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I Tried One Of Those Jade Face Masks And Bye Bye Anxiety'
It’s like if a silk eye mask and a jade roller had a baby.
It's undoubtedly the fanciest way to help you get to sleep - and tackle those under eye bags - that you'll find.
If you’re anything like me, you find winding down at night hard. External stimulants throughout the day and a to-do list as long as your arm means that as soon as the clock strikes 9pm and I hop into bed, my brain is still ticking over.
Some nights, when I feel the day is done and I’ve achieved all I had to do, I can fall asleep. Others, I need a little more encouragement.
While my days of drinking half a bottle of cab sav are behind me (that’s a one way ticket to risky text town, trust me), I’ve now employed some healthier practices when slumber eludes me.
I always have a warm shower right before bed (research shows that taking a warm shower or bath can help you fall asleep faster) as well as popping a melatonin tablet if I’m seriously wired (a supplement form of the hormone that regulates the sleep wake cycle), and sticking to one coffee per day.
Without fail though, I do a 10 minute meditation via the Insight Timer app. Lulled to sleep by the sweet sounds of Sarah Blondin’s voice, I lay flat on my back and concentrate on my breathing.
Nine times out of 10, this works, and I can drop into the zone and fully relax. The only problem? I tend to open my eyes midway through to take a peep (only to be greeted by my dark bedroom, not the burglar/monster/weird kid from The Ring I am subliminally expecting), breaking my meditative state.
Alas, I found a solution and it comes in the form of a jade eye mask. Crafted by CAW (the brand responsible for those crystal water bottles you’ve seen all over Instagram), their Crystal Eye Mask is made up of over 120 crystals carefully aligned to form a mask which snuggles onto your eye area.
Available in rose quartz, amethyst and jade, I went with the green jade stone as it’s renowned for its cooling, de-puffing and lymph stimulating properties.
While the science is skint, jade dates back to as far as 6th century China, where it was originally crafted into anti-wrinkle and anti-ageing beauty tools to promote a youthful appearance and smooth skin, as well as being believed to have healing and protective properties.
Popularised by the jade roller (which also de-puffs and helps promote lymphatic drainage), the eye mask rendition is said to improve the appearance of dark circles, bags and even relieve headaches – all departments I could use some help with.
After jumping into bed, I cued up my meditation app and placed the mask over my eyes. It’s really cold – like, ice cold. Alas, it’s kind of refreshing, similar to flipping the pillow to the cold side on a hot night.
The first thing I notice is that it keeps my eyes shut – tick. The second though, is the weight of it. While it’s not skull crushingly heavy, it is hefty enough to keep my head in place, helping me to relax my neck. Similar to how a weighted blanket works to ease anxiety, the sheer weight of something over my eyes was weirdly calming.
Once the timer was up, I took the mask off and immediately dozed off – no running through tomorrow’s to-do list in my head, no final check of Instagram, nada.
When I woke up in the morning, my eyes were significantly less puffy and have been consistently so since I slipped it into my routine a week ago (on the nights when I’ve drank six wines, the mask is less effective on the bag front, FYI).
Admittedly though, it is a pretty woo-woo inclusion in anyone’s beauty routine, but for me, I’ve seen big benefits – even if it did set me back $99.
As written by the lovely Ash Austen