How EMS Facial Devices Are Used in Professional Spas and Studios
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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Spas and studios use the same devices you can own, and what they add is assessment, technique and the fact that someone else is doing it.
This article explains the professional side, such as:
- Where a device session sits inside a longer treatment
- What a practitioner brings that you do not
- What you bring that a spa cannot
- Questions worth asking before you book
- How the two work together
and many more!
By the end you will know what a professional session is worth to you.
Key Points:
A professional treatment typically runs 30 to 60 minutes, of which the device work is a portion rather than the whole.
What a practitioner adds is assessment, consistent technique and hands that are not your own.
What you add at home is frequency, and the trials that show muscle change ran daily for twelve weeks.
The device session itself is three minutes on each side, whoever is holding it.
The two are complements, and a course plus home maintenance is the pattern that makes most sense.
PureLift Pro is a frequent choice in spas and studios, so it is worth explaining what a professional session actually involves and what it adds.
Where the device sits in a treatment
A professional facial commonly runs 30 to 60 minutes in total, including consultation, cleansing, preparation, the treatment itself and aftercare.
The device portion is a part of that rather than the whole, since the surrounding steps are much of what you are paying for.
The device session itself does not change because a professional is holding it, and it remains three minutes on each side of the face at a level where the muscle visibly answers.
What differs is everything around those minutes.
What a practitioner brings
Assessment, which is the largest one, since a trained practitioner looks at your face and tells you which layer your concern is actually in.
That matters because the commonest reason a device disappoints is that it was aimed at the wrong layer, with someone treating a skin-quality problem with muscle work or the reverse.
Consistent technique, meaning even contact, steady pace and coverage that does not favour your dominant hand.
Contraindication screening, since a practitioner should ask about implanted devices, pregnancy, epilepsy, recent procedures and skin conditions before touching anything.
And the surrounding treatment, including cleansing, extraction where appropriate, professional-grade products and an hour of someone's attention.
What you bring at home
Frequency, which is the variable that decides the cumulative result and the one a spa cannot supply.
In the largest facial trial of its kind, 108 women used daily muscle stimulation for twelve weeks and ultrasound measured an 18.6 percent increase in cheek-muscle thickness, with a clear difference from the untreated group at six weeks (Kavanagh 2012), and a double-blind sham-controlled trial in adults over 65 found muscle thickness and bite force increased after six weeks (Chang 2020).
Nobody books a facial three to five times a week for twelve weeks, and that dose is what the research describes.
Those are category studies run with their own devices, so they show what facial muscle stimulation can do rather than what any particular session delivers.
Questions worth asking before you book
Which device is being used, and can you look up its clearance record number?
How long the device portion of the treatment actually is, as distinct from the appointment length.
What the practitioner's training is with that specific device.
Whether they will screen you for contraindications, and be wary of anyone who does not ask.
What they recommend between appointments, since a practitioner who says nothing about maintenance is describing a treatment rather than a plan.
How the two work together
The pattern that makes most sense is a professional treatment for assessment and the surrounding care, with a home device supplying the frequency in between.
That uses each for what it is good at rather than treating them as rivals.
If you have had any in-clinic treatment beyond a device session, ask the practitioner when home device use can resume, and follow their answer.
Do not run a device over an area treated recently without that guidance.
What a professional session does not change
The physics, since the same current at the same level does the same work regardless of who is holding the device.
The timeline, which still runs to twelve weeks of repeated sessions.
The layer, since a device session works on the muscle and does not replace lost volume or remove excess skin.
Permanence, because muscle tone returns toward baseline without continued training in either setting.
For practitioners
All five PureLift models run nanocurrent at level 1, microcurrent at level 2, EMS from level 3 to 10, and Infuse as a second pass after the muscle work.
PDM, the delivery architecture in every model, moves the signal across 361 frequency points between 1,370 and 1,730 Hz so it does not repeat, varying frequency only and leaving amplitude under the operator's control.
Face at $499 and Pro at $699 reach up to 7 milliamps, Pro Edition at $799 reaches up to 7.7, and Pro Plus + at $899 and GLOW at $999 reach up to 9, all measured at 500 ohms and always written as up to.
Every model is cleared through the FDA 510(k) pathway, under records K190269 for Face, K230506 for Pro and Pro Edition, K221443 for Pro Plus + and K243587 for GLOW, and all five are made in Japan in an ISO 13485 facility.
PureLift works with any water-based conductive serum, so there is no consumable tied to the brand.
Clients with a pacemaker or another implanted electronic device, clients who are pregnant, and clients with epilepsy or a seizure disorder should not be treated with these devices at all.
No randomised trial has compared a PureLift against any other device, professional or consumer.
For the home comparison, read at-home devices vs professional treatments, and for the routine, read the beginner's guide.
Model figures verified on 9 September 2026 against the PureLift LAB store and FDA records K190269, K230506, K221443 and K243587. Every model runs nanocurrent, microcurrent, EMS and Infuse; consumer copy always says up to. This article is general cosmetic information and is not medical advice.
Two related questions come up often alongside this one, and we have answered both in full: what a clinic machine does that a home device cannot, and the salon and device costs side by side.