Have you ever seen someone roll a green, elongated roller across their face and wondered what in the world they were doing? I have! So I decided to look up the practice and discovered that the person was using a jade roller. This is one of the newer beauty trends circulating, and my first reaction was to laugh at it.

But then I remembered that I used to laugh at micro-needling too, until I found out it’s an effective way to improve skin tone, reduce the appearance of fine lines, and improve acne scars. Now I utilize this skin treatment every month or so to improve the appearance of my skin.

So I decided to look more into jade rollers and how they work. Here’s what I found out about the surprising skin benefits of this weird-looking beauty tool.

What a Jade Roller Is and Its Purported Benefits

A jade roller is a hand-held device that’s made with a jade (stone) roller that’s usually elongated in shape. The jade roller is cold and hard and is intended to roll gently across the face. Jade has roots in ancient Eastern and Chinese civilizations, when the people believed the stone itself had healing properties. Modern jade-rolling isn’t based on the idea that the stone itself can heal (which is why you sometimes see rose quartz rollers instead of jade). Instead, the idea behind jade rolling is to use certain massage rolling techniques to improve the skin.

The claimed benefits of jade rolling include:

• Reduction of inflammation and puffiness

• Improved lymphatic drainage

• Boosted blood circulation to the skin

These benefits may in turn lead to improved skin tightness and overall health. But to get maximum benefits from this product, it’s important to use it correctly.

How To Use a Jade Roller

Simply rolling a jade roller randomly on your face probably won’t give you the benefits you want. Instead, you need to follow a pattern of rolling to improve lymph node drainage and reduce inflammation. Here’s a step-by-step guide for using a jade roller the right way.

1. Consider cooling your jade roller in the refrigerator overnight to get maximum anti-inflammatory benefits from its use.

2. Cleanse your face first. You don’t want to use your jade roller on a dirty face (gross!)

3. Moisturize with a gentle hydrating moisturizer.

4. Place the larger end of your jade roller on your chin, then gently roll it towards your ear across your jawline. Repeat this process in the same spot up to six times.

5. Move the larger end of your jade roller up from your jaw to your lower cheek and roll gently towards your ear. Roll in the same spot up to six times.

6. Next, move the large roller to the middle of your forehead. Pressing gently, roll toward the side of your head, repeating six times before moving to the other side of the forehead.

7. Flip the roller over and use the smaller end to very carefully roll from the inner corner of the undereye to the outer corner. Repeat up to 10 times then follow the same pattern on the other undereye.

8. Repeat the undereye process with the brows.

Follow these steps regularly to get the best results from your jade roller sessions. You’ll probably notice that not only will your skin start to look less puffy, but you’ll also look forward to how relaxed you feel after each jade rolling session. To see your progress over time, you may want to take a photo before you start jade rolling, then take another photo after you’ve used a jade roller for a few weeks. You may be surprised by the results!