Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably caught wind of the popularity of face rollers. There are a few different kinds, one being the ice roller, which draws on the practice of icing your skin (a form of cryotherapy). Whether with actual ice cubes, refrigerated spoons, or chilled cucumber slices, icing is an age-old skincare approach most people agree that works.
It’s a relatively simple concept—just like we reach for ice packs or frozen peas to reduce swelling from an injury, we can apply cold things to our skin to depuff and minimize redness. Since ice causes your blood vessels to contract, it might also make your pores appear smaller and temporarily tighten your skin.
Thanks to some much-welcome advancements in the beauty industry, icing your skin is much more sophisticated than it used to be. The handy little gadgets we like to call ice rollers are stored in the freezer and can be used on your face, eye area, neck, décolletage, and anywhere else that needs to take a chill pill—no drips, no mess, just a soothed, glowing complexion.
“I love ice rollers for personal use and in-service with my clients,” licensed esthetician and skincare expert Lauren LaPaglia tells Byrdie. “They are great at reducing redness, inflammation, and reducing fluid buildup in the face.”
OK, we’re sold! Here, the best ice rollers you can buy today.
Best Overall: Vanity Planet Revive Professional Facial Ice Roller
Whether you’re a face-icing novice or are looking to step up your at-home cryotherapy game, you can’t go wrong with this roller. The detachable stainless steel head stays cold for two hours out of the freezer. Plus, it’s compact, lightweight, and easy to use—simply glide it across your skin to depuff, calm, and tighten.
“The ice roller from Vanity Planet doesn’t break the bank and is great quality,” says LaPaglia. This roller can reach large areas of the face and does a great job at reducing buildup fluid and toning the skin.”
Best Budget: Esarora Ice Roller Skin Care Tool
“To be completely honest, a $12 ice roller from Amazon works really well,” says licensed esthetician Dana Murray. You don’t have to tell us twice! This no-nonsense option by Esarora offers all the benefits of skin icing without the hefty price tag.
Best Splurge: BeautyBio Cryo Skin Icing Roller
If you can swing it, you won’t regret splurging on BeautyBio’s Cryo Roller. Made from stainless steel, this dual-ended device chills your skin to the optimal temp (45 F) to tighten, tone, sculpt, and soothe.
Best Stainless Steel: Skin Gym IceCoolie Ice Roller
“I recommend the ice roller models that have a stainless steel roller,” Murray notes. With this in mind, you should definitely consider the Skin Gym IceCoolie, a travel-friendly roller you can use anytime, anywhere to achieve a healthy-looking glow.
Best for Sensitive Skin: StackedSkincare Cryo Sculpting Roller
Developed by aesthetician Kerry Benjamin, a lifelong eczema patient, this cryo roller was designed to soothe sensitive skin, reduce itch, and fight inflammation. But it doesn’t stop there—you’ll also notice a visibly tighter complexion and a smoother under-eye area.
Best for Acne-Prone Skin: Urban Skin Rx Hydracool Calm & Correct Ice Roller
Trying to keep breakouts at bay? Reach for Urban Skin Rx’s Hydracool Roller. The steel head won’t irritate existing pimples and can actually improve their appearance, all while minimizing the size of your pores and reducing puffiness.
Best Complexion-Enhancing: PUR Botanicals Ice Roller
If your main goal with icing your skin is to look better, go with this little guy from Pur Botanicals. By contracting your blood vessels, it helps boost the absorption of serums, eye creams, moisturizers, and masks while delivering a smoother, glowier complexion.
Best Soothing: Kitsch Ice Roller
Itchy, irritated, or inflamed skin? The Kitsch Ice Roller is your new best friend. Featuring a stainless steel head and an ergonomic handle, it makes soothing your skin a nearly effortless task—extra points for being a woman-owned brand.
Best for Inflammation: Finishing Touch Flawless Ice Roller
Ugh, inflammation. For many, it’s always there or right around the corner. When you arm yourself with the Flawless Ice Roller, you’ll be on your way to winning the battle against inflammation. It’s got a soft gel head that freezes within 15 minutes to help reduce puffiness, redness, and irritation in a pinch.
Best for Under Eyes: Project E Beauty Ice Roller Cold Therapy
If you have under-eye bags—let’s be honest, who doesn’t?—you’ll be glad to have Project E’s ice roller on hand. This thoughtfully designed gadget glides over the entire eye area, applying a cooling treatment at just the right temperature. The result? Minimized puffiness, improved texture, and brighter skin.
Best for Travel: Maange Ice Roller
Measuring just 6.5 x 2.6 inches, the Maange Ice Roller is a travel-friendly tool made for folks on the fly. The steel roller head freezes quickly—in a cooler, hotel mini-fridge, or outside in the snow—and delivers a half-hour of cryotherapy skincare.
Best Set: FIGHTART 3-in-1 Ice Roller, Jade Roller, Gua Sha Massage Tool
If you’re already on the face-rolling bandwagon and are looking to expand your horizons, we recommend this four-in-one set. You’ll get an ice roller with a gel head, a jade roller, a textured massage roller, and a gua sha tool.
Best for Body: Spa Sciences Isla
Skin icing isn’t just for your face. While you can use most rollers all over your body, the Isla was designed to offer benefits from head to toe. From tightened skin and reduced swelling to smoothed lines and a healthy-looking glow, there’s not much this multitasker doesn’t do.
Final Verdict
The best option overall is the Vanity Planet Revive Professional Facial Ice Roller (view at Vanity Planet), an esthetician-approved gadget with a stainless steel head that stays cold for two whole hours. However, if you want something a bit more wallet-friendly, you can’t go wrong with the Esarora Ice Roller Skin Care Tool (view at Amazon). And if you’re open to splurging on a fancier device, we recommend the BeautyBio Cryo Roller (view at Sephora).
What to Look for in an Ice Roller
Gel vs. Stainless Steel Head
When browsing ice rollers, you’ll notice most options have either stainless steel or gel heads. Both materials freeze quickly, typically within 15 minutes.
“Stainless steel tends to stay colder for an extended period,” offers Murray. Also, the metal harbors less bacteria. “Stainless steel is non-porous, can be washed with soap and water, and even wiped down with rubbing alcohol without worrying about it rusting,” she adds. That said, a gel tends to be a little softer and may be more comfortable against the skin.
Removable Head
“I like models that allow the roller [head] to be removed for easy cleaning and storing in a Ziplock in your freezer,” says Murray. “Being an esthetician, I am always concerned about tools used on the face being sanitary. The last thing we want is smearing bacteria all over our face!”
Ergonomic Handle
When buying an ice roller, you’ll also want to consider the handle. Some options have narrower handles, about the width of a pen, which are fine but less comfortable after a few minutes of use. If you use an ice roller every day or do longer at-home cryo sessions, we suggest getting one with a wider, contoured ergonomic handle.
FAQ
What does an ice roller do?
An ice roller is a cryotherapy tool used to encourage circulation, reduce swelling, minimize redness, soothe irritation, tighten the skin, and restore radiance. Whether with a stainless steel or gel head, the chilled material can be rolled over your entire face, neck, décolletage, and the rest of your body. Some people also say it helps with headaches.
How long should you use an ice roller on your face?
When gliding an ice roller across your face, eye area, jawline, neck, and chest, five to 10-minute sessions are ideal. This is typically long enough to see visible improvement in puffiness, inflammation, redness, and overall skin texture. As long as your skin isn’t irritated, you can go a little longer if needed.
How do you clean an ice roller?
Most gel and stainless steel ice rollers can be cleaned and sanitized with mild soap and warm water. As Murray explains, you can wipe down a stainless steel model with rubbing alcohol without worrying about it rusting. Though freezing will kill most germs, we recommend cleaning your ice roller after every use.
How We Researched
To compile this list, our team of editors and contributors spent hours researching the best products on the market in this category, evaluating their key features—like ingredients, shade range, or design—in addition to reviews from customers and other trusted sources. We then used this research to assign a star rating from one to five (five being the best; one being the worst) to certain products on the list.
