How to Use a Microcurrent Device on Your Face, Step by Step
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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Clean skin, a generous water-based layer, a level you can clearly feel, and three minutes a side moving along the muscle rather than across it.
This article walks through the routine step by step, such as:
- what to do before you switch the device on
- how to find your working level rather than your minimum
- the order of the passes and the direction to move
- where to slow down and where to skip entirely
- what to do immediately afterwards
and many more!
The whole routine takes ten minutes and gets easier by about the fourth session.
Key Points:
Clean, dry skin first, then a generous layer of water-based serum so the skin looks wet rather than dewy.
Find a level that feels like firm pulling and is comfortable to hold for three minutes, then raise it over the coming weeks.
Work upward and outward, along the direction the muscle runs, moving slowly rather than skipping.
Three minutes per side, ten minutes in total including the serum pass, and no longer.
Skip the front of the neck over the thyroid and be gentle around the eye area.
Before you switch it on
Take off makeup and cleanse, because a device cannot work through foundation and sunscreen, and anything occlusive left on the skin will interrupt the current unevenly.
Tie your hair back and take off earrings and necklaces in the treatment area, which is less about safety than about keeping the conductive layer uninterrupted.
Have your serum within reach and, if your room is dry, a facial mist as well. You will need to reapply between sides more often than you expect.
Check the device is charged. Interrupting a session halfway is the most common reason people skip the second side.
The conductive layer
Apply a water-based serum generously enough that the skin looks visibly wet, not merely hydrated. This is the single most common thing people get wrong, and it quietly costs them results rather than announcing itself.
Hyaluronic acid and glycerin serums work well, as does aloe. Oils, balms and silicone-heavy creams do not, because a barrier layer is the opposite of a conductor.
If your device requires its own gel, use it, since some manufacturers specify one and a warranty may depend on it. If your device takes any water-based serum, as ours do, the bottle you already own is very likely fine, and the two-minute test will confirm it.
Finding your level
Start low and raise it in steps until you reach a setting you can feel clearly as a firm pull rather than a tickle, and which you would be content to hold for three minutes.
Ward and colleagues set out the three thresholds that separate sub-sensory, sensory and motor current, and the practical version for you is simple: at the right level on a motor-capable device you will see the muscle respond, and on a microcurrent device you will feel very little by design.
Do not chase the highest level you can stand. Everything above your comfortable working level goes unused, because the sessions stop being pleasant and then stop happening.
Expect the number to rise over the first month as tolerance builds. Someone still on their week-one setting in week eight is repeating week-one work.
The passes, in order
Start at the jaw. Place the probe near the chin and move slowly along the jawline toward the ear, lifting off at the end and returning to the start rather than dragging back.
Move to the mid-face. Work from beside the nose out toward the cheekbone and the temple, following the direction the muscle runs rather than sweeping horizontally across the face.
Then the forehead, working from the brow upward toward the hairline, in short overlapping passes.
Around the eye, use the lowest level you use anywhere and work on the bone rather than on the lid. If the eyelid flutters, you are too close or too high.
Three minutes on one side, then repeat on the other. Reapply serum before the second side, because the first application will have started to dry.
Where to slow down and where to stop
Slow down wherever the face has actually changed, usually along the jaw and the lower cheek, and spend your three minutes there rather than distributing them evenly out of fairness.
Skip the front of the neck over the thyroid entirely, which is standard practice across the professional world and costs you nothing.
Skip any area with broken skin, active inflammation, sunburn or a recent procedure.
If a spot turns sharp, add serum rather than reaching for the level control, because sharpness is almost always a dry patch concentrating the current.
The serum pass and afterwards
If your device has a delivery mode, run it after the muscle work rather than before, with your serum already on the skin. On our devices that is the Infuse pass, and it runs for the remainder of the ten minutes.
Afterwards, leave the serum on and follow with whatever you normally use. There is no need to wash the face unless the product feels tacky.
Clean the probes before you put the device away. Residue builds up faster than people expect and makes contact uneven within a fortnight.
Run the routine three to five times a week during the first twelve weeks. Kavanagh and colleagues measured an 18.6 percent increase in cheek muscle thickness over a twelve-week protocol, and the repetition is the part that did the work.
This article sits inside our full map of the category, where we set out all 33 devices we track, what each one carries and what each brand publishes: Nine Technologies on One Dial, What the Rest of the Market Actually Carries.