Protecting Your Skin Barrier While Using a Facial Device
Medically reviewed by
4 independent reviewers
Andrew Conrad Barile, PT, DPT
Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) | Licensed Physical Therapist (PT) | CEO and Founder, Xtreem Pulse LLC
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Dr. Andrew Conrad Barile is a Doctor of Physical Therapy and the CEO and Founder of Xtreem Pulse LLC, the engineering company behind PureLift. He earned his Doctorate in Physical Therapy from Daemen College and is a licensed physical therapist.
He brings over two decades of clinical and entrepreneurial experience across physical therapy, craniosacral therapy and medical device innovation, built on a working knowledge of human anatomy and muscle physiology.
For PureLift LAB he reviews how current is delivered across all ten levels, from sub-sensory nanocurrent and skin-level microcurrent to motor-level EMS, and how the Infuse pass fits into the same ten-minute routine.
Bertica M. Rubio, M.D.
Board-Certified Physician, Dartmouth Medical School | Medical Director, Antiaging Regenerative Medicine Clinic
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Dr. Bertica M. Rubio is a board-certified physician and Medical Director of the Antiaging Regenerative Medicine Clinic in Redlands, California. She earned her Doctor of Medicine from Dartmouth Medical School and completed her pediatrics residency at UC Irvine Medical Center.
With decades of clinical experience, she specialises in age management medicine, regenerative medicine, wound healing and growth factor therapies, and her practice integrates evidence-based medical science with advanced aesthetic treatment.
For PureLift LAB she reviews articles for medical accuracy across the whole dial, from the gentle nanocurrent and microcurrent settings through to muscle-level EMS and the Infuse pass.
Daniel Grinberg, MD, FACS
Board-Certified Otolaryngologist | Head and Neck Surgeon | Fellow, American College of Surgeons | Mount Sinai
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Daniel Grinberg, MD, FACS is a board-certified otolaryngologist and head and neck surgeon at ENT and Allergy Associates in West Nyack, New York. He earned his medical degree from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.
He completed his otolaryngology residency at New York University Medical Center, serves as Assistant Clinical Professor at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and is a Fellow of both the American College of Surgeons and the American Academy of Otolaryngology.
For PureLift LAB he brings a wider clinical lens, connecting at-home facial stimulation from microcurrent to EMS to the anatomy underneath, with the same rigour we apply to every device specification.
Prof. Dr. med. Ivo Buschmann
Chair of Angiology, Medizinische Hochschule Brandenburg | Clinic Director, University Clinic for Angiology
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Prof. Dr. med. Ivo Buschmann is Chair of Angiology at the Medizinische Hochschule Brandenburg Theodor Fontane and Clinic Director of the University Clinic for Angiology at the Brandenburg University Hospital.
He trained at the University of Hamburg, was a Max Planck Society Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research, and held senior consultant posts at the Charite Universitatsmedizin Berlin before his appointment as Chair in 2016.
One of Europe's leading authorities on arteriogenesis, with over 150 peer-reviewed publications and US and EU patents, he reviews for PureLift LAB how the evidence on electrical stimulation is read and where its limits lie.
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Electrical current does not heat, abrade or strip skin, so a device is not what damages a barrier.
This article covers what actually decides the answer, such as:
- What the barrier is
- How to tell it is the barrier
- Why the device is usually not the cause
- What to pause, in order
- Rebuilding
and many more!
Since the device is the newest arrival, it gets blamed, and the actual culprit keeps going.
Key Points:
A compromised barrier stings when you apply things that never used to sting.
Dryness is a lack of oil; dehydration is a lack of water, and they need different products.
Pause the actives before you pause the device, since the actives are the likelier cause.
Rebuild with plain moisturiser for a fortnight, then reintroduce one product at a time.
Never start a device and a new active in the same week.
What the barrier is
The outermost layer of skin, a few cells thick, holding water in and irritants out. When it is intact, products go on without incident and skin stays comfortable through the day.
When it is disrupted, water escapes and irritants get in, which produces the specific combination of tightness, stinging, flushing and flaking that people describe as their skin suddenly hating everything.
It rebuilds itself given a couple of weeks of being left alone, which is the good news and also the treatment.
How to tell it is the barrier
Products that were fine now sting on application, particularly around the nose and the eyes.
Skin feels tight after cleansing and stays tight, and moisturiser seems to disappear within the hour.
Flaking alongside oiliness, which is a confusing combination and a classic sign, since the oil is still being produced and the water is not being held.
New reactivity to things that never caused a problem, and a face that is pink in places it did not used to be.
Why the device is usually not the cause
Electrical stimulation does not heat tissue, unlike radiofrequency. It does not remove the outer layer, unlike a peel or a scrub. It does not create micro-injuries, unlike needling.
Those three routes are how most facial treatments disrupt a barrier, and none is in play with current.
What a device does is distribute whatever you applied, thoroughly, across the whole face for ten minutes. If what you applied was a glycolic serum, the barrier problem is the glycolic serum receiving an unusually effective application.
What to pause, in order
Exfoliating acids first. All of them, including the ones in a cleanser you forgot counts.
Retinoids second, or reduce them rather than stopping if you have built up tolerance over years.
Physical scrubs, cleansing brushes and anything described as resurfacing.
Then, if the skin is still unhappy after a fortnight of the above, drop the device to levels 1 and 2, which on PureLift are nanocurrent and microcurrent and do not contract anything, or pause it entirely.
Pausing the device first is the common mistake, because it removes the most visible new variable while leaving the actual cause running.
Rebuilding
Two weeks of the simplest routine you can manage: a gentle cleanser, a plain moisturiser with something occlusive in it, and sunscreen. Nothing active, nothing new.
Then reintroduce one product at a time, a fortnight apart, so that if something causes a problem you know which something it was.
Bring the device back before the actives, since it is the least likely to have been responsible.
Preventing it in the first place
Never start a device and a new serum in the same week. If something goes wrong you will have no way of knowing which caused it, and you will probably blame the wrong one.
Use a plain water-based serum as your conductive medium rather than your most active one. Hyaluronic acid, glycerin and niacinamide are all unproblematic here.
Keep exfoliating acids and retinoids off the face during a session, and put them on later in the evening or the following night.
Do not use the device over broken skin, an active cold sore, or anything inflamed.
When it is not a barrier problem
Persistent redness, itching that will not settle, or anything that looks like a rash rather than irritation is worth showing to a dermatologist rather than treating with a simplified routine.
The same goes for anything that appeared suddenly or is confined to one area.
For the actives question specifically, see using a facial device alongside retinol and acids.
Two related questions come up often alongside this one, and we have answered both in full: whether microcurrent and EMS are the same thing, and how microcurrent compares with a TENS unit.