Warning long post ahead! If you just want my final conclusions, skip to the bottom! I’ve been both curious and skeptical of high-tech, at-home skin care devices for some time, but I didn’t feel like there was any unbiased, unsponsored source I could turn to for answers so I compiled my own research! None of these companies have ever paid me; this summary is driven purely on data from the National Library of Medicine and companies themselves. All prices will be listed for each device in USD.
𝐌𝐢𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐃𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐬
Examples: NuFace which runs from $250 to $500, the ZIIP Halo at $350, Foreo Bear from $330 to $220, and the newer Medicube Age-R EMS Derma shot at $280
These devices claim to give you and instant face lift at home by stimulating the skin and the muscles beneath it with an array of electrical currents, improving collagen production long term. Sound too good to be true? Well, research wise, the jury is still out on that.
The current global market size for these devices alone sits at about 373 million USD. Crazy right? At home devices have surged in popularity during and after the pandemic and are only expected to grow from here. (Source: Grand View Research)
Microcurrent therapy (MCT) saw it’s debut not in skincare but in physical therapy. There is currently a lot of research supporting the positive correlation between MCT and anti- inflammatory effects, increased soft-tissue healing, and non- invasive pain relief. (Source: Odell, Robert H., MD, PhD, and Sorgnard, Richard E. PhD (2008) Pain Physician, 11:891-907 Las Vegas and Poltawski, L and Watson, T: Physical Therapy Reviews 2009 VOL 14 NO 2 (105-114); School of Health and Emergency Professions, University of Hertfordshire)
But what about for skincare?
A summary of available research conducted in 2015 published on the National Library of Medicine (A Bras Dermatol. 2015 Sep-Oct; 90(5): 707–721. doi: 10.1590/abd1806-4841.20153605) found that most studies reported positive findings; however, bias and small samples sizes were consistent in almost all available studies, so the results are still not definitive.
This is a trend across all of the research I found; good results of increased skin elasticity and appearance, but issues in the integrity of the study. As far as user reports go, these devices seem well liked. I’ve seen more positive reports than negative, but there’s also a lot of sponsored content floating around out there. In many cases it’s also hard to rule out whether the results people see are from the device, or from and increased consistency with their routines and placebo. Many things “work” if you simply want them to work hard enough.
𝐋𝐄𝐃 𝐋𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐲 (𝐑𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐁𝐥𝐮𝐞)
Examples; Dr. Dennis Gross SpectralLight mask at $455, Foreo UFO at $200, Therashield at $90, Solawave wand at $190, and Cellreturn LED mask at $1,300 wowza)
Have you ever seen pictures of people wearing those spooky red lighted masks and thought “what is that??” Well, welcome to the world of light therapy. Like microcurrents, LED light therapy is another product that found its origin in physical therapy and similar medical offices. The concept is that red light stimulates the production of collagen and elastin, firming up skin and reducing the appearance of pores and fine lines while blue light kills the bacteria that causes acne before those little red spots have time to show up on your skin.
I faced a similar issue in researching academic studies about this topic; many studies showed positive results on the surface but were tainted by too small focus groups and participant bias, but I found more solid articles supporting LED light therapy for red light.
This study published on the National Library of Medicine (NLM) found the red light at an irradiance of 40 mW/cm2 showed successful promotion of skin barrier repair (PLoS One. 2019; 14(7): e0219198. Published online 2019 Jul 10. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0219198)
I also stumbled across this fantastic article that goes really in depth into the science of red light therapy and compares a lot of LED masks so if this is interesting to you at all I’d highly recommend checking it out
https://goalstogetglowing.com/2021/01/17/deep-dive-into-led-masks-and-low-level-light-therapy-lllt/
Unfortunately blue light therapy to target acne doesn’t have the same research behind it. The most comprehensive study I found reported no correlation between acne improvement and blue light (Source: Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2016 Sep; 2016(9): CD007917. Published online 2016 Sep 27. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD007917.pub2)
In summary, red light LED therapy devices have some pretty substantial research behind them, just make sure you’re buying a product that’s running on the right wavelength and irradiance, as there seem to be a lot of ineffective, weak products out there piggybacking on the popularity of skincare devices for a quick buck.
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐌𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐮𝐛𝐞 𝐀𝐠𝐞-𝐑 𝐃𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐬
The Age-R Booster H at $250, Ussera Deep Shot at $370, ATS Airshot at $280
Now I’ve been a vocal Medicube fan for several years now after their zero pore pads helped rescue my skin but all the buzz around these products sill caught me off guard. These seem to the the latest and greatest in skin care technology, but that do they do? The general concept of the Booster-H is to utilize something called electroporation to significantly improve the penetration and effectiveness of your skin care products by increasing the permeability of cell walls. As far as I could find, this product is very much a pioneer in the skin care device world, especially for home devices. A few articles I found said that doctor that developed these, Dr. Shin Sae Woo, based them all off of popular Korean spa and dermatology treatments, but I couldn’t verify that for certain. The general concept behind all of these is to make celebrity skin care accessible to all, since it’s no secret all our favorite K-pop stars are utilizing many in-office procedures most of us don’t have the cash to get our hands on that often, if at all.
The ATS Airshot has a somewhat similar concept, instead utilizing electric microneedles. The general idea here is to get the effectiveness of micro needling without puncturing the skin which creates openings for bacteria. I’m definitely a fan of this concept as I’ve been critical of that issue with home microneedle treatments in the past, but envious of the results. Since this product is so new, however, there’s not a lot of unbiased research to show off here, but microneedling has some substantial research behind it for acne scars and skin elasticity (Source: Alessa D, Bloom JD. Microneedling Options for Skin Rejuvenation, Including Non-temperature-controlled Fractional Microneedle Radiofrequency Treatments. Facial Plast Surg Clin North Am. 2020 Feb;28(1):1-7. doi: 10.1016/j.fsc.2019.09.001. PMID: 31779933.)
The Ussera Deep Shot, however uses LED red light therapy, high frequency, and ultra sound as an anti-aging therapy. As I discussed above, LED red light therapy has some real science behind it, but I couldn’t find the wavelength or irradiation stats of the Ussera, so until I can get my hands on that information, I’m skipping this device.
Despite the Booster H and the Airshot being pretty new territory, I’m definitely interested in these devices. They seem promising and innovative, but I may be biased by my previous love of the Medicube brand.
𝐇𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐌𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬
I elected not to talk about skin care cleansing devices like spin brushes or the Foreo Luna because I feel like they’re sort of old news at this point. Just my personal opinion here but these devices don’t do anything you can’t already do with your hands (except maybe damaging your skin. I’m looking at you spin brush). Just wash your face for 60 seconds, make sure you wash off all your cleanser, and double cleanse at least once a day and you’ll be fine.
I also didn’t talk about facial steamers more or less for the same reason. Direct heat usually isn’t the best for our skin and these have been around for a while. They make ones that run at a low enough heat to make them safe, but any “pore opening claims” are junk. Your pores don’t open and close with temperature; it’s just vasodilation beneath your skin.
𝐌𝐲 𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐕𝐞𝐫𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐭
I wanted to like microcurrent devices, I really did, but the research just isn’t there.
If we’re going off research alone, LED red light therapy wins easily. I wanted to be skeptical since the idea of light therapy has always seemed odd to me, but the science really is there. Just be cautions when looking for devices and only pick ones with effective wavelength and irradiation values.
Despite there not being enough research, I am very curious about the Medicube Booster H and Airshot. I looked forward to more research coming out about these devices and I’d love to give either a try at some point in the near future.
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