Hello, hi, good morning. I am a 21-year-old student juggling finishing a degree with maintaining a life and a beauty regime. As you can imagine, my weeks involve lots of sleepless nights spent hustling to finish projects and studying for my exams.
And despite doing my best to stay hydrated (gotta get that 8 glasses of H2O a day) and using a moisturiser twice a day, the stress has marked my face. I have fine lines marbling my forehead and gracing the corner of my eyes. It’s a nightmare. The wrinkles have to go.
I tried nearly everything – from anti-ageing creams to vitamin-C packed facemasks and even drinkable collagen. Nothing seemed to make an actual, visible difference. That’s until I discovered the miocroneedle roller. This little device has been popularised by various Instagram make-up tutorials has completely transformed my skin.
Please, let me share the deets on this skin device with you, so you’ll never have to worry about premature ageing again (and have more time to work on your uni work). You’re welcome.
What is a microneedle roller?
It’s a little hand held roller that resembles some sort of medieval torture device. Imagine a jade roller that is covered in tiny needles, I know it sounds very scary but bear with me. The device has originally been only used by professional dermatologists until a DIY “at home” version hit the market around two years ago.
The idea behind it is that by rolling and punctuating in your face, the healing process of your skin is activated.
There are different needle lengths that are applied for different skin concerns. However, I recommend staying between a 0,25mm to 0,5mm needle length because anything longer can cause serious damage if not used properly, hence be left to the pros. Better safe than sorry.
The benefits
- Collagen production is boosted
- Fading of acne scars
- Major glowing skin
Dos & Don’ts
There are many tips, tricks and instructions online that explain how to use the at home microneedle roller, but many of these can actually cause more harm than good. I have tried many of them (not a good idea BTW) and have had some pretty bad experiences. To save you from doing the same mistake as me, I have created this tried-and-tested instructions to guarantee you get the most out of your microneedle roller.
DO
- Always, ALWAYS thoroughly wash your face before you start. Otherwise dirt bacteria etc. can enter the small puncture wounds and cause some serious inflammation.
- Disinfect your roller head every time you start rolling over a different section over your face. This helped me a lot to keep the post treatment irritation in check.
- Apply a serum or facemask after the treatment. After the rolling your skin is still raw and can absorb the product into deeper skin layers, hence it will be more effective.
DON’T
- NEVER use the roller when you have active acne with white heads. If you roll over the puss filled pimples you spread the content all over you face and this will cause your acne to get worse, A LOT worse.
- Don’t roll your under eye area! The skin is very thin and sensitive under your eyes so you might rupture tiny blood vessels and end up with a black eye. *Ouch*
- Don’t wear make-up! There are a lot of beauty tutorials where girls do the microneedling and directly afterwards they apply a full face of makeup. This will clog up all the little puncture wounds and bring bacteria into your skin which can cause inflammation and acne. I usually give my skin one to two days to completely heal before I start wearing make-up again.
- Do not touch your face. Again this one is about keeping the skin clean to ensure a smooth healing process.
My routine
FYI, I have a terrible needle phobia so I was really scared to try it at first, but actually it’s really fine. The needles feel slightly uncomfortable on the skin, kind of like a boar bristle brush but it doesn’t hurt at all!
1.
Wash your face with a face wash that contains Salicylic acid, this will not only thoroughly clean away the dirt but also disinfect your skin. I use Garnier Pure Active Daily Cleansing Gel, as my go-to because it helps keep my oily skin and acne in check without drying out the skin.
lookfantastic.ae, Dhs23
2.
Disinfect your microneedle roller with common rubbing alcohol (can be bought at any pharmacy and retail store). This is crucial to ensure everything is sterile, you have to keep in mind that doctors usually performs this procedure so you need to be just as thorough when it comes to cleanliness. I use a 0,5mm dermaroller for my fine wrinkles, and it works wonders for my skin!
Microneedle Derma Roller Black 0.5 millimeter, noon.com, Dhs12
3.
I start rolling it horizontally over my forehead in three to four slow strokes. It is important not to roll over one area too often or you stress the skin and then it may take longer to heal. Next, I go over the area between my brows, along my upper jaw, then lower jaw and lastly along my laughter lines. Don’t forget to disinfect the roller head after each section!
4.
After the procedure your skin might feel a bit raw and tingly, so I like to apply a soothing gel texture face mask with collagen or retinol. The cool sensation calms the skin and the active ingredients help rebuild the skin texture, support the healing process. If I don’t have enough time for the mask or I don’t have one at home, I apply a retinol serum followed by a lightweight, moisturising face cream. My faves are the Neutrogena Timeless Boost Hydrogel Recovery Mask and the Mr. Fox Forever Young Face Serum.
lookfantastic.ae, Dhs17
5.
Disinfect your microneedle roller and let it air dry before putting it back into its case.
6.
I like to give my skin time to heal and not wear make-up for at least one day (two is better). The next morning I can already see a clear difference on my face, my fine wrinkles are visibly reduced and almost gone!
I repeat this whole process once a month, and that’s what I would also recommend to you guys, otherwise you can stress your skin too much and possibly cause scarring. You need to keep in mind that you are literally creating tiny holes in your skin and just like a cut or a scraped knee they need time to heal out properly.
Get ready to say hi to fine-line-free skin.