A 90-Day Facial Routine That Survives February
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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Ninety days is roughly the twelve weeks the research used, so a New Year start and a real result line up neatly for once.
This article covers what actually decides the answer, such as:
- Why ninety days is the right number
- Days 1 to 14, build the trigger before the intensity
- Days 15 to 45, the part where nothing visible happens
- Days 46 to 90, holding the line
- When you miss days
and many more!
So this is written around keeping the habit rather than around maximising each session, because an abandoned routine has no result at all.
Key Points:
Attach the session to something you already do every day; a habit with no fixed cue stops firing.
Four sessions a week you keep beats seven you plan and abandon.
Three minutes per side is the maximum on any model, and the session ends itself at ten minutes.
Photograph monthly, never daily, because daily checks measure salt and sleep.
Missing two days is normal; treating a missed week as failure is what actually ends routines.
Why ninety days is the right number
Kavanagh and colleagues ran a 12-week protocol with 108 women and measured an 18.6 percent increase in cheek muscle thickness (10.1111/jocd.12007). Chang and colleagues ran a double-blind sham-controlled trial over a similar span (10.3390/ijerph17113783).
Both are category studies rather than trials of a consumer device. What they establish is the timescale, and the timescale is the part most people get wrong; nothing here works in a fortnight and nothing you do makes it work in a fortnight.
Days 1 to 14, build the trigger before the intensity
Pick one time and one cue, and let the session attach to something you already do without thinking: after cleansing, with the kettle on, before you brush your teeth. A routine floating loose in the day is a routine you will forget by Thursday.
Keep the sessions easy for the first fortnight. Levels 1 and 2 on PureLift are nanocurrent and microcurrent and do not contract anything; use them to learn the probe and the glide without giving yourself a reason to dread the next one.
Take the baseline photograph now, in daylight, no makeup, neutral expression, same distance. It is the only comparison that will mean anything in April.
Days 15 to 45, the part where nothing visible happens
Move to level 3 and above, where the motor threshold is crossed and the muscle visibly contracts. Watch for the contraction in the mirror rather than judging by sensation.
Settle on a frequency you can hold for two months. Four or five sessions a week is plenty, and the person doing four in April beats the person who did seven in January.
This is the stretch where people quit, because the immediate depuffing effect has stopped feeling novel and the cumulative work is invisible. Knowing that in advance is most of the defence against it.
Photograph at day 30. Expect to see very little; that is the correct result for day 30.
Days 46 to 90, holding the line
Keep the same level unless the one you are on has genuinely stopped feeling like anything, in which case move up one, not three.
Photograph at day 60 and day 90, same light, same distance, same expression. The day 90 against day 1 comparison is the one that answers the question you started with.
If a level that used to feel like work now feels like nothing, that is accommodation rather than need. PDM cycles through 361 frequency points between 1,370 and 1,730 Hz specifically to delay that, and it delays rather than abolishes it.
When you miss days
You will. Two missed days cost nothing, and the muscle does not reset because you had a bad week.
What ends routines is not the missed week; it is deciding that the missed week has ruined the attempt. Restart at the same level on the next available day and carry on from there.
If your fixed cue stopped working because your schedule changed, pick a new cue deliberately rather than hoping to remember.
After day 90
Muscle tone is maintained by use, so the sensible arrangement is to drop to two or three sessions a week rather than stopping.
That is inference from how muscle works rather than a finding from a facial study, since nobody has followed users beyond a few months, and it is the reasonable working assumption.
For the full breakdown of which technology sits where on the dial, see how the nine PureLift technologies work.
Two related questions come up often alongside this one, and we have answered both in full: how often to use one, and whether daily use makes sense.