How to Use a Microcurrent Device on Your Face, Step by Step
Medically reviewed by
4 independent reviewers
Andrew Conrad Barile, kinésithérapeute, DPT
Doctorat en physiothérapie (DPT), physiothérapeute agréé (PT)
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Le Dr Andrew Conrad Barile est docteur en physiothérapie et PDG ainsi que fondateur de Xtreem Pulse LLC. Il a obtenu son doctorat en physiothérapie à Daemen College et possède plus de vingt ans d'expérience clinique et entrepreneuriale en physiothérapie pédiatrique, thérapie craniosacrale et innovation en dispositifs médicaux. Sa profonde connaissance de l'anatomie humaine, de la physiologie musculaire et des technologies thérapeutiques offre une approche scientifique précieuse pour le rajeunissement du visage et les solutions anti-âge.
Bertica M. Rubio, M.D.
Directeur Médical, Clinique de Médecine Régénérative Anti-âge | Médecin Certifié par le Conseil | École de Médecine de Dartmouth
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Le Dr Bertica M. Rubio est une médecin certifiée et directrice médicale de la clinique de médecine régénérative anti-âge à Redlands, en Californie. Elle a obtenu son Bachelor of Science à l'Université Loyola Marymount et son Doctorat en médecine à la Dartmouth Medical School (Geisel School of Medicine). Elle a effectué sa résidence en pédiatrie au UC Irvine Medical Center.
Forte de plusieurs décennies d'expérience clinique, le Dr Rubio est spécialisée en médecine de gestion du vieillissement, médecine régénérative, cicatrisation des plaies et thérapies par facteurs de croissance. Sa pratique intègre la science médicale fondée sur des preuves avec des traitements esthétiques et régénératifs avancés, aidant les patients à atteindre une santé optimale et une vitalité juvénile.
Le Dr Rubio est passionnée par l'éducation des patients sur la science derrière les soins de la peau, le rajeunissement du visage et les technologies non invasives comme l'EMS (stimulation électrique musculaire) pour le tonus facial. Ses articles pour PureLift LAB allient connaissances médicales rigoureuses et conseils pratiques pour obtenir des résultats réels et durables.
Daniel Grinberg, MD, FACS
Otolaryngologiste et chirurgien de la tête et du cou certifié par le conseil | Membre, American College of Surgeons | Professeur clinique adjoint, Mount Sinai School of Medicine
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Daniel Grinberg, MD, FACS, est un oto-rhino-laryngologiste certifié par le conseil et chirurgien de la tête et du cou chez ENT and Allergy Associates à West Nyack, NY. Il a obtenu son diplôme de médecine au Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, a effectué sa résidence en oto-rhino-laryngologie au New York University Medical Center, et est professeur clinique adjoint à la Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Il est membre de l'American College of Surgeons et de l'American Academy of Otolaryngology.
La perspective chirurgicale de la tête et du cou du Dr Grinberg offre aux lecteurs de PureLift LAB une vision clinique élargie — reliant la pratique EMS à domicile à l'anatomie médicale sous-jacente avec la même rigueur scientifique que celle que nous appliquons à chaque spécification d'appareil.
Prof. Dr med Ivo Buschmann
Président d'Angiologie, Hochschule Medizinische Brandenburg | Directeur de clinique, Clinique universitaire d'angiologie, Hôpital universitaire de Brandebourg | Ancien consultant principal, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin
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Le Prof. Dr. med. Ivo Buschmann est titulaire de la chaire d'angiologie à la Medizinische Hochschule Brandenburg Theodor Fontane (MHB) et directeur de la clinique universitaire d'angiologie à l'hôpital universitaire de Brandebourg. Il a effectué sa formation médicale à l'Université de Hambourg, a été boursier de la Société Max-Planck à l'Institut Max-Planck de recherche sur le cœur et les poumons, et a occupé des postes de consultant principal à la Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin Campus Virchow avant d'être nommé titulaire de la chaire à la MHB en 2016.
Le Prof. Buschmann est l'une des principales autorités européennes en arteriogenèse — la croissance et le remodelage des vaisseaux sanguins induits par le flux — avec plus de 150 publications évaluées par des pairs et plusieurs brevets américains et européens sur des dispositifs stimulant la croissance des vaisseaux collatéraux par une thérapie contrôlée du taux de cisaillement. Ses recherches relient la stimulation mécanique et électrique à l'adaptation vasculaire, à la microcirculation et à la perfusion tissulaire.
Les contributions du Prof. Buschmann apportent aux lecteurs de PureLift LAB une perspective en biologie vasculaire qui complète notre expertise clinique, en physiothérapie et en anatomie chirurgicale — expliquant comment la stimulation EMS engage non seulement les muscles faciaux mais aussi la microcirculation qui les alimente, et pourquoi une administration intelligente est aussi importante au niveau du flux sanguin qu'à celui de la contraction musculaire.
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Clean skin, a generous water-based layer, a level you can clearly feel, and three minutes a side moving along the muscle rather than across it.
This article walks through the routine step by step, such as:
- what to do before you switch the device on
- how to find your working level rather than your minimum
- the order of the passes and the direction to move
- where to slow down and where to skip entirely
- what to do immediately afterwards
and many more!
The whole routine takes ten minutes and gets easier by about the fourth session.
Key Points:
Clean, dry skin first, then a generous layer of water-based serum so the skin looks wet rather than dewy.
Find a level that feels like firm pulling and is comfortable to hold for three minutes, then raise it over the coming weeks.
Work upward and outward, along the direction the muscle runs, moving slowly rather than skipping.
Three minutes per side, ten minutes in total including the serum pass, and no longer.
Skip the front of the neck over the thyroid and be gentle around the eye area.
Before you switch it on
Take off makeup and cleanse, because a device cannot work through foundation and sunscreen, and anything occlusive left on the skin will interrupt the current unevenly.
Tie your hair back and take off earrings and necklaces in the treatment area, which is less about safety than about keeping the conductive layer uninterrupted.
Have your serum within reach and, if your room is dry, a facial mist as well. You will need to reapply between sides more often than you expect.
Check the device is charged. Interrupting a session halfway is the most common reason people skip the second side.
The conductive layer
Apply a water-based serum generously enough that the skin looks visibly wet, not merely hydrated. This is the single most common thing people get wrong, and it quietly costs them results rather than announcing itself.
Hyaluronic acid and glycerin serums work well, as does aloe. Oils, balms and silicone-heavy creams do not, because a barrier layer is the opposite of a conductor.
If your device requires its own gel, use it, since some manufacturers specify one and a warranty may depend on it. If your device takes any water-based serum, as ours do, the bottle you already own is very likely fine, and the two-minute test will confirm it.
Finding your level
Start low and raise it in steps until you reach a setting you can feel clearly as a firm pull rather than a tickle, and which you would be content to hold for three minutes.
Ward and colleagues set out the three thresholds that separate sub-sensory, sensory and motor current, and the practical version for you is simple: at the right level on a motor-capable device you will see the muscle respond, and on a microcurrent device you will feel very little by design.
Do not chase the highest level you can stand. Everything above your comfortable working level goes unused, because the sessions stop being pleasant and then stop happening.
Expect the number to rise over the first month as tolerance builds. Someone still on their week-one setting in week eight is repeating week-one work.
The passes, in order
Start at the jaw. Place the probe near the chin and move slowly along the jawline toward the ear, lifting off at the end and returning to the start rather than dragging back.
Move to the mid-face. Work from beside the nose out toward the cheekbone and the temple, following the direction the muscle runs rather than sweeping horizontally across the face.
Then the forehead, working from the brow upward toward the hairline, in short overlapping passes.
Around the eye, use the lowest level you use anywhere and work on the bone rather than on the lid. If the eyelid flutters, you are too close or too high.
Three minutes on one side, then repeat on the other. Reapply serum before the second side, because the first application will have started to dry.
Where to slow down and where to stop
Slow down wherever the face has actually changed, usually along the jaw and the lower cheek, and spend your three minutes there rather than distributing them evenly out of fairness.
Skip the front of the neck over the thyroid entirely, which is standard practice across the professional world and costs you nothing.
Skip any area with broken skin, active inflammation, sunburn or a recent procedure.
If a spot turns sharp, add serum rather than reaching for the level control, because sharpness is almost always a dry patch concentrating the current.
The serum pass and afterwards
If your device has a delivery mode, run it after the muscle work rather than before, with your serum already on the skin. On our devices that is the Infuse pass, and it runs for the remainder of the ten minutes.
Afterwards, leave the serum on and follow with whatever you normally use. There is no need to wash the face unless the product feels tacky.
Clean the probes before you put the device away. Residue builds up faster than people expect and makes contact uneven within a fortnight.
Run the routine three to five times a week during the first twelve weeks. Kavanagh and colleagues measured an 18.6 percent increase in cheek muscle thickness over a twelve-week protocol, and the repetition is the part that did the work.
This article 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.