Jade rollers: how the West fell for TCM-inspired facial beauty tool that’s old hat to many in China
Lauded for their supposed ability to tone, de-puff and brighten facial skin, jade rollers are a hit with Western beauty bloggers and celebrities like Meghan Markle and Rachael Ray – but not with their Chinese counterparts
Paraded as one of the simplest solutions to facial perfection, the jade roller has swept across Western social media like wildfire. From top beauty bloggers and vloggers to celebrities including Meghan Markle and Rachael Ray, all swear by the ancient Chinese tool for its ability to tone, de-puff and brighten facial skin.
In China, things are a lot different. The jade roller is not a new fad, but a centuries-old device with properties based around ideas in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).
“During the Qing dynasty, emperors used the power of jade to draw out negative ‘chi’ [energy],” explains Misty Stewart, spa director at the Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong. “Jade rollers have been considered a long-guarded treasure by Chinese royalty. In Chinese medicine, jade is referred to as the ‘stone of heaven’ and represents health, wealth, longevity and prosperity.”
Unlike their Western counterparts, Chinese beauty bloggers are not gushing over the ancient derma rollers and sending followers to e-commerce sites to buy their own. In China, rollers can be found atop hawkers’ dusty tables in front of tourist sites like the Forbidden City, which is where Beijing resident Hellen Shen found hers a number of years ago.
Shen says at first she simply thought the tool was beautiful, and it mostly sat in her room unused. Later, she saw one of the characters in a popular Chinese television drama, Empresses in the Palace, using a jade roller, and it inspired her to use it more often. She now keeps it in her fridge to enhance the jade stone’s natural cooling properties and uses it to massage facial oil into her skin, using gentle, circular motions.