The first time I saw a jade roller, what I really saw was yet another thing that would collect dust in my bathroom cabinet. I know, I know: It’s really pretty. But also, it’s just a rock. Then when I began to see jade rollers everywhere, I still felt pretty smug about not falling for the siren call of Insta-bait. And yet, here I am months later: People won’t shut up about their jade rollers. A search of #jaderoller on Instagram pulls up 8,390 posts, because not only are jade rollers a hot topic of conversation, they’re also more photogenic than, say, tubes of prescription retinol. “I love mine,” my friend Brittany, a 27-year-old publicist in NYC, told me. “It makes me feel like I’m getting a facial or attempting to do lymphatic drainage to de-puff without the cost.”

Still, I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at jade rollers—something I do on a grand scale with anything that involves crystals, which I only value as attractive paperweights. (I could care less about my vibrations, TBH.) So, curious to figure out why people were so into them, I challenged those familiar with the things to convince me whether they’re really worth rubbing all over my face. My first stop: Reddit, where users seem religious about them in the comments.

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“I use it at least every other night,” says Olivia, a 24-year-old sales associate from Savannah, Georgia, I came across on r/skincareaddiction. “I have rosacea that I’ve been battling for years and the coolness of the jade roller really helps to calm my skin.” After using it consistently for three months, she says noticed a big difference in her complexion, from how smooth her skin is to the reduced puffiness—and, of course, it’s calmer than ever. I admit that I find it hard to argue with that. But I also don’t have rosacea.

So I pinged Sofia, a 25-year-old grad student living in New York, who’d also raved about the jade roller on an r/skincareaddiction thread. She told me her jade roller habit was born of necessity. “I have rather long acrylic nails, and I felt I was wasting a lot of product—and money—getting it caught on my nails and cuticles or absorbed by my fingertips,” she says. “So I’ll use my spatula or spoon to put dots of serum or moisturizer on my face and slowly use the jade roller to spread it out over my skin.” She rolls for about 20 seconds, after which the formula seems to sink in. “Even if you’re skeptical about whether it helps things like circulation and collagen production, it’s good if you want a gentle face massage without all the tugging and pulling,” she says.

I love the Internet as much as the next aging Millennial, but I wanted a pro’s opinion. So I decided to go to a dermatologist to see if jade rollers live up to the anecdotal hype. In a surprising twist, even some of those too-good-to-be-true skin benefits just may be legit. “The real benefit of jade rollers or facial massage is improving circulation and lymphatic drainage, so you look more glowing and less puffy,” explains Jennifer Chwalek, M.D., a dermatologist at Union Square Laser Dermatology in NYC. I admit: Damn. “Marma point massage—or Ayurvedic massage—acupressure or even gentle facial massage, when done correctly to your face, is known to help calm the mind and improve headaches, TMJ pain, sinus congestion, eye strain, and puffiness of the lower eyelids.”

One reason it actually helps is that the jade roller is cool to the touch (and even more so if, like some enthusiasts, you store it in the fridge). “The practice of applying a cold sensation and pressure to an area has been used for centuries because it works without fail,” says Joie Tavernise, aesthetician and founder of JTAV Clinical Skincare. “It’s simple: The cold restricts blood flow to a particular area and pressure pushes fluid, known as lymph, to the lymph nodes, which process it and filter out toxins.”

So, if you want to actually get in on the de-puffing, glow-enhancing action of a jade roller, you need to push the lymph to your lymph nodes, Tavernise told me. She likes to do three strokes of light pressure, working with one side of the face at a time. In case I chose to take it up, she gave me a how-to: Start at the center of the chin, rolling out and up towards your ear. Then, move the roller up to the side of your mouth and repeat. Repeat again, starting this time at the side of the nose. Roll it under your eye, moving it horizontally towards your temple, and repeat it on your eyelid. On your forehead, roll it up from the brow to the hairline. Then, roll it horizontally out towards your temple. Finally, repeat on the other side of your face.

It seemed like a lot of work, especially for me, who can barely squeeze in a double-cleanse. But I get the appeal of both the skin care benefits and its Millennial pink, sage-smudging, low-key woo-woo aesthetic, which I both admire and hate with every fiber of my being (possibly because my aesthetic is more gray and frizzy). After all, there’s a reason that despite all the affordable versions of the jade roller available on Amazon, the one that’s caught my eye is the Herbivore Jade Facial Roller ($25), from the brand that creates products so dreamy-looking that you’d never conceal them in your cabinet. At least I’m not alone in this. “I also like how it looks on my vanity, which I know is so lame but it’s true,” says Brittany. “The jade just looks chic.”

So…I caved. I got a jade roller—Herbivore’s, naturally. I dotted eye cream beneath my eyes and a moisturizer everywhere else before following Tavernise’s instructions. My first gripe: The jade roller picked up a lot of my moisturizer. I want that ish in my skin. But the jade did feel cool and refreshing even though I hadn’t refrigerated it, and it seems like it’d be perfect for just after a run (since I tend to stay red and sweaty for at least an hour afterward). Besides that, though, I didn’t really notice a difference.

Can you spot the difference? (Because I can’t.)

Whether I actually invest more time in jade rolling is TBD, but the arguments from skin care obsessives and pros alike have convinced me to at least keep my attitude in check. Plus, Brittany makes the best case for it. “It’s almost like, well, I can’t afford or don’t want to spend money on a facial, but that doesn’t mean it all goes to shit,” she says. “It makes me feel like I’m doing something good for myself after a long day.” I can’t hate on that.

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