The Motherload Reviews: Hayo’u Beauty Restorer and Face Oil

I literally cannot remember the last time I had a facial – it was definitely before I had kids – probably even before I got pregnant so that’s at least 5 and a half years ago. Being a mum feels like being at the centre of a whirlwind for most of your waking (and sleeping) hours, so like many mums, taking care of me falls a long way behind taking care of everybody else. So when I heard about Hayo’u Method’s one minute Gua Sha facial ritual I had to give it a try. Even someone as harassed, and time-poor as me could find one minute to care for myself, right? 

The idea behind the Beauty Restorer ritual is based in Chinese medicine and involves using their Beauty Restorer (a gorgeous tool made from cooling jade) and treat-rite face oil, which is fragranced with lotus flower and frankincense and smells absolutely AMAZING. 

The two products come with instructions on how to do the Gua Sha technique. You rub the oil into your face and neck and then press-stroke your face in the areas that store tension – so along the temples, the jaw line and the brow. The idea is that the technique releases congestion and toxicity and results in a brighter, healthier, more youthful complexion. Your skin can go a little red whilst doing the ritual, but that’s good – it means the blood is coming to the surface of the skin. To get an idea of how firm you need to be, Hayo’u say to imagine you are scratching an itchy insect bite, and use a similar pressure.

You can see how to do it in this Hayo’u video tutorial with founder Katie Brindle

There is no doubt that stress and tiredness are ageing and make you look and feel drained. So will the Hayo’u Beauty Restorer and face oil make me look and feel brighter and reinvigorated?

I’ve been doing the Hayo’u Gua Sha ritual every night before bed, when the kids are asleep and I have my little me-minute, my mini-spa at home.  And I have to say, it’s really, really lovely.

My favourite bit is smoothing on the incredible treat-rite de-stress face oil, it smells wonderful and as I close my eyes and breathe in the fragrance it feels like a moment of pure luxury and takes my back to the halcyon days of spa trips and facials galore. I’m a big fan of face oils generally.  I know it seems counter-intuitive to put something so, well, oily on your face – after all, who wants to look oily? But a good quality face oil just melts into the skin, and nourishes it and feels totally fabulous.

After smoothing the oil onto my face and neck, I lay the cool, smooth jade Beauty Restorer de-stress face tool on my eyes. It feels so lovely. I’ve had a migraine this week and the jade helped soothe my horrible gritty eyes. Then I use the Beauty Restorer to press and make sweeping motions above my brows, on my forehead, down beside my nose, along my jaw line and down my throat. Then I press and gently rotate the stone on pressure points on my forehead, near my eyes and on my chin. I look a bit pink afterwards but it feels lovely, I feel relaxed and de-stressed for bedtime, and I feel good for just devoting a teeny-tiny bit of time to me. My skin feels smoother and plumper and my pores look smaller giving my skin a more even texture. Although I’ve made this my evening skincare routine you can do this in the shower, or at your desk, or even keep it in the baby change bag so you can do it while the baby naps in the pushchair – anywhere you can grab a minute just for you. Because you’ve earned it. And so have I – the Hayo’u Gua Sha ritual is definitely something I’ll be keeping up.

If you want to try the amazing products from Hayo’u, they’re offering a special MOLO discount. Use code HAYOU10 to get 10% off when you buy online on their website.