What Skin Laxity Is and What Creams and Devices Can Support
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
Read bio
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
Read bio
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
Read bio
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
Read bio
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.
Share
Skin laxity is the dermis losing collagen and elastin, so the skin no longer springs back the way it did.
This article covers what actually decides the answer, such as:
- What is actually happening in the dermis
- The two changes it gets confused with
- What creams can honestly do
- What devices reach
- Matching the answer to the problem
and many more!
Sorting out which of the three is bothering you is what decides whether a cream, a device or a clinic is the right answer.
Key Points:
The pinch test tells you something useful: pinch the back of your hand and time how long the skin takes to settle.
Retinoids have the strongest evidence of anything you can buy over a counter for dermal collagen.
Sunscreen prevents more laxity than any cream reverses, which is unglamorous and true.
Electrical stimulation works muscle, which supports the structure under lax skin without tightening the skin itself.
Heat-based clinic treatments target the dermis directly and no home electrical device substitutes for them.
What is actually happening in the dermis
Collagen gives skin its tensile strength and elastin lets it recoil. From roughly the mid-twenties, collagen production falls by around one percent a year, and elastin fibres fragment rather than being replaced.
The result is skin that stretches and stays stretched. That is laxity, and it is a change in the material rather than in what sits beneath it.
Ultraviolet exposure accelerates the process far more than time alone does, which is why the skin on the inside of your upper arm looks younger than the skin on your forearm.
The two changes it gets confused with
Fat pads in the midface lose volume and drift downward, so weight that used to sit high on the cheek now rests lower. That reads as sagging in the mirror and is a volume problem, not a skin problem.
Facial muscles lose tone with age like any other muscle. Less support underneath means everything above it sits lower, which also reads as sagging.
All three happen at once, which is why a single answer rarely satisfies anyone; the useful question is which one dominates for you.
What creams can honestly do
Retinoids are the strongest over-the-counter option, with real evidence for increasing dermal collagen over months of use. They will not restore the skin of a decade ago and they do work, which puts them ahead of almost everything else on the shelf.
Peptides and growth factors have a thinner evidence base and are not worthless; treat the marketing language with proportionate scepticism.
Moisturiser improves how skin looks immediately by plumping the surface, and that effect ends when the moisturiser does. Useful, not structural.
Sunscreen is the one that prevents more damage than the others reverse, and it is the least interesting recommendation anybody gives.
What devices reach
Heat-based treatments, radiofrequency and focused ultrasound, target the dermis directly and provoke a wound-healing response that lays down new collagen. That is the mechanism aimed squarely at laxity, and the clinic versions deliver far more energy than handheld ones.
Electrical stimulation does not heat tissue and does not act on the dermis the way heat does. What EMS reaches is muscle; Kavanagh and colleagues measured an 18.6 percent increase in cheek muscle thickness over 12 weeks with motor-level stimulation (10.1111/jocd.12007).
Better muscle tone means better support under lax skin, so the area reads as firmer even though the skin itself has not changed. That is an honest and limited claim, and it is the one worth making.
The low bands, nanocurrent and microcurrent, are where the literature discusses cellular activity, fibroblast signalling and dermal circulation. On PureLift those are levels 1 and 2; from level 3 the current crosses the motor threshold into EMS.
Matching the answer to the problem
If the pinch test on the back of your hand shows skin settling slowly, laxity is a live part of the picture, and retinoids plus sun protection plus, if you want to go further, a clinic heat treatment are the route.
If your jawline has softened but the skin still snaps back, muscle tone and volume are more likely the story, and that is where a device or a clinician respectively come in.
If the cheek looks hollow above a deepening fold, the missing thing is volume, and no cream or current replaces volume.
Most people over forty have all three to some degree, and the sensible plan addresses the dominant one first rather than buying one product for each.
Practical notes
Three minutes per side is the maximum on any PureLift model, and the ten minute session ends on its own.
Use a water-based serum for conductivity and glide, and keep the skin damp; a session that drags means a dry patch rather than a need for more power.
Judge by monthly photographs in consistent light rather than by daily mirror checks, because these changes move too slowly to see day to day.
For the full breakdown of which technology sits where, see how the nine PureLift technologies work.