But the term face yoga isn't that literal. Effectively, face yoga is a series of exercises that are similar to massage techniques, that aim to relax, and in some instances, tone muscles just like traditional yoga does.

While the technique has only been popping up in American, British and Australian beauty publications in recent years, face yoga is well-known in some European and Asian countries, with some historians even saying that Cleopatra did facial exercises as part of her beauty regime.

For Canberra's Elena Amani, it was while she was living in Russia that she first heard of face yoga.

"Every country's relationship with face yoga is different," Amani says.

"In Russia, everyone knows about it. In Japan, you see a Japanese lady everywhere teaching her course. The course is more focused on building strength. I'm more focused on releasing tension."

Amani, who is also a yoga teacher, decided to try face yoga after many years of chronic pain and swelling in her jaw. She had tried Botox and other methods of fixing the issue in her jaw but nothing seemed to work.

"I actually did not think about yoga for the face. I was afraid to touch it, like a lot of people I thought: 'I have pain, I go somewhere to see a specialist and that's it," Amani says.

"But a friend suggested I try face yoga. I did one course and I immediately saw changes in my face. The pain was gone. Not completely, because my jaw was twisted and it can take time to release the tension and align, but over time it did."

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Not only did face yoga help with the pain in Amani's jaw, but she started to see differences in her face. It became more symmetrical as her jaw pain disappeared, her eyes became bigger and the muscles above her lip relaxed and lowered meaning she no longer showed her gums when she smiled.

It's for reasons such as these that people see face yoga as a Botox alternative.

"Before I was doing Botox and using expensive creams - like $300 creams. I don't know if that helped me. I can't say. With face yoga, I can see a difference," Amani says.

"People don't realise, with all our trauma and negative feelings, upsets or stress, our muscles contract. And by releasing tension on your face and your neck, you can release these negative emotions.

"Of course, health is the priority. First health, then beauty will come. If you have any asymmetry and pain, how can you look beautiful when you are in pain?"

Over the past few months, Amani has hosted face yoga workshops at her Wright studio, Yoga for Posture, which were popular enough for her to start hosting weekly classes as of next month.

"A lot of people realise how important it is. Because we exercise our body. We're going to the gym, we're getting massages. But what about the face?" Amani says.

"Face fitness is a build-up strength to move everything. But what I've learned is that you create freedom to move your face. There should be no tension, no knots."