Many of you know I am a beauty gadget enthusiast, going by the various interesting and innovative tools I’ve reviewed here. Today, I am going to unveil another one and it is so bizarre, it’s gonna make me sound like, and absolutely look like, a loony. But loony or not, I have Real Madrid mega football star, Cristano Ronaldo, for company and that my friend, just catapulted me to become a world-class loony! LOL.
Weird but sound
Okay, before I get completely tossed away, let me preface by saying this weird beauty gadget, dubbed Facial Fitness PAO or PAO for short, is no fancy beauty toy. The name is quite sane even if the idea does not come across initially. But I assure you the concept and the design is completely sound, especially if you’re familiar with facial yoga.
How it works
Here is one product that you are literally to stuff in your mouth, hold with your lips, and bob your head to swing it up and down rhythmically for two 30-second sessions a day. Its sole purpose is to train our facial muscles and the reason it is designed to be stuffed in the mouth is because a study conducted by Tokyo University has concluded that the muscles around our mouth area is the most susceptible to aging.
According to the experts, the face is home to at least 43 individual muscles that are responsible for a range of emotions. But no thanks to aging, facial muscles tend to weaken over time leading to wrinkles and a droopy expression. So using this will strengthen the facial muscles and tighten up the skin from within. Here’s a promotional video to give you a better idea of how PAO works.
Supported by 3 technologies
As you can see from the video, PAO is not something randomly designed. In fact, there are three technologies that support Facial Fitness PAO.
Technology 1:Resonance Movement
By just nodding your head up and down, you can swing the weighted ends of the bar extending from the mouthpiece. This resonance movement, generated by the up and down motion of the head produces the a force (load) that exercises facial muscles.
Technology 2:Technical Distance
The part that you hold between your lips extends 30mm from the center of the bar. Maintaining this slight distance from the exerciser serves to intensify the force applied to the facial muscles.
Technology 3:Mouth Hold
The “Mouth Hold” refers to the part of the mouthpiece that you clamp between your lips. It is designed to effectively stimulate the muscles with the force delivered to the orbicularis oris muscle.
My experience with PAO
I’ve been using this bar-shaped tool daily since August and here is my experience with this mouth gaping, lip grabbing, one-of-a-kind wacky beauty gadget wonder complete with some before and after pictures.
If you watched the video, you may think that PAO is so easy to use. So did I. I mean, what’s so difficult about bobbing your head up and down to swing both ends of the bar? Well, instead of holding with my lips, I started all wrong by biting the mouthpiece. Also, I was bouncing my body too much when I first began. Finally, I needed some practise to get the left and right equilibrium movement precise too. But once I got the hang of it all, using PAO was a breeze!
In fact, it got quite fun and there is a tendency to want to stretch all the bobbing longer. But just like how you don’t want to over exercise your body, it’s equally important not to over exercise your facial muscles. So I ensured that I kept to the 30-second time limit each time by means of a watch. At the end of the session, I could feel a little ache in my cheek areas.
But after over two months of usage, I’m still not sure if it had any effects on my face. In order to know, I documented by means of pictures. I’ve tried to be as accurate in terms of angle etc and this is the best I can do. The first set of picture was taken right before I started (with the ugly crop of hair) and now. The second set of picture was taken in July and now (as my hair was longer in July).
Benefits of using PAO
There are supposedly three major benefits of using the Pao – firming up smile lines, firming the facial contour and turning up the corners of the mouth. Well, based on what I’m seeing, it looks like there is a wee bit of a lifting effect around my cheek areas such that I look more awake? The difference is very subtle and some of you might even think I’ve put on weight (which I did not). Well, I’ll leave you to decide and to drop me your comments but one thing I would say is apart from skin care products, I did not make any changes to my lifestyle. In fact, I cut down on my daily facial massage during this period.
However, I do wish the difference was more pronounced. I was quite hopeful but at the same time not really expecting too much because I don’t really have saggy skin to begin with since I’ve been pretty diligent when it comes to massaging my face all these years.
Accessories included for PAO
PAO comes with three types of balance weights that are interchangeable–18g, 23g and 28g. By changing these weights, you can modify your PAO facial fitness exercise to a level that best suits your requirements. The whole idea is like how you would train your body muscles using body weights.
I started out using the pink one (23g) for a couple of days before moving on to the gold one (28g) which I’m currently using. It felt a little heavy initially but now it feels almost weightless. I still get a little aching feeling around my mouth area after using PAO but it wears out almost immediately.
Oh, the thing I don’t really like about using PAO is that I have to wash the mouthpiece every time after use. It can be detach for washing but usually, I just rinse the mouthpiece with the two bars intact before wiping dry with a tissue paper then encasing the mouthpiece with the carry case.
PAO also comes with an easy to carry pouch if you need to bring it out. But I totally forgot all about it the last time I brought it out on a work trip. Speaking of which, I did find this a little big to bring around since it’s not something handy or foldable.
Price and special discount
Oh by the way, Facial Fitness PAO is created and sold by MTG, the Japanese company that created ReFa Active that I reviewed recently. It’s retailing at S$200 and you have a choice of white or black. The good news for those of you sold on the idea of purchasing PAO is that MTG is offering 10% off purchases from its e-store for Viva Woman readers. In fact, the 10% applies to all products. Just quote VivaMtg during checkout. For more information, check out the MTG e-store. Offer valid till end Oct 2014.
If you ask me, while S$200 is not affordable, it is not expensive if you are able to use it for a long term basis. Think of it like an exercise gear but only for the face. Plus, it’s definitely cheaper and safer than botox! Yet based on how it did for me, I can’t say I highly recommend it either because I am not even sure if I would fork out that kind of money to purchase this myself. But one thing for certain is I do like this facial fitness gadget as it is fun to use and does not require too much work. Also, I do believe it helps to train my facial muscles to prevent my face from sagging. So if you like the idea of training your facial muscles without resorting to facial yoga, check the product out at MTG.
For now, I really like to hear your opinion on this tool especially based on the pictures I’ve posted. What do you think? Do you agree with me that it didn’t do so much for my face or do you see something I don’t see?
