Starting a Retinoid, the Retinisation Period, and Your Device
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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Retinisation is the settling-in period when you start a retinoid, roughly six to twelve weeks of peeling, stinging and general unhappiness before skin adjusts.
This article covers what actually decides the answer, such as:
- What retinisation actually is
- Which order to start things in
- Keeping them apart
- During the peeling weeks
- Telling retinisation from a real problem
and many more!
You do not have to pause the device; you do have to keep the retinoid and the session apart.
Key Points:
Never start a retinoid and a device in the same month; you will not know which caused what.
Device in the morning, retinoid at night, is the arrangement that removes the whole problem.
During peeling, drop to levels 1 and 2 rather than stopping entirely.
Never use the retinoid as your conductive serum.
If skin is stinging on application, that is the retinoid, not the current.
What retinisation actually is
A retinoid speeds up skin cell turnover, and for the first stretch the skin has not adjusted to the new pace. The result is flaking, tightness, redness and a period where products that used to be comfortable now sting.
Six to twelve weeks is typical, longer at higher strengths, and it settles. Pushing through it at full frequency is the usual reason people abandon retinoids altogether.
The sensible approach is two or three nights a week to start, buffered with moisturiser, building up as the skin tolerates it.
Which order to start things in
If you are starting both, start one and wait a month. Which one first matters less than not doing both at once, since two new variables introduced together tell you nothing when something goes wrong.
Starting the device first is marginally easier, since its settling-in period is a week of learning the technique rather than three months of peeling.
If you already use a device and are adding a retinoid, keep the device exactly as it is and change nothing about it during the first month of the retinoid, so that anything unexpected has one obvious cause.
Keeping them apart
Device in the morning with a plain water-based serum, retinoid at night on skin that has been undisturbed for hours. That removes the whole question and suits most people.
If both have to be in the evening, run the device session first with a plain serum, then wait an hour, then apply the retinoid.
Alternating days works too, and is the gentlest version during the worst of the retinisation period.
What you must not do is use the retinoid as your conductive medium. A session distributes whatever you applied across the whole face and works it in for ten minutes, which is a far stronger application than the product was formulated for, and Infuse mode exists specifically to drive ingredients further into the skin.
During the peeling weeks
Drop to levels 1 and 2, which on PureLift are nanocurrent and microcurrent and do not contract anything. That keeps the habit going without asking much of the skin.
Use more serum than usual and reapply more often, since flaking skin drags sooner.
Skip any area that is actively peeling or broken, and come back to it in a few days.
Do not exfoliate to remove the flakes; that is how a retinisation period becomes a barrier problem.
Telling retinisation from a real problem
Retinisation is flaking, mild tightness and a bit of redness that improves between applications and settles over weeks.
A barrier problem is stinging on application of things that never used to sting, a face that feels tight all day, and moisturiser that seems to vanish. That calls for pausing the retinoid, not the device.
Anything that looks like a rash, or itching that will not settle, is worth showing to a dermatologist.
Once it settles
Build the retinoid to the frequency you can hold, and keep the device on its own schedule. They work on different layers, the retinoid on the dermis and the device on muscle, so there is no interaction to manage once the timing is separated.
Three minutes per side is the maximum on any PureLift model, and the ten minute session ends on its own.
For the general actives question, see using a facial device alongside retinol and acids, and for barrier repair, protecting your skin barrier.
Two related questions come up often alongside this one, and we have answered both in full: whether microcurrent and EMS are the same thing, and how microcurrent compares with a TENS unit.