Episode 314: Skin Vitality & Natural Botox with The Facial Cupping Expert
Listen on Apple Podcasts | Listen on Spotify
Finally, the long awaited episode with The Facial Cupping Expert, Sakina Di Pace, is here! Learn more about how facial cupping can be beneficial for reducing fine lines and wrinkles, cysts, and cystic acne. While facial cupping is growing in popularity, Sakina wants to ensure that folks are educated in how to use their cups appropriately and when cupping may actually not be the best fit - like hormonal acne and rosacea.
Sakina has practiced acupuncture globally for the past 12 years. She began using Facial Cupping, in addition to her needles, to help alleviate the pain of patients with nerve conditions such as peripheral neuropathy, and to stimulate muscle strength in paralysis cases such as Bell’s Palsy. Realising how beneficial Facial Cupping was to her patients, she decided to incorporate the technique into her cosmetic acupuncture treatments.
Sakina is the creator of the ‘6-step Facial Cupping Protocol for Beginners’, along with a popular and accredited ‘Facial Cupping For Professionals Course’ that helps teach those who want to become qualified in offering facial cupping to their clients.
In this episode:
What is facial cupping, how did it start and how does it work? [17:07]
The difference between facial cupping and gua sha [24:22]
Contraindications for facial cupping [26:32]
Benefits of cupping [31:07]
What type of oil be used for the best benefit [34:44]
Sneak peek into needle tapping [41:43]
Resources mentioned:
Connect with The Facial Cupping Expert, Sakina Di Pace:
Qualia Senolytic (get up to 50% off and an extra 15% off your first purchase with link + code FUNKS)
Organifi supplement powder (save 20% on your order with code FUNK)
LMNT Electrolyte Replenishing powder (Use code FUNK get a free sample pack with any purchase!)
Ned Natural Remedies (get 15% off your order with code FUNK)
Learn more about Healthy Skin & Non-Toxic Living
Related episodes:
272: The Candida-Skin Connection
122: The Gut-Skin Connection - Leaky Gut, Rosacea, Acne, Eczema, Keratosis Pilaris & Psoriasis
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Erin Holt [00:00:02]:
I'm Erin Holt and this is the Funk'tional Nutrition Podcast where we lean into intuitive functional medicine. We look at how diet, our environment, our emotions, and our beliefs all affect our physical health. This podcast is your full bodied, well rounded resource. I've got over a decade of clinical experience, and because of that, I've got a major bone to pick with diet culture and the conventional healthcare model. They're both failing so many of us. But functional medicine isn't the panacea that it's made out to be either. We've got some work to do, and that's why creating a new model is my life's work. I believe in the ripple effect.
Erin Holt [00:00:39]:
So I founded the Funk'tional Nutrition Academy, a school and mentorship for practitioners who want to do the same. This show is for you if you're looking for new ways of thinking about your health and you're ready to be an active participant in your own healing. Please keep in mind this podcast is created for educational purposes only and should never be used as a replacement for medical diagnosis or treatment. I would love for you to follow the show, rate, review and share because you never know whose life you might change and of course, keep coming back for more. Hello my friends. I've got a fun, unique episode for you today in that we don't really talk about this kind of stuff that often. I have Sakina, the Facial Cupping Expert on the show. I've been kind of alluding to this interview for a little while.
Erin Holt [00:01:27]:
I found her work on Instagram. I followed her for a while and then I eventually purchased her course, which has been a bit of a game changer for me. It just really helped me to lock in this facial cupping experience as a habit. So I do it every single night because of her course. So I reached out to her on Instagram to see if she would have any interest coming on the show to explain more about facial cupping and just other alternative treatments that we can, you know, DIY on our face if we're looking for that sort of thing. So Sakina is an acupuncturist, she's a massage therapist by trade, and she's the founder of the Facial Cupping Expert. She tells us more about her backstory because I was super curious, like how did, how does one get into this sort of thing? So she does share her backstory, but she practiced acupuncture globally for twelve years and then started using these facial cups in addition to her needles to help alleviate the pain of her patients that had nerve conditions like peripheral neuropathy and also to stimulate muscle strength in paralysis, such as Bell's palsy.
Erin Holt [00:02:27]:
She'll talk about that on the show. Um, she just realized how beneficial facial cupping was to all of her patients and decided to bring this, um, more to life. And, you know, for so many people, Covid was this turning point in their businesses, and she explains how she brought it all online and was able to reach a lot more people. So she is the creator of the Six Step Facial Cupping Protocol for Beginners. That's the official name of the course that I have strongly recommend. I think it's, like, maybe 50 or $60. It's not terribly expensive, but it really, really, really helps if you're like, what the hell do I do with these things? She walks you through exactly what to do with them.
Erin Holt [00:03:07]:
She also has Facial Cupping for Professionals course. So if you're a acupuncturist or you're an esthetician and you're looking to learn from Sakina, she also. She also does that for you. Anyway, she's just gonna talk a lot more about all things facial cupping, and I just enjoyed my time with her, so I hope you do too. Welcome, Sakina. I'm so excited to have you here.
Sakina Di Pace [00:03:30]:
Hi, Erin. I'm so happy to be here.
Erin Holt [00:03:32]:
This is definitely a different type of podcast interview, so it's. It's gonna be really good for our audience, and I think really important, particularly with the uptick in Botox, in fillers and the normalization of that, especially for younger and younger and younger people. My mind goes to, what is the long term implication of this? I talk a lot about autoimmunity. It's one of my kind of areas of my zones of genius. As somebody who struggled with autoimmunity, and I think health is one of those things that we take for granted until we lose it, and then we go down the coulda, woulda, shoulda path. Like, I wish I had known that and I would have made different choices. So when I'm talking about this stuff, it's never my intention to dissuade anybody from making a choice that's right for them or to even to judge anybody for their choices. Like, I understand it.
Erin Holt [00:04:31]:
I'm a woman. I live in this world, too. I get the pressures that are being put on us. Totally.
Sakina Di Pace [00:04:36]:
Yeah.
Erin Holt [00:04:37]:
But I just. Knowing how the immune system works, understanding adverse immune reactions, knowing the rising rates of autoimmunity, knowing that autoimmunity is considered incurable, um, knowing how much easier it is to prevent autoimmunity than to try to reverse it. I just. I want to give people alternatives. Cause I'm not saying you shouldn't be vain or you shouldn't care about what you look like. It's more so to say, like, hey, these are some alternatives if you are worried about injecting antigens into your face or your body.
Sakina Di Pace [00:05:11]:
Yeah, yeah, totally. Yeah. But we all have our journey, you know, like, we can say that, like, for example, I'm 40. I'm going to be 44. And I don't know if I would have had this mind 20 years ago. You know, we also have our life journey to make some decision, and we can just inform what we know later on in life or what we feel is right later on in life. But we all have to maybe, you know, some people, they have to be sick or they have to have an accident or they have to have, like, kind of a trauma to wake them up in some ways, you know, and start to make changes.
Sakina Di Pace [00:05:46]:
So we all have our journey, and if it's not the right time for us, it's not the right time. You know, I really feel like we need to live our life, like, with a flow, you know, and. And just feel and just do what we feel is right at the moment for us, you know? Yeah. So if we feel like we need to do some Botox because, you know, having this line in the middle of our forehead is just making our life so miserable, just go get some Botox, you know, it's just like we need to be in tune. What really matters is to be in tune with what we feel is right inside of us. But as professional, we also have, like, I think, a responsibility to also talk about the side effects of that and also propose alternative without any judging anything. It's just like, I feel it's a bit like our responsibility to talk about that.
Sakina Di Pace [00:06:32]:
Just to make sure people are aware about the side effect of putting some Botox inside, you know, a wrinkle that sounds just like a miracle cure, but there is some side effects.
Erin Holt [00:06:43]:
Yeah, for sure. And, you know, I just. I believe in informed consent. I can't talk about body autonomy and then get mad if somebody makes a choice with their body that differs from my perspective of what's right, you know? So it's like, I completely agree. And I think about myself in my twenties and I, you know, in your twenties, you think you're invincible. I wasn't about, you know.
Sakina Di Pace [00:07:05]:
Yeah.
Erin Holt [00:07:06]:
Drinking a ton. I was partying a ton. I wasn't prioritizing my health. Like, I just, yeah, it wasn't on my radar. And so I, and, you know, you just described me. My autoimmune diagnosis was my wake up call. In a lot of ways, I'm really grateful for it, so.
Sakina Di Pace [00:07:24]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Erin Holt [00:07:25]:
Anyway, I would love to hear a little bit more about your background, what you do professionally and how you got into this line of work.
Sakina Di Pace [00:07:34]:
Yeah, so I'm an acupuncturist and massage therapist by trade, you know, and I've been working in the US, actually, and in the UK, I was working on cruise ship for some time. So we were, we were parked, I don't even know the right word anymore, in LA, and from LA, we were going, like, we went to Hawaii, we went to Mexico, Alaska. And my job was to do, was to do acupuncture, you know, and we work a lot, you know, on cruise ship, I was, I don't know, in, in maybe like, uh, yeah, seven months. I must have seen like a thousand patients, you know, which is a lot, which is really a lot. You wouldn't get this amount of clients, uh, you know, on your normal, you know, practice based at home. So it was amazing for me, just after from graduating from college, I started doing that and I saw so many different conditions, which was fantastic for practice, you know, for practice, practice, practice, practice, practice. And it builds up your confidence. You also see how much you don't know.
Sakina Di Pace [00:08:35]:
But when you don't know, what is amazing is like, you learn, you know, it's like really practicing is what makes you better because, you know, you are faced with many cases you don't know. And what happened is like, shortly after I stopped working on a cruise ship, I moved back to the UK and I had a patient with Bell's palsy, and Bell's palsy, which is a paralysis of one side of the face that just comes out of the blue in a way. There is still no, no explanation for that. And that was one of the condition I was unsure about. I wanted to do acupuncture, obviously, and some electro acupuncture, but I also wanted to do some massage, you know, some cupping. But the only kind of cupping we learn at school is a fire cupping. You know, when you put some fire inside of a cup to take the air out and quickly put it upside down and it creates a suction. And obviously I wasn't going to do some fire cupping on the face of my clients, so I simply googled, it was back in 2011, so quite some time ago.
Sakina Di Pace [00:09:39]:
And I just googled, like, facial cups, like a cup for the face, you know, and I found it wasn't popular as it is now, you know, and I found this little silicone cup from South Korea. I just got them on eBay and different color, and I just tried them on my patient following different facial nerve. And it really made such a difference for her. Like, it was like, amazing. You know, I did a bit of electro acupuncture and then I did some facial cupping. Really made a difference. And shortly after that, I had a patient who had like three geminal neuralgia, which is the inflammation of the nerve of the trigeminal nerve. And it's also very painful.
Sakina Di Pace [00:10:20]:
And I said, what about I try the cup, sliding the cup along along the nerve. And again, she was so happy, and I was so impressed with the result myself. I never had this kind of patient before. Never learned about it at school. It's like you're on your own. You do your research and you try this facial cupping, and it actually works. So I thought, okay, if it helps a patient who has facial paralysis to regain some muscle control, what about all my cosmetic acupuncture clients? What about I start incorporating facial cupping into my cosmetic treatment?
Sakina Di Pace [00:10:57]:
And I just tried, you know, like, I just tried myself, you know, and the feedback was so good. Like, I mean, I remember some clients that just wanted, they didn't want the needle. They just want the facial cup. I mean, I was, no, no, I'm going to put the needle first, you know. You know, like an acupuncturist, you believe in your needle first. And, and then that's how it started, really. So all my, after I developed my own signature cosmetic acupuncture facial. So it was acupuncture and then facial cupping.
Sakina Di Pace [00:11:31]:
And what happened is like, lockdown happened in 2020, and I couldn't see my patient anymore. So that's where I decided to go online and start teaching facial cupping first to anyone, you know, like, everybody can have facial cup. If you follow the right protocol, you know, it's quite simple, but you still need to learn how to do it. I started with that, and after just a few months, I had so many requests of professionals wanting to learn how to do facial copying professionally. So that's why I thought, okay, let's teach. Because it's not, there is not so much out there, you know, it's like, it's kind of a niche because, you know, I never took a course. I never. I just made it up, you know? And, yeah, that's the beauty of it. In a way, and then people wanting it, so I just gave it to them.
Erin Holt [00:14:38]:
So you have courses for professionals, but you also have courses for, you know, people like me.
Sakina Di Pace [00:15:01]:
Yeah, that's it. It's like. Yeah, so you get. Yeah, exactly. You get the cup at the same time. You get the tutorial. And I explain how to do this, because sometimes, you know, it's the same with gua sha, jet roller. I mean, you have this little tool in your hand.
Sakina Di Pace [00:15:12]:
It's like, what do I do now? You know, so you can see, like, six second Instagram video is like, okay, let's do that. But how do I clean? What do I do? Do I do it in the morning, in the evening? Do I clean my face once I've done the eyes? Where should I start? Actually, you know, it. It sounds very simple, but you need some guidance, you know, to get the best result out of it.
Erin Holt [00:15:34]:
That's exactly it. I had, like.
Sakina Di Pace [00:15:36]:
Yeah.
Erin Holt [00:15:36]:
Half of my saved things on Instagram were, like, facial cupping and gua sha. They were, like, little clips, and I was trying to piece them all together.
Sakina Di Pace [00:15:44]:
Yeah, that's it.
Erin Holt [00:15:45]:
And you're like, I would be, like, scrolling through. Yeah, this one now. And this one now. And I was just like, this is for the birds. I'm not going to do this. I don't know why exactly. And so when I found your course, it gives you an exact step by step plan to do. And it's not this big, bulky course.
Erin Holt [00:16:01]:
Like, I got through the course in, like, a. You know, a few minutes. It's not a big.
Sakina Di Pace [00:16:04]:
Yeah, that's it.
Erin Holt [00:16:04]:
Huge time investment. But you understand what you're doing. And now I do facial cupping just about every night. Um, and it only takes me five minutes.
Sakina Di Pace [00:16:13]:
Like, yeah, yeah.
Erin Holt [00:16:14]:
You know, it's not a long endeavor, and with Gua sha, and we'll get more into, like, what facial cupping actually is for people who don't know. I love Gua sha, but that's something that I'm like, I don't know exactly what I'm doing with this. I don't know if I'm doing it right. It feels like it's taking a long time. And so I never could really build Gua sha as a habit into my day to day routine, for whatever reason. But with cupping, like, I know exactly what I'm doing. I know exactly where I'm doing it.
Erin Holt [00:16:40]:
And it's easy.
Sakina Di Pace [00:16:41]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Definitely, yeah, yeah. It is easy. It is easy. And it's not like, with Gua sha, you can actually really play with the stone and you can do, like, a lot of scrapping movement, and there is so much you can do. It's a bit more complicated in a way. With cupping is like, you know, you have three different technique, and. And you just follow the lymphatic drainage natural pathway, and you start at your neck and you follow the pathway and.
Sakina Di Pace [00:17:05]:
And you're done, you know.
Erin Holt [00:17:07]:
Let's explain to people what cupping is. So they're little silicone cups, and they're, they're small, so they can fit on your face. And there's two different sizes. But what is it doing? You just mentioned the lymph. So are we moving fascia? Are we moving lymph? Are we moving both? Like, what is the cupping actually doing?
Sakina Di Pace [00:17:25]:
Okay, so facial cupping is just a branch of cupping, you know, which is one of the oldest healing method, like, they have found, like, for thousands of years. Cupping was one of the oldest method to treat many different condition. And facial capping just grew in the past 20 years, you know, as a beauty treatment. Okay, so what is it? So it's a cup. It can be made of glass, or it can be made of silicone or bamboo.
Sakina Di Pace [00:17:53]:
The first cups were made of horns, animal horns.
Erin Holt [00:17:57]:
Oh, wow.
Sakina Di Pace [00:17:57]:
That's how they would do it. They will. They would take a buffalo horn, cut a, you know, cut the end, and place the larger base on the skin and suck the air out, and you will create a suction, you know, that's how the, the first cup were, you know.
Erin Holt [00:18:12]:
Wow.
Sakina Di Pace [00:18:12]:
So now we have silicone, you know, which is easier. So this little cup, you are actually now three sizes. And you place them on the skin, and it's going to lift the different layers of the skin, which is beautiful, you know, so it's a bit like a reverse massage. When you do a massage, you actually apply pressure. It also releases the facial by applying pressure. But facial cupping is like a negative pressure.
Sakina Di Pace [00:18:38]:
You lift the different layer of the skin. And what is beautiful in that is like you give some sort space, you know. A lot of time there is some fascial tension. Even when we have stress, even, you know, we hold tension on our face. And that create what we call in traditional chinese medicine, stagnation. It can be stagnation of blood, stagnation of chi, stagnation of the lymph. By lifting these different layers of the skin, you encourage the blood, the lymph, the chi, the energy to flow. Okay, so people who.
Sakina Di Pace [00:19:09]:
Yeah, I often get this comment from people doing facial cupping, even just after the first session, especially people who don't take good care of their skin. Like, we don't do anything. You know, if you start from very. If you do nothing to your skin, I would say you will notice after one session a glow. You know, and it's not uncommon. You know, if you're like someone that really takes a really good care of your skin, you will not, maybe not see this glow as quickly, you know? But for people who do nothing, it's like day and night. And I have testimonial of people.
Sakina Di Pace [00:19:43]:
I'm like, oh, wow, this is so beautiful. It's like, very often we have so much stagnation, because when we don't know, like, when we apply our cream, our oil, you know, a lot of people don't realize the most important thing is actually the massage that comes with it. You know, like, the lymph, lymphatic system doesn't have a pump like the circulatory system, and it really relies on us moving, massaging in order for it to move. So somebody that is very, you know, like, doesn't have a very active life, doesn't apply, doesn't do a lot of touching on their own face. Doing facial cupping will be like, oh, my God, you know, like, I really moved the stagnation. Okay, so it's all about moving. It's all about the flow, you know, moving the stagnation.
Sakina Di Pace [00:20:30]:
Okay, so what is really?
Erin Holt [00:20:32]:
Yeah, well, one thing that I'll just say is that the two biggest things that I've noticed, like, immediate, like, you do one session, and you notice it right away are. Yeah, lips. So, like, a big, you know, puffy upper lip. I just. It's a thin lip. What can I do? And, um, there's the little flash cupping that you do with the little cup. That makes a difference. And then also, I've been.
Erin Holt [00:20:54]:
I have under eye bags. I think the lighting right now is pretty good. So you can't see them. Yeah. Maybe it's because of all the cupping I've been doing.
Sakina Di Pace [00:21:01]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Erin Holt [00:21:02]:
I get pretty significant, um, dark circles and under eye bags, and.
Sakina Di Pace [00:21:06]:
Yeah.
Erin Holt [00:21:07]:
That the cupping around the eyes really seems to improve that.
Sakina Di Pace [00:21:11]:
Wow, that's beautiful. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, that's really good. Yeah. Because often puffiness, you know, we think, like, oh, we need to put a lot of cream. But, in fact, sometimes it's just a sign that the lymphatic system is a bit sluggish, though. By reactivating it, we start to move excess fluid, excess toxin. And that this puffiness, you know, if it's linked with a sluggish lymphatic system, will really make a massive difference.
Erin Holt [00:21:36]:
So you've said lymph a bunch of times, and I also want to.
Sakina Di Pace [00:21:39]:
Yeah.
Erin Holt [00:21:40]:
In your course, you teach us how to open up the chest and the neck. So you start there. And I've had a few lymph experts on the show before, so I understand why that that's so important. Can you just explain to people why? Because you would think, well, I want to work on my face, so I'm just going to start my face. But why do we actually start on the neck?
Sakina Di Pace [00:22:00]:
Yeah, we always start on the neck simply because. Okay. The lymphatic system is a one way system, and it returns to the circular. It returns to the circulatory system at the neck. Okay? So even if you have, like, puffy legs, for example, you have puffy legs. You want to start at the neck, because if the neck, the ending is blocked.
Sakina Di Pace [00:22:25]:
Okay. You might move the lymph at the bottom, but it's not gonna drain properly at the neck. So it's a bit like clearing the ending so the lymph nodes are ready to receive more fluid from the other part of the face or the body. I don't know if it makes sense. Like, for example, imagine you have a big double chin that is due to excess fluid and the sluggish lymphatic system. Imagine you do like that. You just do that.
Sakina Di Pace [00:22:50]:
Okay. But it's actually this part. Yeah. It's not. I don't know if we don't see the video. Right. It's only the sound. Yeah.
Sakina Di Pace [00:22:59]:
Yeah. So you're so, so imagine. So you're moving. You're using the cup under your chin. Okay. Just under the chin towards the corner of the jaw. And nothing changed. Why? Because maybe it's blocked at the corner of the jaw.
Sakina Di Pace [00:23:13]:
So first you need to clear up the neck. Okay. And then, so it's clear. The ending is clear. It's like you move your way up. You know, the ending is clear, and then you can start doing it under the chin or under the eyes.
Sakina Di Pace [00:23:30]:
It's a bit like you move with the lymphatic system, and you start with the ending. A bit like a drainage blockage, you know, like if a plug. No, I don't know how we say in English, but, yeah, it's always starting with the ending. So the ending is clear so they can bring more fluid and can drain more fluid. Does it make sense?
Erin Holt [00:23:50]:
It makes so much sense. It's like, otherwise it's just going to get blocked if you're not opening. It's like where everything drains from.
Sakina Di Pace [00:23:56]:
Yeah, yeah.
Erin Holt [00:23:58]:
If it's tight, nothing's going to leave.
Sakina Di Pace [00:23:59]:
That's it. That's what I wanted to say. Exactly. That's it. If the drain is blocked, you might even if it's blocked further away, you know, like, if the main draining is blocked, you know, you can do all the cleaning on the side. It's still gonna not work. It's gonna accumulate.
Erin Holt [00:24:15]:
Exactly, exactly. We don't want things accumulating. The whole reason we're doing this is to get things to leave.
Sakina Di Pace [00:24:20]:
Exactly. Yeah.
Erin Holt [00:24:22]:
Can you explain the difference between facial cupping and Gua sha? Because I had a little bit of a hard time understanding the difference in which one, which tool I should use when.
Sakina Di Pace [00:24:34]:
Okay, so I don't use Gua sha on the face. I only use Gua sha as an acupuncturist on my client, you know, mainly. Also, the aim is a bit the same as cupping, okay. Is to also move the stagnation. But with gua sha, we're gonna do that with scrapping. Okay. Whereas with cupping, we're gonna do it by lifting it.
Erin Holt [00:24:53]:
Okay.
Sakina Di Pace [00:24:53]:
Okay. So gua sha, when you do gua sha on the body, you do it quite vigorously. Often when you have neck and shoulder pain. And you scrape, and it's amazing. It becomes all red, purple, and you feel so much better.
Sakina Di Pace [00:25:12]:
For the face is more like. Yeah, it's more gentle and a bit of scrapping along the line, you know, like. So you're moving the stagnation. It's really good, actually, for the lymph, gentle, you know, gentle moving of the. Of the lymph. With the cupping, we actually lifting, separating the different layer of the skin, as I said before. So it's a bit more invasive, cupping, I would say a bit.
Sakina Di Pace [00:25:37]:
A bit stronger. Yeah, yeah.
Erin Holt [00:25:42]:
And my esthetician does both. My esthetician, Lee, has actually been on your instagram before.
Sakina Di Pace [00:25:47]:
Oh, really? Yeah.
Erin Holt [00:25:48]:
I was, like, looking through it. I was like, hey, there's Lee. She's local to me.
Sakina Di Pace [00:25:52]:
Oh, Lee. What's the last name?
Erin Holt [00:25:56]:
Don't ask me anyone's last name.
Sakina Di Pace [00:25:57]:
Yeah. Zakko's vow with a z. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Lee, she's amazing. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Erin Holt [00:26:02]:
Holistic skin and tonics is her handle.
Sakina Di Pace [00:26:04]:
Oh, yeah, yeah. She inspired me as well, for the hair. Yeah, yeah. Lovely. Yeah. Oh, you're lucky.
Erin Holt [00:26:10]:
I know, aren't I? She, when she does the gua sha, it's on my face.
Sakina Di Pace [00:26:16]:
It's so gentle.
Erin Holt [00:26:18]:
It's very soft. And she says, like, you don't want to apply a lot of pressure because we're working in the lymph. Lymph is all like really gentle, gentle, gentle. Whereas the cupping is a little bit more rigorous. It feels like more is happening, you know?
Sakina Di Pace [00:26:31]:
Exactly.
Erin Holt [00:26:32]:
Yeah, I would love to hear. So I have rosacea and I'm curious if with, I've heard mixed things. Some people say cupping can really be great for rosacea.
Sakina Di Pace [00:26:43]:
No, no, no, no.
Erin Holt [00:26:45]:
Absolutely not.
Sakina Di Pace [00:26:46]:
No, no, no, no. I don't know who would say it's good for Rosacea because it's like it would create more heat. You know, like in chinese medicine, rosacea is a sign of internal heat. And when you do cupping, you actually, you actually create more heat. You know, often you feel a little bit hot, you can feel a little bit red. You've been moving the blood, bringing blood more to the surface and. No, no, I really advise against rosacea. The precipiced is fantastic for rosacea.
Sakina Di Pace [00:27:14]:
But, but, but for cupping, no, you, you would not. I wouldn't recommend to do cupping for, for rosacea.
Erin Holt [00:27:23]:
So fortunately I don't have it too bad. I just have some like capillaries on my cheeks, so I just skip the cheeks and just.
Sakina Di Pace [00:27:28]:
Yeah, exactly. You just keep. That's it. Well done. Yeah, that's perfect.
Erin Holt [00:27:31]:
Any other things, any other conditions or face, you know, facial situations where cupping would be contraindicated, where we shouldn't do it?
Sakina Di Pace [00:27:40]:
Yeah, of course. Yeah. So if we have very thin skin that bruises easily, our very sensitive skin. So in this case, maybe gentle gua sha is better. Facial dry brushing, facial yoga, you know, if you are like super sensitive. To do facial cupping, you still need to have like a medium to strong skin in a way, you know, like you need to be able to take on the cupping. You know, you can do very gentle cupping, you know, but you still need to have some collagen left. You still need to have some strength in your skin to make it even stronger.
Sakina Di Pace [00:28:11]:
Okay. But if it's very thin and that bruises easily, I wouldn't recommend doing it. And I learned by me, by, I learned by experience, you know, like I had a client high in the seventies and I didn't know, you know, like me, I just learned myself. As I said, you know, it just like I was experimenting and the day after her husband called me, called the clinic I was working at and he was like, my wife is purple. What have you done? You know, like, oh, no. And she was so kind.
Erin Holt [00:28:41]:
Bruises on her face is what happened.
Sakina Di Pace [00:28:43]:
Yeah, lots and lots of mark. It's not bad. Like, from a health point of view, so we're really moving stagnant blood. But from an aesthetic point of view, it's like, no, no. So I learned, you know, so if you have very. Since thin skin that bruises easily, avoid any cupping. If you have any buttocks or fillers, just do cupping in the area where you don't have buttocks or fillers. For fillers, it's just like, just out of safety precaution, you don't want to move the filler. And cupping can be quite strong.
Sakina Di Pace [00:29:10]:
So you don't. You prefer. It's best not to do it if you have a lot of moles, you know, just because we're not the dermatologist and you don't know, better not to cup. If there is a lot of moles, a few flat moles is not an issue, you know, but lots of raised mole in one area, or skin cancer, that will be, you know, any open wound you wouldn't cup over.
Erin Holt [00:29:34]:
That makes sense.
Erin Holt [00:31:07]:
And then what are the benefits? You post a lot of before, after testimonials?
Sakina Di Pace [00:31:30]:
Yeah, yeah. I love them.
Erin Holt [00:31:32]:
What have you. What conditions have you seen clear? It seems like acne, potentially.
Sakina Di Pace [00:31:39]:
Acne is a very. It's a very odd one. You know, acne for cystic acne, it makes miracle like cystic acne, but not just on the face, also on the body. You know, like, if you have massive cyst. We have a technique in acupuncture called surround the dragon. When we put the dragon is an angry cyst, and we put needle around the dragon. But.
Sakina Di Pace [00:32:01]:
But you can replicate it that with a cup. Placing the cup directly over the cyst, and within 24 hours, the cyst. 24 to 48 hours, the cyst disappear. It's just like, fantastic for cystic acne. Cystic acne or any cyst. And if you have cyst on the body, is maybe best you go see an acupuncturist and they put some glass cup on you. But you could also use your silicone cup yourself. Cystic acne.
Sakina Di Pace [00:32:28]:
Miracles. Hormonal acne. What is really good is to do it before having a breakout. And that can prevent another hormonal breakout. But if you have a breakout, I advise against doing cupping simply because by doing the suction, you could spread the whiteheads and it could create even more breakouts. So if you have, like, a breakout, just don't do any cupping unless it's cystic acne.
Sakina Di Pace [00:33:02]:
Make sense?
Erin Holt [00:33:03]:
And then obviously, fine. I should have probably led with this, but fine lines and wrinkles. It's very good for that.
Sakina Di Pace [00:33:10]:
Yeah, it's so good because. Okay, also when you do cupping, you apply a good facial oil. Okay, so me, I'm a big fan of this prickly persidol, but apply any oil that you like that is non comedogenic. And the cupping will help the absorption of all the active ingredients present in the cream, in the serum, in the oil.
Sakina Di Pace [00:33:31]:
So what it does, it's really moisturize the skin. It's really moisturizes the skin. It's like once you start to do facial cupping, it's like, it almost never happen when you feel I have dry skin, and often premature fine lines, they appear often because the skin is too dry, for example, not nourished enough. And by doing the cupping, you replenish, you're replumping the skin. You know, you're moisturizing it. So it's also very important, the product to use with cupping.
Sakina Di Pace [00:33:57]:
I also learned the hard way, you know, I was doing it with coconut oil when I started. I had no idea oil could be comedogenic or block pores. Anyway, don't do. Don't do it either with coconut oil.
Erin Holt [00:34:09]:
Let's talk about the oil. First of all, I want to say that I absolutely echo what you said about the dry skin, because I live in New Hampshire and it's the winter right now, and I like to walk outside. So I spent a fair amount of time outside, and my forehead was, like, flaking off. It was so dry. And after I started, like, maybe after a couple weeks of cupping, I'm like, oh, my gosh, my skin's not dry anymore. And I just went away on vacation. We were up in the mountains, and I didn't bring my cups with me.
Erin Holt [00:34:36]:
So it's been a week of not. And the, like, the flaky is back. So it.
Sakina Di Pace [00:34:41]:
Really interesting.
Erin Holt [00:34:42]:
Isn't it interesting? Okay, so you said you're a huge fan of prickly pear oil.
Sakina Di Pace [00:34:50]:
Yeah.
Erin Holt [00:34:50]:
Why? Why do you love it?
Sakina Di Pace [00:34:52]:
Because simply, it's also with experience. You know, it's like, because I've tried it. I did so many mistakes, you know, like, I did so many stakes. Because I'm not a beauty therapist by trade, you know, I'm an acupuncturist. Acupuncturist, you don't learn about oil, you know, so you just think all oil you put on, you know, you just put an oil on your face so the cup can glide. So anyway, so all the oil don't have the same potent. And the prickly pear seed oil.
Sakina Di Pace [00:35:20]:
It's just a such a beautiful oil. It's so complicated to make, you know, it's one of the most expensive oil to make in the world. Actually. It is the most. Because it's so complicated. Because cactus.
Sakina Di Pace [00:35:33]:
Cactus are free and they grow without water. Okay? But it's not the cactus we take is the seed and the seeds. We need, like, a million seeds to be able to produce one liter. And you need. They are very tiny. Only 5% of the seed has oil.
Sakina Di Pace [00:35:48]:
I mean, it's crazy. So you need to compress for 8 hours, 1 million seed of the cactus to be able to do one liter. Okay? So it's a massive, long process, and. But inside this little seed, there is so much goodness. So that's. Yeah, that's a. Youth. Youth.
Sakina Di Pace [00:36:11]:
We shouldn't say that again, but, yeah, youth elixir. I shouldn't say that.
Erin Holt [00:36:17]:
Vibrancy elixir.
Sakina Di Pace [00:36:18]:
Yeah, exactly. That's what it is. I mean, people will know, you know, it's like people who know good stuff, you know, like, I had, like, you know, like, nutritionist. Not long ago, there was ayurvedic practitioner that started using my oil, and she wrote me an email saying that, Sakina, your oil is like, wow. You know, people who know, they know, you know, and sometimes the smell can be very strong, and sometimes I feel a bit like it's because I had myself some batches where the smell is super strong. And it's true. It's not very nice. Most of the batches is very earthy, and it's actually quite nice.
Sakina Di Pace [00:36:55]:
But sometimes it's very strong, but it's just very pure. Because I met my supplier. You know, I went to Morocco last year with my son to see all the whole process, how he was doing the oil, and he does it in the back garden of his mom in Morocco. No kidding? Yeah, yeah. It's amazing. And he only has two machines, you know, so. And he hires somebody local, and for 8 hours, it's like a cold pressing, and all the dry waste is given to the animal is very, you know, eco friendly in a way.
Sakina Di Pace [00:37:28]:
And it's so pure. You know, it's so pure. There is nothing added. And each time I make an order to my supplier, it's always a very small order. There is no stock. You know, I'm always like, out of stock. It's really an issue. But it's always small stock.
Sakina Di Pace [00:37:45]:
I mean, so it's always so pure. Like, it doesn't. It's like, I have to ask him like, Amed, can I make another order? He doesn't do it in advance, and then I have to give him, like, 24, 48 hours for him to cold press and then ship it. But, yeah, very pure. Very beautiful.
Erin Holt [00:38:02]:
So you do need to use quite a bit of oil. Let's say somebody wants the prickly pear oil. But, you're currently out of stock. What would be another backup oil that they could use and try?
Sakina Di Pace [00:38:13]:
Yeah, I don't like any other oil now, honestly. You know, so now I am on social media and some people want to send me their products.
Erin Holt [00:38:21]:
Sure.
Sakina Di Pace [00:38:22]:
And I say. I said, mostly, I said no, you know, but if they just want to give and without me giving any feedback, because I don't want to become like a, you know, like a selling platform. I don't want to do it for the money, you know, like, I prefer to buy my stuff. Like some people wanted to give me, you know, this red light mask.
Erin Holt [00:38:39]:
Yes.
Sakina Di Pace [00:38:39]:
And I hesitated because I really wanted one. And I. And I thought, no, otherwise I'm not going to be authentic anymore. So I bought myself a red light mask anyway. So. But I say, yes, if people want to send me their product. And so I receive so many oil and expensive oil as well, you know, like, really? And I always go back to prickly pear seed oil. So when people ask me for alternative, I'm like, look, just use whatever oil you're already using if it's working for you.
Erin Holt [00:39:07]:
But not coconut oil.
Sakina Di Pace [00:39:08]:
But not. Not the oil that is comedogenic. So not an. So now all the oil have a grade. How likely they are to block pores. And you want anything that is below two. Like, two would be the absolute maximum. So you could use.
Sakina Di Pace [00:39:24]:
Yeah, you could use a rosehip oil, hemp oil, any oil, the purest, the better, in a way, because cupping will encourage all the absorption or whatever you have in it. So it's best not to put anything with additive, you know, like, pure is good.
Erin Holt [00:39:42]:
Okay.
Sakina Di Pace [00:39:42]:
Yeah. And so pure and non comedogenic. Yeah.
Erin Holt [00:39:48]:
Comedogenic. That means it blocks pores.
Sakina Di Pace [00:39:52]:
Yeah, somewhat something that doesn't block pore on the grade two.
Erin Holt [00:39:56]:
Okay. Now, um, do you, like. Let's walk through the process. Do you wash your face first and then you apply the oil?
Sakina Di Pace [00:40:05]:
Yeah. So also that sometimes people don't do that. You need to do it on a clean skin again because you're going to absorb anything. So some people ask me, can I do it?
Sakina Di Pace [00:40:15]:
I'm oil washing my face. Can I do cupping? Well, no, because you will absorb your makeup. You know what I mean? It's like, you need to do it on a clean skin. Yeah.
Erin Holt [00:40:24]:
Okay. So wash your face and do it.
Sakina Di Pace [00:40:26]:
Wash your face before.
Erin Holt [00:40:27]:
I like doing it at night just because mornings are always, like, so busy and rushed. So I take my time at night. So I wash my face, I put on the oil, and then I do it. And you do need a fair amount of oil. So the skin is slippery.
Sakina Di Pace [00:40:38]:
Yeah, yeah. You do need. Yeah, it's when you need to be generous with the oil. Yeah, definitely for the oil. Yeah.
Erin Holt [00:40:44]:
Do you use the oil, the prickly pear oil as the moisturizer or do you put another moisturizer on after?
Sakina Di Pace [00:40:51]:
No, no, that's it. I mean, once you've done. I go to bed, so I also encourage to do it before going to bed because at nighttime, the skin turns into the recovery mode. You know, it's where the, you know, the skin regenerates at night. The hair grows at night, the nail grow at night. So the skin regenerates at night. So you do cupping at night. So you help the skin regenerate at night.
Sakina Di Pace [00:41:14]:
You know, it's like, for me, it's like really important to do any facial before going to bed rather than in the morning. In the morning, you should protect your skin. In the, in the evening, you should nourish your skin in a way.
Erin Holt [00:41:26]:
Okay.
Sakina Di Pace [00:41:26]:
Like, anyway, that makes. Yeah, yeah, it makes sense, you know, so you. Yeah, so, so you put the oil. What did we say? What was the question again?
Erin Holt [00:41:37]:
No, you answered it. You answered it.
Sakina Di Pace [00:41:39]:
Yeah, that's it.
Erin Holt [00:41:39]:
The oil is the moisturizer and then you go to bed.
Sakina Di Pace [00:41:41]:
Yeah, you just put a lot. Yeah.
Erin Holt [00:41:43]:
You just mentioned hair, which is something that I want to ask you about, because you've been talking a lot about needle tapping in this recently. This past few months, I've been, like, losing hair up here. And so now I'm like, oh, gosh, this is something else I have to worry about now is hair loss. But I'm very interested in this needle tapping because you're using it for eyebrows, you're using it for hair on your head. What is it all about?
Sakina Di Pace [00:42:06]:
Yeah, it's amazing. It's a tool that we use so much as acupuncturist. And you can use it, for example, for varicose vein. But I'm not telling you, use your seven star plum blossom hammer, it's called, on your varicose vein. Just go see an acupuncturist. But I decided, like, okay, let's teach how to do it for the hair because it's, it's one of the condition we help the most as acupuncturist with alopecia, for example, which is sudden loss of hair, or for hair thinning. It would simply to encourage hair growth.
Sakina Di Pace [00:42:39]:
Okay. So we do it quite a lot. And there was not much out there on the market either. You know, like, nobody. Nobody. I tried to find a course that somebody was teaching needle tapping. No one is teaching needle tapping. So I did the course, you know, and.
Sakina Di Pace [00:42:55]:
And, yeah, so, yeah, so it's a little plastic handle. Okay, so it's plastic. It's recycled plastic, but it's still plastic. I actually tried with an engineer in America to do an alternative with silicone. I had a prototype, but it doesn't work. You know, it's too heavy. I don't know. I think I would need, like, a lot of money.
Sakina Di Pace [00:43:14]:
But if someone has a lot of money and want to create a new tool, you know, to create something not made out of plastic, but the plastic is so light and it works, you know. Anyway, it's recycled plastic. And it has a little head with seven blunt stainless steel needle that you will. So the handle is quite long. So it's super flexible. Okay. So it like that. And you can.
Sakina Di Pace [00:43:38]:
It's a regular tapping motion that will encourage the nervous system and encourage the air follicle and the blood circulation. So you just do this tapping and it's a little bit painful, but it's a nice pain, like a strong massage. Okay. And you get used to it. And once you've done your full eyebrows or once you've done your full head, you will feel like buzzing, you know, it feels so good. It's so invigorating. And it's quite time.
Sakina Di Pace [00:44:06]:
It's not time consuming, but you need to be patient, like over three months. But anything to do with hair, it has to take time, you know, like, of course.
Erin Holt [00:44:17]:
Right.
Sakina Di Pace [00:44:20]:
The hair cycle is quite long. Yeah. So it's a. It's a great little tool to have. I love using it. My husband, I wanted to. Even yesterday we were in bed and he has this little tool, you know, I made a video because I'm sure people will think it's staged, but it's actually my actual view, you know, look at him. And my mother in law, she went to live with us to a few months ago, you know, just for a few months.
Sakina Di Pace [00:44:44]:
And. And she was in the car tapping, you know, so I make video, but it's actually not staged. It's pretty addictive, you know, and you feel it's doing something, so. And some people, you know, you can really see the difference on the eyebrow and the hair. And it's really good. Yeah.
Erin Holt [00:44:59]:
How often do you have to do that and for how long?
Sakina Di Pace [00:45:03]:
It's just. It takes like 1 minute. You do it every day.
Erin Holt [00:45:06]:
Okay.
Sakina Di Pace [00:45:07]:
You need to do it every day. So it's a bit. So you put it like. Like I have mine, for example, where I have my earrings and all my products on in my bedroom, so I can just take it. You know, it's easy access. And you just do, like, on the eyebrow, it's five times on each. So, you know, tac, tac, tac, tac, tac. Like five tap to cover the whole eyebrow.
Sakina Di Pace [00:45:27]:
Five times. And on each eyebrow, so it's 1 minute. And for the head, if you. You are just covering one area, you will just do spiral, spiral movements, you know, from the outside to the inside. Like that. Just 1 minute. And you do it every day.
Erin Holt [00:45:46]:
I just went to order one last night and.
Sakina Di Pace [00:45:48]:
Oh, you did? I know. I'm out of stock. Yeah, I'm always out of stock. Yeah, that's my issue. Out of stock. Yeah. But. Yeah, yeah.
Sakina Di Pace [00:45:55]:
I had. I had taken some stock from my UK to ship it to the US, but then in 24 hours, it was gone. So now I'm waiting. I know. Yeah, it was crazy. So now I'm waiting for the new batch to come and hopefully it's going to be there next week. That's it.
Erin Holt [00:46:12]:
Obviously, I didn't invite you onto the show to talk about your business and entrepreneurship, but I'm obsessed with business and entrepreneurship.
Sakina Di Pace [00:46:18]:
Are you obsessed? I would love to talk about that. I love businesses. I'm like, completely. I see businesses everywhere. I meet anyone, I have a business idea for them. It's like, yeah, too much.
Erin Holt [00:46:30]:
My toxic trait is turning every woman I love into an entrepreneur.
Sakina Di Pace [00:46:33]:
You too? Me too. I'm the same. I think I must annoy people. I need to stop some time, but I'm like, why don't you do that? You know, like, yeah, I see this idea everywhere. Yeah.
Erin Holt [00:46:43]:
It makes me so happy. But I just, it's. It's. I get very inspired when people are like, oh, there's a gap here, there's a problem, and I innovate a solution and I'm going to do that. And that's all I'm hearing from you is like, oh, I looked for it, it didn't exist. So then I created it.
Sakina Di Pace [00:46:58]:
Yeah, yeah, I love it.
Erin Holt [00:47:01]:
So. And I also want to shout out that when you purchase the tool, the tools from you, you also get a discount on the courses, or you even sometimes get the courses for free.
Sakina Di Pace [00:47:12]:
For free. Just the acupressure course, because it was. There is so much content. So I put it half price, but maybe I will change and put it for free. It's like, I feel, for me, it's very important that if you have something in your hand, you need to know how to use it so I makes the effort into recording good courses so you know what to do with the object, you know?
Erin Holt [00:47:32]:
Yes. And I love that. So I'm so I'm so grateful that you came on the show to share some of these tools with my audience. And I will link to your instagram because there's a lot of really great videos just helping people learn and understand what you do, what the tools are for and then we'll link to your website as well so they can see the courses and all the different tools that you have. Thank you so much. This was so exciting and I just learned so much from you.
Sakina Di Pace [00:47:57]:
Thank you so much, Erin. I love your energy as well.
Erin Holt [00:48:06]:
Thanks for joining me for this episode of the Funk'tional Nutrition podcast. If you got something from today's show, don't forget to subscribe, leave a review, share with a friend and keep coming back for more. Take care of you.
