Facial Devices While Pregnant or Breastfeeding, the Honest Answer
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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Nobody has studied facial electrical stimulation during pregnancy or breastfeeding, and nobody is going to, because those trials are not run for cosmetic devices.
This article sets out what to check before you start, such as:
- Why the contraindication exists
- The breastfeeding question specifically
- What changes about the skin
- What to ask, and who
and many more!
The instruction stands either way, and the question belongs with your midwife or doctor rather than with us.
Key Points:
Pregnancy is listed as a contraindication in the instructions for PureLift models; read the ones for yours.
Nothing is absorbed through the skin from a current, which is the usual breastfeeding concern and it does not apply here.
The serum you use is a more relevant question than the device, since ingredients can be absorbed.
Skin is often more reactive during pregnancy and in the months after.
Ask your midwife, obstetrician or GP, and follow what they say over anything written here.
Why the contraindication exists
Cosmetic devices are not tested in pregnant or breastfeeding populations. Those trials would be difficult to justify ethically for a cosmetic purpose, so the data simply does not exist.
Manufacturers respond to that absence by listing pregnancy as a contraindication, which is the appropriate conservative position and is what our instructions do.
It is worth understanding the difference between that and a documented risk. Nobody has found a harm; nobody has looked. Those are different statements and a great deal of confusion comes from conflating them.
The practical consequence is the same either way: the instruction says do not, so do not, unless the clinician looking after you says otherwise.
The breastfeeding question specifically
The usual concern with breastfeeding is whether something is absorbed and reaches the milk. A current is not a substance and nothing is absorbed from it, so that particular mechanism does not apply.
What is worth thinking about is the serum. Ingredients can be absorbed through skin, and the ones people are advised to avoid during pregnancy and breastfeeding, retinoids most prominently, are exactly the ones a device would distribute more thoroughly.
Infuse mode makes that sharper, since Infusion and iontophoresis exist specifically to move ingredients further into the skin (10.1073/pnas.90.22.10504). Whatever you have been told to avoid topically is the last thing you want in that mode.
So the serum question is the one to raise with your clinician, and it applies whether or not you use a device.
What changes about the skin
Skin is frequently more reactive during pregnancy and in the months following, and products that were fine before can sting or flare.
Melasma is considerably more common during pregnancy, and it is provoked by heat, friction and visible light, which is a reason to be careful with any repeated facial treatment and with LED specifically.
Fluid retention increases, so the face may look puffier, and that is a physiological change rather than something to treat.
What to ask, and who
Your midwife, obstetrician or GP, with specifics: "a facial device that applies an electrical current up to 7 milliamps to the face, for ten minutes, with a water-based serum".
Ask about the device and about the serum separately, since they are different questions with different answers.
If you have any other condition, or an implanted electrical device, that changes the picture and is worth raising in the same conversation.
The proportionate view
The cumulative work a device does is measured in months, so setting it aside for a period costs nothing that cannot be recovered afterwards.
Kavanagh and colleagues ran a 12-week protocol (10.1111/jocd.12007), and starting that later changes nothing about the result.
Gentle drainage with your hands, sleep, water and sun protection cover most of what people are actually after during this period, and none of them raises a question with anybody.
For the fluid side, see the science behind facial depuffing, and for the drainage strokes, drainage massage technique.
This is general information and not medical advice. Read the instructions for your own model and follow the guidance of the clinician looking after you.
Two related questions come up often alongside this one, and we have answered both in full: why we decline to give a safety answer in pregnancy, and what the nerve damage question actually comes down to.