Is Facial Acupuncture Nature’s Answer To Botox?

TLL loves acupuncture. It’s one of the best remedies we’ve found for a trillion of ailments; anxiety, stress, period pains, headaches, trapped nerves. Whatever the problem, acupuncture is something we often turn to.
Something we hadn’t considered it for was our skin; according to some Chinese medicine practitioners, facial acupuncture is considered nature’s answer to fillers, Botox and invasive anti-ageing surgery.

John Tsagaris, a Chelsea based acupuncturist who is Hollywood’s go-to on all things acupuncture and Chinese medicine, explained just why it’s such a great treatment to help the skin look and feel younger.
“Beauty acupuncture triggers a cascade of crucial healing processes, from increased oxygen to the release of powerful anti-inflammatory agents to activate the skin and its ability to regenerate.
“It stimulates skin’s self-repairing mechanisms encouraging production of collagen and elastin and enhances the skin’s natural hydration and nutritional levels.”

In the name of beauty, TLL went to try the treatment out in John’s Kings Road clinic.
It started pretty similar to all acupuncture; a brief health check, pulse-check and look at the tongue before John started his work.

Then it was needle time. Some people can have up to 40 needles in their face at one time (the more mature the skin, the more needles necessary).
The thought of needles on your face might make you wince but as with all acupuncture, it’s painless. A little uncomfortable, yes, but once you’ve gotten over the fact you’ve got a number of needles in your face, it’s rather relaxing.

John’s treatment is set apart because of the added extras he offers; along with the acupuncture, he performs an acupressure massage that works alongside the acupuncture points targeted to increase energy flow, tone the facial contour and improve the skin’s resilience.
Quite frankly, the massage cinched it – any massage does to be fair – but the soothing of pressured sweeps and taps on the face does something to a girl.

An hour later, and our skin was glowing. We’re talking a J-Lo dipped in Becca Champagne Pop glow. It looked more hydrated than it had in months and had a vibrant, youthful bounce to it. Fine lines, deeper lines and everything else in between were all significantly better.

The one area we were most hoping it would help were our nasal level lines, which run from the side of the nose to the mouth. These were plumped out nicely and generally seemed less ‘there’.
John’s special added extra is the application of Swarovski crystal ear seeds, applied to acupuncture points on the ear to stimulate acupressure points post-treatment. Forget that they helped to keep us balanced and feeling good for a week or two afterwards, they looked like on-trend ear-piercings. Penelope Cruz is a fan of them too so we were in good company.

TLL went to meet a friend straight after for dinner without wearing a scrap of make-up; the proof was in the pudding. Our friend asked what foundation we were wearing as our skin looked so clear and toned without a wrinkle in sight. Is there anything more satisfyingly smug than saying nothing?
Results are said to get even better with a course of treatments, and if that’s the case, Botox, be gone.