Reaching up to close my kitchen blind, I catch sight of my neighbour in her garden. She raises her hand to wave, then stops. Rooted to the spot, horror etched on her face, she looks as though she’ll never get over the shock. But I’m not surprised. My face is the stuff of nightmares. Covered in a cotton mask and wrapped in clingfilm (right), I look just like Hannibal Lecter. I’m swaddled like this because, according to a new bestselling book, The Japanese Skincare Revolution, steaming your face by covering it in clingfilm is the secret to beautifully smooth and rejuvenated skin. A new bestselling book, The Japanese Skincare Revolution, says that steaming your face and covering it in clingfilm is the key to rejuvenated skin . Japanese women are renowned for their beautiful skin but, until now, no book in English has revealed the secrets of their beauty routines. Now, we can discover the joys of massage to tone the muscles of the face and natural remedies for wrinkles, sagging, oiliness, pimples and blackheads — including a step-by-step guide to the clingfilm mask. The idea is that the heat created by your breath and body warmth will encourage pores to open, so that the moisture from any water, creams or serums applied to the face will soak into the deeper layers of the skin, boosting collagen. ‘Moisture content is the most important factor in a rejuvenated complexion,’ says the book’s author Chizu Saeki, a celebrity beauty guru in Japan. ‘If skin is hydrated, it will look younger, firmer and fresher.’ She promises that her mask, which consists of water, followed by hydrating lotion, then serum — will give me an instant youth boost. If I follow it to the letter, I can wave goodbye to Botox, as water is the secret weapon in the war on ageing. Surprisingly enough, the idea does have medical backing. Frances Childs (pictured) gave the bizarre technique a try and wrapped her own face in clingfilm to see what the results were like . ‘We use clingfilm in severe cases of psoriasis to encourage cream to work at a deeper dermal level,’ says Dr Sunil Chopra, director of The London Dermatology Centre in Wimpole Street, London. Dr Chopra says healing cream is applied to the skin, then wrapped in clingfilm before being left overnight in a process called Occlusion Therapy. The heat from the body encourages pores to open and the cream to absorb, rather than just sitting on the skin’s surface. In the past year, my complexion has begun to look grey and tired. At 46, the lines around my eyes and mouth are becoming pronounced. So if wrapping my face in clingfilm helps me retain some semblance of youth, I’m willing to give it a try. Frances (pictured) bought cosmetic facial mask sheets and first soaked them in water before applying NARS hydrating fluid to the mask . Having bought a cosmetic facial mask sheet — a thin piece of cotton in the shape of a face with the eyes, nostrils and lips cut out — (£2 for 40, amazon.co.uk), I set to work. First, I soak the weird-looking facial mask in water and wring it out. Then, I liberally apply NARS hydrating fluid (£27.05, narscosmetics.co.uk) to the mask, creating a thin layer of product over its surface. ‘Hydrating fluid is a moisturising agent,’ says Dr Michael Prager, a cosmetic medicine specialist from London. ‘It contains humectant, a substance that attracts and retains water. It gathers water on and below the skin’s surface and retains it, plumping out fine lines and smoothing the complexion.’ The book also recommends that you do a quick lymphatic drainage massage to clear toxins and reduce puffiness . With the mask drenched, I pat it on to my face, where it sticks like a damp cloth. Though it’s strange, it feels pleasantly cool and less slimy and greasy than I had imagined. Now to wrap my face in clingfilm. This feels horrid and, despite having created breathing holes around my nose and mouth, I feel claustrophobic. Yet within minutes, the clingfilm is doing its job. Beneath the mask, my skin feels smooth and slippery and I’m clouding up from the humidity. I can feel the heat created by my breath. It’s not as hot as a sauna, but it’s several degrees warmer inside the mask than out. After 20 minutes, I whip off the mask as instructed. Already, my skin looks smoother and plumper. Now it’s time to rub in moisturising cream. I opt for Estee Lauder Hydrationist (£36, John Lewis), though Saeki says any cream will do because it’s how it’s applied that matters. After taking off the mask, Frances (pictured) tries to follow follow Saeki’s instructions on the art of water massage by spritzing water along the ‘muscles of facial expression’ She recommends a quick lymphatic drainage massage. Massaging lymph glands behind the earlobes, around the collarbone and under the armpits helps stimulate lymphatic flow, thus clearing toxins, she says. This, in turn, will help reduce puffiness in the face and lead to a clearer complexion. After slathering on the cream, it’s time to steam my face again — only this time, I use a wet towel heated in the microwave for 30 seconds. Beneath my warm towel, it’s dark and restful. I can almost feel the moisturiser seeping into my pores and, I hope, filling out the lines across my face. But the calm doesn’t last long. Once the towel comes off, I’m busy trying to follow Saeki’s instructions on the art of water massage. Using a spray bottle, I attempt to follow her diagram, spritzing along the ‘muscles of facial expression’ — along the forehead in a zig-zag from right to left, clockwise around the eyes and mouth, three short upward strokes along the cheeks and, finally, clockwise around my whole face. By the time I’ve finished, I’m soaking wet, with water dribbling down my face and plopping forlornly off the end of my chin. Frances (pictured) was pleasantly surprised by the results of the clingfilm facial and says she thought her complexion looked instantly softer . Onto the final leg of this marathon, and it’s time to massage serum into my face. I use Skin-Ceuticals serum (£40, amazon.co.uk), a strong, hydrating product with hyaluronic acid — an agent that encourages skin to attract and retain water. Then I massage it into my damp skin, concentrating on smoothing out the lines around my mouth and on my forehead, and pressing it into my face with upward strokes. And, finally, I’m done. The facial took half-an-hour, but it felt much longer — perhaps because I was struggling to read the instructions through the clingfilm. Nevertheless, I’m pleasantly surprised. My complexion looks instantly softer, its greyish tinge replaced by a rosy hue, and the lines around my mouth and on my forehead have diminished. ‘You won’t get lasting rejuvenating effects from this facial because it won’t increase collagen, which is the key to younger skin. But your face will look plumped out and smoother for 24 hours,’ says Dr Prager. However, Saeki insists her facial has a cumulative effect, so if you repeat it three times a week for three months, you can knock off a decade. The day after, I meet a friend for lunch. She demands to know if I’ve had a collagen filler. ‘You’ve done something and don’t tell me it’s just a good night’s sleep,’ she says. With a result like that, I’m willing to mummify myself every evening for the rest of the year.
We'd all like younger, fresher looking skin but it's not always easy . The Japanese Skincare Revolution says steaming your face is the answer . Frances Childs tested out the bizarre routine for FEMAIL .