches, Collagen roller, and Hydra oxy gel cream (works any time of the day and in any weather condition)!