"On the face, the rule is always up," which relieves congestion, says Chiu. "Think how a face lift pulls everything up and to the side and behind the ears. We want to mimic that kind of lift."

This time, instead of using the straight end of the stone, we use the U-shaped end, gently and smoothly pulling it from the middle of the chin, along the jawbone to under our ears and, yes, giving it a wiggle, on both sides.

Next, we move to our cheeks and go back to the straight end, drawing the stone flat to the skin, from under our nose, out and up to our ear.

"Without thinking, we spend a lot of our day holding our faces in a squished in position," says Chiu. "Gua sha opens our face up and out," for a much more pleasant and smooth expression.

On our cheekbones, we use the u-shaped end, repeating the jawbone techniques. Flat strokes center and under the eyes, then moving to our eyebrows, repeating the cheekbone move over the brow bone, out, and an end-swish up to our skull bone at the temple. We finish with the pesky '11' lines between our brows, from the top of our nose gliding up to our hairline.

Chiu and Rosebrook tell us to sit a minute and just breath. I'm in a relaxed state, feeling like I'm enjoying the bliss of face yoga shavasana. I open my eyes, not realizing I'd shut them, and sigh a deep breath out. The rest of the room doing the same. We are now students of facial gua sha. I want to bow and say, "Namaste." Chiu and Rosebrook smile and nod knowingly.

Image courtesy Nicola Bridges

My skin glowed — radiant, smooth and healthy. My brow and whole face looked open and relaxed, the lines on my forehead all but gone. And I was slightly, sleepily beaming, in a super-relaxed happy place.

Holding up a tin of Ouli's Ointment, Rosebrook recommended we moisturize our lips. As we do, my tablemate, who coincidentally happened to be Ouli's Ointment creator and L.A.-based green makeup artist Stephanie G-M exclaims what we're all feeling: "I feel like I've been drugged in the face — and it feels sooooo good!"

Image courtesy Nicola Bridges

Chiu is somewhat unique in blending Chinese medicine for skin treatment and rejuvenation with esthetics and beauty. But as more and more of us are turning to a holistic approach to body, well-being and beauty, she suspects mainstream skin care estheticians and dermatologists will jump on the gua sha facial bandwagon.

In the meantime, while it may not feel as pampering as in a spa setting, Chiu says look for acupuncturists and holistic massage therapists trained to do gua sha on the face. "This," she says, "is just the start."

Image courtesy Nicola Bridges