The short answer: Put ice on your face first thing in the morning, before serums, sunscreen or makeup. It costs nothing and it takes about as long as making coffee. The upgrade that makes it worth doing properly: freeze whole milk into cubes for the lactic acid, and keep two cubes of cold brew coffee aside for the eye area, because caffeine is vasoconstrictive.
Why she does it, honestly
Nikol edits into the small hours — "literally like 2am, sometimes 3am" — and then has a shoot or a set call the next morning. She wakes up puffy and, in her words, with "not the most fresh look."
That is the actual use case, and it is why this belongs in the category of things that work rather than things that sound nice. It is a same-morning fix for a face that looks tired, and she calls it "cryotherapy for your face."
The DIY cubes worth making
Plain ice works. But if you are going to freeze something on purpose, freeze something that does more than chill.
Nikol uses a silicone tray meant for scotch ice — the large-cube kind — because a bigger cube lasts long enough to work across a whole face without melting away in your hand.
| Freeze this | Use it on | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Whole milk | Face, and especially under the eyes | Lactic acid — a gentle exfoliating acid — alongside the cold |
| Cold brew coffee | The eye area only | Caffeine is vasoconstrictive, which is exactly what puffiness needs |
| Green tea | Whole face | Antioxidants, and gentler than plain ice feels |
| Rosehip seed | Whole face | Another of her rotations — "the possibilities are endless" |
Her own tray has most wells in milk and two reserved for cold brew, so the eye cubes are always ready.
The under-eye technique: direction matters
This is the part to get right, and it is not dabbing.
Take the cube under the eye and draw it outward toward the temple, then down. You are following the direction lymph actually drains, so you are moving fluid away from the eye rather than just cooling the skin over it. Nikol describes it as "almost like doing a little lymphatic drainage on my eye area."
A Cooling Eye Roller does the same job with the same direction if you would rather not hold a melting cube, and it lives in the fridge so there is nothing to prepare.
Five ways to do it
- Plain ice cubes. The baseline. Keep them moving.
- An ice roller. Fastest, least mess, straight from the freezer.
- Ice globes. Two chilled glass globes, worked over the face.
- Custom frozen cubes. Milk, cold brew, green tea — as above.
- Globes over a sheet mask. Put the sheet mask on first, then roll the cold globes over the top of it. The cold drives the product in and the whole thing feels like a treatment rather than a step. This is her favorite version of it.
Rotate rather than repeat
Nikol does not do the same thing every day. Her rhythm: plain ice Monday, milk cubes Tuesday, a day off Wednesday, the roller Thursday. Partly because the variation keeps her interested, and partly because a rest day is sensible for anything you are applying to your face daily.
If you have rosacea or sensitive skin, read this
Nikol interrupts her own video to say this, and it is the most important paragraph in it.
Be very careful with direct cold — or direct heat — on sensitive or rosacea-prone skin. Sharp temperature swings are a known rosacea trigger, and an ice cube pressed onto reactive skin can do more harm than the puffiness it was meant to fix.
Two safer routes:
The cloth method. Fill a bowl with ice water — plain, or with milk added — dip a thin cloth, wring it out, and lay it over the face. Lift and repeat five, six, seven times. You get the cooling and the vasoconstriction without ice ever touching the skin directly.
The palate trick. This one is unusual and genuinely clever: hold an ice cube in your mouth against the roof of your palate. It produces vasoconstriction — which is what reduces facial redness — without putting anything cold on your face at all.
If redness rather than puffiness is your actual issue, start with sensitive versus sensitized skin before you start icing anything.
Her hormonal-acne routine, with a caveat
Nikol gets hormonal breakouts "always before a big event or a photo shoot," and ice is her first move — it reduces the inflammation and the redness around a spot.
She also shares two home remedies she alternates in: dabbing a little Visine on the spot, because it constricts vessels and takes the red down, and dissolving aspirin in warm water, freezing it in a small mold, and using that as a targeted cube.
Both are off-label uses of medicines made for something else. Aspirin is a salicylate, which is why it turns up in this kind of remedy, and eye drops do constrict vessels — but neither is formulated for facial skin, neither is dermatologist-recommended practice, and both can irritate. If you try either, patch test first, keep it to a single spot rather than an area, and take a persistent or painful breakout to a professional instead. The ice on its own is the part with no downside.
Where it goes in your routine
First. Before everything.
Ice comes before serums, before sunscreen, before primer and makeup. You are de-puffing and waking the skin so that everything after it goes onto a better surface — and, as Nikol puts it, so you get to the point of "okay, we're waking up, we look great, we can't wait to put on our serums."
If your mornings need more than cold, a stainless steel gua sha kept in the fridge combines the cold with drainage — the full method is in how to use a gua sha on mature skin. And for the mornings when nothing helps, an eye mask does the waiting for you.
Nikol Johnson is a licensed esthetician. This is general skincare education, not medical advice. If you have rosacea, a diagnosed skin condition, or any concern about applying cold to your skin, speak to a dermatologist first.
Frequently asked questions
What does putting ice on your face actually do?
Cold constricts blood vessels, which reduces puffiness and redness, and it stimulates circulation as the skin warms back up. The visible result is a face that looks less swollen and more awake — which is why it works as a same-morning fix rather than a long-term treatment.
How do you make ice cubes for your face?
Use a large-cube silicone tray so the cube lasts across a whole face. Fill most wells with whole milk, for the lactic acid, and reserve two for cold brew coffee to use on the eye area, since caffeine constricts vessels. Green tea and rosehip also work.
How do you use ice under your eyes?
Draw the cube from under the eye outward to the temple and then downward, following the direction lymph drains, rather than pressing it in one place. That moves fluid away from the eye instead of only cooling the skin.
When should you do an ice facial?
First thing in the morning, before serums, sunscreen and makeup. It takes a couple of minutes and improves the surface everything else goes onto.
Is an ice facial safe if you have rosacea?
Be cautious. Sharp temperature changes — cold or hot — are a known rosacea trigger, and direct ice can be too much for reactive skin. Use a thin cloth wrung out in ice water and laid on the face instead, or hold an ice cube against the roof of your mouth, which constricts vessels without touching the skin.
Can you put ice directly on your skin?
Keep it moving and keep it brief. For sensitive skin, use a barrier — a thin damp cloth, an ice roller, or chilled globes — rather than holding a bare cube in one place.
Does ice help with a breakout?
It reduces the inflammation and redness around a spot, which is why it helps before an event. It does not treat the cause. A persistent or painful breakout is worth taking to a professional rather than treating with home remedies.
How often should you do an ice facial?
Daily is fine for most skin, and Nikol rotates methods across the week with a rest day built in. Vary what you use rather than doing the identical thing every morning.
Does icing your face help product absorb better?
Rolling chilled globes over a sheet mask helps drive the product in, and it is the version Nikol likes most. On bare skin, ice first and then apply serums — not the other way around.
Start here
Tonight, fill a large-cube tray with whole milk and two wells with cold brew. Tomorrow morning, before anything else touches your face, take a milk cube over your skin and a coffee cube under your eyes — outward to the temple, then down. It costs the price of a carton of milk. If your skin is reactive, do the cloth version instead, and read the redness article first.
