When to Expect Visible Results, Week by Week
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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Two different things happen on two different clocks: drainage gives you something visible the same day and gone by tomorrow, and muscle work gives you a modest change at about twelve weeks.
This article covers what actually decides the answer, such as:
- Day one
- Weeks 1 to 2
- Weeks 3 to 6, where people quit
- Weeks 7 to 12
- After twelve weeks
and many more!
Knowing that in advance is most of the defence against it.
Key Points:
Kavanagh's protocol ran 12 weeks, which is the honest horizon for the cumulative work.
Anything visible in the first hour is fluid, and it returns tomorrow.
Take the baseline photograph on day one, because you cannot take it later.
Monthly photographs in the same light, never daily mirror checks.
The change is more obvious to you than to anyone else, and nobody will comment at week six.
Day one
You will see something within the hour: a fresher, slightly tighter face, most noticeable if you do the session in the morning when overnight fluid is at its peak.
That is drainage, and it is real. It is also gone by tomorrow morning, because tonight you will lie down again and the fluid will re-accumulate.
Take the baseline photograph before this session rather than after it, in daylight with the light in front of you, neutral expression, chin level, and note the distance. This is the most common regret in the whole process.
Weeks 1 to 2
The same-day effect every time, and it starts to feel ordinary, which is the first trap.
This is also the learning period. You will be working out how long your serum stays wet, how fast to move the probe, and where the level sits comfortably. Expect the first few sessions to be clumsier than the later ones.
Some people feel the muscle mildly the next day in the first week, the way you would after unfamiliar exercise anywhere else. That settles.
Nothing cumulative has happened yet. That is correct for week two.
Weeks 3 to 6, where people quit
The immediate effect is unchanged and no longer novel, and the cumulative work is proceeding invisibly. The honest description of this period is that it feels like nothing is happening.
Nothing has gone wrong. Muscle thickness does not move on a weekly timescale, and the research protocols were still running at week six.
Photograph at week four in the same light as day one and expect very little difference. That is the correct result for week four, and expecting it stops it being discouraging.
This is the period where consistency decides the outcome, and where four sessions a week you keep beats seven you abandon.
Weeks 7 to 12
If anything is going to show, this is where it starts. Usually along the jawline first, since that is where a change in support is most visible, and usually at a three-quarter angle rather than head-on.
You will notice it before anyone else does, and you may notice it in a photograph before you notice it in the mirror, because the mirror updates daily and the photograph does not.
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 over a comparable span (10.3390/ijerph17113783).
Both are category studies rather than trials of a consumer device, and an 18.6 percent change in muscle thickness is not an 18.6 percent change in how your face looks.
After twelve weeks
A plateau is what the physiology would predict, and it matches what long-term users describe. Muscle does not thicken indefinitely.
Muscle tone is maintained by use, so dropping to two or three sessions a week rather than stopping is the sensible arrangement. That is inference from how muscle works rather than a finding from a facial study, since nobody has followed users beyond a few months.
What will not happen on any timeline
Volume will not come back, because EMS works muscle and no current creates fat.
The dermis will not thicken, because electrical stimulation does not do what heat-based treatments do.
Nothing will be repositioned, which is what a surgical facelift does.
If what is bothering you sits in one of those three, no amount of patience produces it.
How to measure honestly
Monthly photographs, same light, same distance, same expression, same head position, morning, no makeup. A straight-on shot and a three-quarter turn each side.
Compare month three against day one rather than against last month.
Keep a note of the level you used, since drift upward over the period is worth knowing about when you review.
Three minutes per side is the maximum on any PureLift model, and the ten minute session ends on its own; more does not shorten any of the above.
For how to take a photograph that means something, see before and after photos, and if nothing has changed by week twelve, why some people see no change.