PureLift Pro vs FaceGym Pro, An Honest Comparison
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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FaceGym Pro sits at around £500 and PureLift Pro at $699, close enough to compare properly, and the gap between them is wider than the price suggests.
This article compares the two on what decides the result you actually see, such as:
- One dial, five technologies against one
- Serum delivery, which only one has
- Published specifications
- Where each is made
- One piece of context worth knowing
and many more!
We are comparing our $699 model rather than our $999 flagship, because beating a mid-priced rival with a flagship spec sheet is not a comparison.
Key Points:
FaceGym Pro is an EMS device only, with no nanocurrent and no microcurrent.
PureLift Pro runs nanocurrent, microcurrent, EMS, Infusion and iontophoresis on one dial.
PureLift publishes 7 mA at 500 ohms; FaceGym publishes no milliamp figure at all.
Only PureLift has a serum delivery pass, and it carries two delivery technologies rather than one.
PureLift is made in Japan in an ISO 13485 facility; the new FaceGym Pro is made in China.
One dial, five technologies against one
This is the difference that matters most and gets mentioned least.
FaceGym Pro delivers EMS, and that is the whole electrical offering, there is no nanocurrent setting and no microcurrent setting on the device.
PureLift Pro gives you levels 1 and 2 as nanocurrent and microcurrent, working at skin level below the point where a muscle contracts, then levels 3 to 10 as EMS where the contraction begins, then a separate Infuse pass carrying Infusion and iontophoresis for your serum.
That matters on the days you do not want muscle work, after a late night, on reactive skin, in the week following a treatment, when a gentle skin-level pass is the sensible session and a contraction is not.
With an EMS-only device those days become days you skip, and a device you skip is a device that stops delivering results.
Serum delivery, which only one has
PureLift Pro carries Infuse as a separate mode, run as a second pass after Lift with your serum already on the skin, and it is two technologies rather than one.
Infusion is built on electroporation, where brief pulses open temporary routes through the skin's outer barrier, the delivery science established by Prausnitz and colleagues in 1993 (10.1073/pnas.90.22.10504).
Iontophoresis is the second, using a gentle current to move charged ingredients inward through those routes, so the current does the pushing rather than leaving diffusion to do it alone. Iontophoresis is not a marketing word for absorption; Zhang and colleagues measured the increase in vitamin C penetration it produces (10.1016/S0378-5173(99)00058-3).
FaceGym Pro has no equivalent mode, so the serum you apply sits where you put it, and PureLift works with any water-based serum you already own rather than requiring a branded gel.
Published specifications
PureLift Pro publishes a maximum of 7 mA at 500 ohms, a 4 microsecond monophasic rectangular pulse with alternating polarity, 10 levels on one dial, and FDA clearance K230506, Class II.
FaceGym publishes a frequency ceiling of up to 1.5 kHz and ten intensity levels, and does not publish a maximum output in milliamps.
A brand that will not publish an output figure has told you something by declining, because the number is the only way a buyer can check whether a device reaches the muscle at all.
PureLift's frequency runs 1.37 to 1.73 kHz across 361 points through PDM, Pulsed Dynamic Modulation, which varies frequency continuously so that minute ten is designed to feel like minute one.
Where each is made
Every PureLift device is manufactured in Japan in a facility operating to ISO 13485, by a company that has made facial stimulation and nothing else since 1987.
The new FaceGym Pro is made in China.
Country of manufacture is not by itself a verdict on quality, and it is a fact buyers regularly want and usually have to dig for, so it belongs on the page rather than in a footnote.
One piece of context worth knowing
FaceGym's US storefront has listed a device called PureLift Pro at $799, crediting XTREEM Pulse, which is the manufacturer behind PureLift.
Mentioning that is not a criticism of either company, and it does explain why the two brands come up together in searches more often than either one's marketing would suggest.
What to expect from a genuine EMS device
Both devices do cross the motor threshold and produce a real contraction, which already puts both ahead of the large share of the market that never does.
Three minutes on each side gives a fresher, more lifted look in the mirror because the muscles have worked, and that first effect is temporary and returns every session.
The lasting change builds over weeks, and Kavanagh 2012 measured an 18.6% increase in cheek muscle thickness in 108 women after twelve weeks of daily facial muscle stimulation (10.1111/jocd.12007).
That trial used neither device, so it shows what facial muscle stimulation can do rather than settling the choice between these two.
How to decide
If you want one device that covers gentle skin-level days, muscle days and serum delivery, with a published output figure and a clearance number you can look up, PureLift Pro does all of that at $699.
If FaceGym's coaching and studio ecosystem is genuinely part of what you are buying, that is a fair reason to choose their device, and you should know you are buying EMS alone.
Worth adding, PureLift Face at $499 runs the same 7 mA and the same technologies in a compact handheld rather than the professional pen, so the multi-technology advantage starts below both devices on this page.
This comparison sits inside our full map of the category, where we set out all 33 devices we track, what each one carries and what each brand publishes: Nine Technologies on One Dial, What the Rest of the Market Actually Carries.