Microcurrent, EMS, Radiofrequency and LED Compared
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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Microcurrent, EMS, radiofrequency and LED are four unrelated mechanisms that happen to be sold in the same aisle.
This article compares the two on what decides the result you actually see, such as:
- Microcurrent and nanocurrent
- EMS
- Radiofrequency
- LED
- How to choose between them
and many more!
Ranking them against each other is meaningless until you know which layer of the face your concern lives in.
Key Points:
Microcurrent runs in hundreds of microamps and never contracts a muscle.
EMS runs in single-digit milliamps and is defined by contracting one.
Radiofrequency heats the dermis to provoke new collagen, and carries a burn risk the others do not.
LED does nothing mechanical at all; the wavelength is the whole specification.
A device combining several usually does each one less well than a dedicated instrument.
Microcurrent and nanocurrent
Current measured in millionths of an amp, and billionths for nanocurrent. Published consumer figures run from about 170 to 680 microamps.
All of that sits below the motor threshold, the point at which a nerve fires a muscle, which Ward's work sets out alongside the two thresholds below it (PMID 19095805). No setting on a microcurrent device moves a muscle, and that is the category definition rather than a shortcoming.
The literature in this band discusses cellular activity, fibroblast signalling and dermal circulation. Target it if your concern is texture, tone and how the skin itself looks.
You feel almost nothing, which is why people use these devices consistently.
EMS
Current in single-digit milliamps, which is thousands of microamps, and enough to cross the motor threshold so the muscle contracts on its own. You can watch it happen.
Kavanagh and colleagues followed 108 women through 12 weeks of motor-level facial stimulation 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 (10.3390/ijerph17113783).
Target it if your concern is contour, a softening jawline or a flattening cheek, since muscle tone is what supports both.
It does not heat, does not abrade, and does not reach the dermis the way heat does.
Radiofrequency
Passes current through tissue and uses the resistance to generate controlled heat, aiming to provoke a wound-healing response that lays down new collagen over the following months.
Target it if your concern is laxity, skin that stretches and stays stretched, which is a dermal change rather than a muscle or volume one.
Clinic systems deliver far more energy than handhelds under supervision, and a result from the professional version tells you nothing about the home one. Heat also carries a burn risk that current-based devices do not.
LED
No current reaches the tissue and nothing mechanical happens; light of a specific wavelength is absorbed and the effect depends entirely on which wavelength and how much of it.
Red around 630 to 660 nm is studied for wrinkles, blue around 415 to 465 nm for mild to moderate inflammatory acne. Lee and colleagues ran a split-face study worth reading before buying anything in this category (PMID 17566756).
A device that publishes neither its wavelength nor its irradiance is asking you to take the category on faith. Masks cover the whole face at once and handheld heads do not, which is the main practical difference between the two formats.
How to choose between them
Name the layer. Dull or rough surface is the epidermis, and skincare handles it. Crepey and slow to spring back is the dermis, and that is retinoids or heat. Softening contour is muscle, and that is EMS. Hollow where it used to be full is volume, and that is a clinician.
Then buy the category that reaches your layer, rather than the device with the longest feature list.
Ask each brand four questions before paying: maximum output and the impedance it was measured at, pulse width, whether the frequency is fixed or varied, and what conductive medium is required and what it costs. Most cannot answer more than one.
Devices that combine categories
A multi-tool covering three or four is usually decent at each and best in class at none, which is the ordinary arithmetic of multi-tools rather than a criticism.
PureLift takes the other approach and goes deep in one category: six technologies on one dial for Face, Pro and Pro Edition, seven on Pro Plus, and nine on GLOW where light is added. Levels 1 and 2 are nanocurrent and microcurrent, level 3 crosses the motor threshold, and levels 3 to 10 are EMS.
There is no radiofrequency in the range, because heat is a different mechanism and we would rather say so than blur it.
For the layer map, see the six layers of the face, and for the full technology breakdown, how the nine PureLift technologies work.
Two related questions come up often alongside this one, and we have answered both in full: how microcurrent compares with radiofrequency, and why skin tightening needs heat we do not produce.