Facercise

Facercise: Give Yourself a Natural Facelift

Review by Magda Knight

We’re all smart-ass enough to know that cosmetic surgery is just for people who feel ugly on the inside, and that you’re never too rock’n’roll to want bright eyes, cut-throat cheekbones and sexy lips that sexy boys will know are, like, sexy.

About five years ago I discovered this book called ‘Facercise’. Its author Carole Maggio felt so ratty and cigarette-drained by the age of less-than-thirty that she decided she was going to figure out some exercises you could do for your face, not just your body.

Like a regular pro, she got 100% into the idea and researched everything she could about facial muscles – mostly about where they are and how they work against each other (dynamic tension, they call it). She discovered facial muscles she’d never heard of, and muscles that by rights shouldn’t even exist.

And then she figured out exercises for how to get to those muscles and work them so that you could have that cliched yet oh-so-true dream of beauty without surgery. Sure, you work your muscles when you laugh and yell. But how often do you actually do those things? Even if you’d like to think you laugh and yell every day, you just don’t. So although you think you use them all the time, actually your facial muscles are pretty slack.

Yep, so Carole Maggio did all the donkey work, bless her for she is a Mooky Saint, then put her wonderful research into ‘Facial Exercises’. I must confess, I can’t put on a front like I use this book every day. But every now and then I have a sneaky binge of doing the exercises, for about a week, before I forget again. You know how it is.

One thing I did notice, when I was doing them, was that even after a 15 minute session, it really felt like my face had been to the gymn. I could FEEL the muscles in my face, all over. It was amazing. It was like science, but better. It doesn’t matter what I looked like – I felt like I was becoming so gorgeous it was almost unfair of me to be that good-looking, but without spending lots of money, or indeed (huzzah) any money at all.

You do look pretty silly doing these exercises – which, by the way, can firm up any part of your face, make it wider, make it longer – all sorts of things if you’re regular about it. That’s why it’s good that the facial exercises only take about 10 minutes. Because of the faces you pull I recommend doing them in front of policemen or psychiatrists or boyfriends you want to lose – instant ‘don’t mess’ psycho cred, just add facial exercises.

The ‘Facercise’ book contains before and after shots of how your face can change in 5 days. In this cynical age we never believe what’s put in front of us – you can change people so much with different hairstyles and lighting, after all. But if you do these exercises for ten minutes, you will FEEL the difference. You can feel the blood moving into your skin and muscles shouting ‘no more – oh okay, just a bit more’ in a very satisfying manner.

I haven’t got the discipline for it myself, but I really believe that even just doing these exercises after a hard night out freshens you up and helps your skin lovely and glowy… and hey, I also reckon it would help you get the gorgeous cheekbones and Mata Hari eyes you always dreamed of.

Never mind 5 day promises and before and after shots – in just ten minutes, a facial exercise could change your life.