I Tried At-Home Facial Cupping

And it felt great, but I'm not adding suction cups to my regular routine.
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Courtesy of Emily Rekstis

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One quick YouTube search for “facial cupping,” and you’ll turn up hundreds of thousands of at-home beauty tutorials featuring vloggers hoovering their faces with cone-shaped suction cups, claiming amazing skin benefits from wrinkle reduction to an instant face lift. Reactions range from OMG WTF to likening the practice to finding the fountain of youth. Whatever the results, it looks super cool and weird—so I was intrigued.

Cupping is an ancient practice that supposedly increases blood flow and helps sore muscles heal. Practitioners create a vacuum inside a bulbous glass jar and suction it to the skin to draw blood to the surface. Often times it leaves big bruises on the treatment area, kind of like giving your body a huge hickey. You’ll sometime spot celebrities and pro athletes like Michael Phelps with perfect circles of red and blue on their backs—a clear sign they got cupping recently.

I know what you’re thinking, why would anyone want bruises on their face, no matter what the benefits? Facial cupping is a little different. Unlike traditional cupping treatments, there are no bruises left over after facial cupping because the suction is not as strong and the cups are constantly moving. But the same basic principles apply.

“Facial cupping works by using suction to pull the facial muscles promoting circulation,” explains dermatologist and RealSelf contributor Michele Green, M.D. Celebrity esthetician Lora Condon tells SELF that her clients like facial cupping because they can see instant results: a plumper, smoother complexion, and a slight lifting and opening of the eyes. She adds that cupping can drain fluid that’s collected in the face, reducing puffiness, though Dr. Green notes that’s not unique to cupping. “Any type of facial massage can promote a healthy lymph system by relaxing and stimulating muscles and draining the fluid back down the neck,” she says. It’s all temporary, but people who do it swear by it.

Cupping has gone from exclusive spa treatment to something anyone can do at home. (Though not everyone should necessarily do it.)

A facial cupping treatment at a spa or salon can cost north of $200. But now there are a bunch of easy and affordable kits you can buy to give yourself your own cupping facial at home. Determined to try this cool-looking craze, I got myself an at-home facial cupping kit from Lure Essentials ($30). The five-piece kit included two large cups for the cheeks, forehead and neck, two small ones for around the eyes, and an exfoliating brush to prep the skin for maximum cuppage.

Courtesy of Lure Essentials

I asked Dr.Green if there was anything I should be concerned about before cupping my face, and she warned me that anyone with fair or sensitive skin(https://www.self.com/topic/sensitive-skin) should not take part in this practice. “You can break capillaries and bruise,” she explains. “In addition, the repetitive suction can break the collagen fibers in the skin,” which is pretty much the exact opposite of what you want. To be honest, I am fair and my skin is pretty sensitive, but I was determined to try it anyway. What can I say—I’ll do just about anything for beauty.

The estheticians I spoke to recommended that you only do at-home cupping two or three times a week. “You don’t need to do sessions more than every 72 hours,” Condon tells SELF. “Too much cupping can overstimulate the skin, causing a negative effect.” Esthetician Ildi Pekar also explains that she has clients come in to get it done once a week or every few months, depending on their lifestyle. For my experiment, I did five five-minute sessions over two weeks. I hoped that cupping would help rid my face of some unwanted puffiness while also adding a bit of radiance to my complexion. That’s not exactly what happened.

The basic rules to facial cupping are: squeeze, suck, and move.

Here’s the process: You start by grabbing one of the plastic cups between your thumb and forefinger and squeezing tight. While still pinching it closed, you press it to your skin, creating a seal—then let go. This creates a vacuum that sticks the cup to your face, picking up the skin underneath. You drag the cup along your skin in a particular pattern, changing the position of the cup after each stroke. During facial cupping, it’s important to always keep the cups moving. That’s how you get the massaging action and prevent bruising.

Before starting, you have to cleanse, exfoliate, and moisturize. I just used my regular gentle face wash, Glossier Milky Jelly Cleanser ($18), and the pink cleansing brush that comes with the kit. I have to say, between the comfortable fit in my fingers and the rubber indents, it felt lovely.

Courtesy of Emily Rekstis

According to the pros, a face oil is the best moisturizer to use before cupping because it allows your cups to easily move around without disconnecting from your face. I switched back and forth between my favorite, not-too-oily oils—the Farsali Gold Elixir ($35) and Kiehl’s Daily Reviving Concentrate ($46).

On my first test run, I used way too much oil in an attempt to lubricate my face to allow the cups to slide around easier. This was a mistake. I was left with oil that would not absorb and cups that were a little too slippery, making the suction less than efficient. After a few more tries, I found just the right balance of oil. For me, it was about three to four drops. Note: Always wash your hands after applying the oil, or you’ll have trouble grasping the plastic cups.

To get the cupping motion right, I really had to slow down and focus.
Courtesy of Emily Rekstis

Using the diagram on the back of the bag, I started on the inside of my cheekbones, and moved the big cup outwards. I did this three times, moving cups on both sides of my face at the same time. Then, I moved to under my jaw, which I found to be the easiest place. I did each side of my jaw one at a time, again, doing three strokes. From there, I moved to my forehead then the outside of my face. I concluded with the big cup on the top of my lips, which was also pretty easy to do. The kit also comes with smaller cups for the eye area. I don’t necessarily have lines or even bags under my eyes, so I didn’t really spend too much time on this area.

If you’re doing facial cupping at home, there are tons of videos online to show you what direction to move in and where to place the cups. I relied heavily on the diagram to know which way to move the cups, even after I’d done it a couple times. When in doubt, always think up. The pros tell me you always want to move the cups from the center of the face outward or from the bottom of the face upward.

The verdict: Facial cupping felt good, but that was about the only thing I got out of it.

I think my favorite thing about facial cupping was how it felt. The cups sucking up my skin felt really cool. However, my skin did get pretty irritated right after, especially on my cheeks (perhaps I should have paid more attention to Dr. Green’s advice). It felt like I had a flushed face, sort of like a rash I couldn’t get rid of. Looking back, I think my cupping schedule may have been too rigorous, and if I were to give it a go again, I would probably just do it once a week.

The redness calmed down quickly each time, and afterwards, my skin did feel smooth and lovely. But I don’t think I’ll be adding cupping to my regular skin-care routine. I didn’t think my face looked any less puffy than when I started. I was hoping it would give me a more contoured effect, which clearly did not happen. As for my overall glow, I think I’ve seen greater results when I use an at-home peel (not to mention it takes way less time and energy). Basically, I didn’t feel like the cups really gave me anything extra that a quality skin-care regimen couldn’t deliver on its own.