Should You Take a Facial Device on Holiday?
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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For a two-week holiday the honest answer is usually to leave it at home.
This article walks through the routine step by step, such as:
- Why a fortnight off is fine
- The sun problem
- What actually helps your face on holiday
- If you do take it anyway
- Coming back
and many more!
Someone travelling for work most weeks is a different reader with a different answer, and there is a separate page for that.
Key Points:
Two weeks off does not undo three months of work.
Never use a device on sunburnt or freshly sun-exposed skin, which rules out most beach holidays anyway.
Sunscreen has to come off before a session and go on after, which is awkward on a holiday day.
Do not do extra sessions before you leave or after you return.
If you do take it, check the plug and voltage and carry it in a case in hand luggage.
Why a fortnight off is fine
Kavanagh and colleagues ran a 12-week protocol and measured an 18.6 percent increase in cheek muscle thickness across 108 women (10.1111/jocd.12007). Against a span like that, two weeks is a rounding error.
Deconditioning in muscle is gradual, measured in weeks rather than days, so a short break does not reset anything. That is inference from how muscle works rather than a finding from a facial study, since nobody has measured it for the face, and it is the sensible working assumption.
What ends routines is not the missed fortnight; it is deciding the fortnight ruined the attempt and never restarting.
The sun problem
Do not use a device on sunburnt skin, at any level. Sunburn is an inflammatory injury and working a probe over it is a bad idea for the same reason working over any inflamed area is.
The same applies after a day of heavy sun even without visible burning, since the skin is already dealing with something.
On a beach holiday that rules out most evenings, which is a large part of why taking it is often pointless.
Sunscreen also has to come off before a session and go on after, and cleansing properly in the middle of a holiday day is the step that will not happen.
What actually helps your face on holiday
Sunscreen, reapplied, which prevents more than any treatment reverses and is the recommendation people skip precisely when it matters most.
Water, since heat and alcohol together dehydrate you and the body responds to dehydration by holding fluid, which is why holiday mornings are puffy.
Sleep, which is often better on holiday and shows in the face within days.
Drainage with your hands in the morning, light pressure outward toward the ear then down the neck, which needs no device at all and does most of the visible work.
If you do take it anyway
Check the plug type and voltage for where you are going before you leave rather than discovering it in the room.
Charge it at home and carry it in a hard case in hand luggage rather than loose in a wash bag in the hold.
Use it in the evening on days you have not had much sun, at your normal level, with a water-based serum. Three minutes per side is the maximum on any PureLift model, and the ten minute session ends on its own.
Expect the serum to dry faster in heat, and reapply rather than climbing the dial.
Coming back
Restart at your usual level on a normal day, not the evening you land, since post-flight skin is drier and more reactive.
Do not do extra sessions to make up for the break. The muscle does not bank work and doing more does not accelerate anything.
If you have caught some sun, wait until any pinkness has gone completely before the first session back.
The proportionate view
This is a habit you want running for years, and a habit that survives a holiday is one that had a realistic relationship with your life in the first place.
Leaving it at home for a fortnight and picking it up on the Monday you get back is the version most people actually manage, and it is a perfectly good version.
For the weekly traveller, see keeping the routine when you fly every week, and for arrival, what a long flight does to your face.
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.