Nine Technologies on One Dial, What the Rest of the Market Actually Carries
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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We mapped 33 facial devices from 24 brands and found no competitor at any price carrying nanocurrent, microcurrent, muscle-contracting EMS and a serum delivery pass in one handheld.
This article compares the market on what decides the result you actually see, such as:
- what each brand's device actually carries, at its actual price
- why one dial with ten levels is not the same as ten programmes
- which brands publish an output figure and which publish none
- the recurring gel cost that sits underneath half the category
- the three things competitors do that we do not
and many more!
Every figure comes from the brand's own published specification, checked on 17 September 2026.
Key Points:
PureLift GLOW carries nine technologies on one dial, Pro Plus carries seven, and Face, Pro and Pro Edition carry six.
Most of the category carries one technology, and the multi-tool devices that carry several rarely include anything that contracts a muscle.
Of 33 devices mapped, six publish an output figure and only two of those state the load the figure was measured at.
Around half the category requires a branded gel, from $24 to $80 a bottle, which is a cost that does not appear on the price tag.
Percussion massage, whole-face LED coverage and radiofrequency are three things we do not do, and if one of them is your priority, buy the device that does it.
What most of this category actually is
Walk through the facial device market at any price and you find the same shape repeating.
NuFACE, ZIIP, Skin Gym and MyoLift sell microcurrent, measured in millionths of an amp, which works at skin level and never contracts a muscle.
Omnilux, CurrentBody, Dr Dennis Gross, Shark, HigherDOSE and Qure sell light, which works on skin cells and cannot reach the muscle at all.
Silk'n, TriPollar and NEWA sell radiofrequency, which heats tissue to provoke a collagen response, and is a genuinely different job from either of the above.
FaceGym and Ya-Man sell EMS, the current level at which a facial muscle does contract, and between them they are nearly the whole of that category outside ours.
So the honest description of the market is not that devices are better or worse than each other, it is that most of them are doing one job, and you are expected to buy three devices to cover three jobs.
The multi-tool devices, and what they leave out
Several brands answer the one-job problem by bundling, and the bundles are worth looking at closely.
Therabody's TheraFace PRO at $419.99 carries percussion massage, microcurrent at 500 microamps, cleansing and LED rings, and the microcurrent sits below the motor threshold, so no attachment contracts anything.
Medicube's Age-R Booster Pro X2 at $249 lists microcurrent, EMS, LED and a delivery mode, and publishes no output figure for any of them, so there is no way to check what the EMS setting is doing.
Solawave's wand at $169 carries galvanic current, red light and warmth, which is a sensible budget combination and not a muscle device.
The pattern is that bundling adds breadth at skin level, and the muscle layer is usually the thing left out, because contracting a facial muscle safely needs milliamps rather than microamps and that is a harder engineering problem.
What one dial with ten levels actually means
PureLift Face, Pro and Pro Edition carry six technologies: Infusion, iontophoresis, nanocurrent, microcurrent, EMS and PDM.
Pro Plus adds PDM++, the bipolar pulse, for seven, and GLOW adds blue light at 465 nm and red light at 634 nm, for nine.
Level 1 is nanocurrent and level 2 is microcurrent, the same calm band that NuFACE, ZIIP and Skin Gym occupy for the whole of their range.
From level 3 the current crosses the motor threshold and the muscle contracts, and that is the band those brands never enter.
Then the Infuse pass runs afterwards with two delivery technologies, Infusion built on electroporation (Prausnitz 1993) and iontophoresis, which Zhang and colleagues measured for vitamin C penetration (10.1016/S0378-5173(99)00058-3).
The reason this matters is not the count, it is that a single device covers the gentle day, the muscle day and the serum step without you buying three devices or deciding which one to skip.
Output, and who publishes it
Of the 33 devices we mapped, six publish an output figure at all.
FOREO publishes 680 microamps for BEAR 2, Therabody 500 microamps for TheraFace PRO, Skin Gym 10 to 500 microamps, 7E Wellness 350 microamps for the MyoLift QT, Omnilux about 30 mW/cm² and HigherDOSE 50 mW/cm².
Only two state the load the figure was measured at, which matters, because current through skin depends on resistance and a number without a load is not a specification.
PureLift publishes 7 mA at 500 ohms for Face and Pro, 7.7 mA for Pro Edition, 9 mA for Pro Plus and GLOW, with a 4 microsecond pulse width, and clearance numbers K190269, K230506, K221443 and K243587.
We publish the load because it is the only way you can compare our number with anyone else's, and we would rather compete on figures that can be checked.
The cost that is not on the price tag
NuFACE gel starts at $35 a bottle, ZIIP gels run $29.99 to $79.99, FOREO's serum is $41.90, Therabody's gel is $29.99, Skin Gym's is $24 and 7E's ReStore gel is $27 for four ounces.
Over two years of regular use that is not a rounding error, and it changes the arithmetic of a device that looked cheaper at the till.
PureLift works with any water-based serum you already own, and the Activator Serum we sell is one option rather than a requirement.
Three things we do not do
We do not do percussion massage, and if tension in the jaw is your main complaint, TheraFace PRO does that and we do not.
We do not cover the whole face at once with light, and a good LED mask delivers far more light per session than GLOW's light layer does, which we set out in full in our LED mask comparison.
We do not do radiofrequency, so if a clinician has told you heat-driven collagen remodelling is what your skin needs, look at Silk'n, TriPollar or NEWA rather than at us.
Naming those three is not modesty, it is the same principle as publishing the load, because a comparison that has us winning every category would not be worth reading.
Where that leaves the buying decision
If you want one job done and done cheaply, the single-technology devices are honest purchases and several of them are good.
If you want the skin-level work and the muscle work and the serum step in one device, with a published output figure at a stated load and a clearance number you can look up, that is the gap we built into.
Face at $499 is where that starts, Pro at $699 and Pro Edition at $799 add the professional pen format, Pro Plus at $899 adds PDM++ and the strongest output in the range, and GLOW at $999 adds the light.
All of them are made in Japan in an ISO 13485 facility that has been building medical devices since 1987, and all of them run a ten-minute session, three minutes per side maximum.
The device-by-device comparisons
Each of the devices above has its own full comparison, where the figures are set out at length rather than summarised.
- PureLift against NuFACE Trinity+
- PureLift against FOREO BEAR 2
- PureLift against ZIIP Halo
- PureLift against Medicube Age-R
- PureLift against Therabody TheraFace PRO
- PureLift against FaceGym Pro
- PureLift against Ya-Man Medi Lift PLUS
- PureLift against the professional microcurrent machines
- PureLift against LED masks
- PureLift against a salon course of facials
- PureLift against botox and fillers
- PureLift against NuFACE MINI+ at $175
- PureLift against Shark CryoGlow
Two further pieces sit underneath the comparisons: what a branded gel actually costs over two years of use, and why an output figure is meaningless without the load it was measured at.
- PureLift against Droplette Device Ultra
- PureLift against Solawave 4-in-1
- PureLift against Skin Gym Microcurrent Wand
- PureLift against MyoLift Mini
- PureLift against Bio-Therapeutic bt-sculpt GEN2
- PureLift against Omnilux Contour Face
- PureLift against CurrentBody Skin
- PureLift against HigherDOSE
- PureLift against Dr Dennis Gross SpectraLite
- PureLift against Qure and Silk'n LED masks
- PureLift against Silk'n Titan MultiPlatform
And for the technologies we do not build at all, lasers and radiofrequency, we set out who should buy those instead in The Four Devices We Do Not Compete With and Why.
If you want to check any brand's regulatory claims yourself, including ours, our guide to running the FDA 510(k) check takes about two minutes.
The microcurrent questions, answered
Thirty articles covering what people actually ask about microcurrent, from what the current does to your face through to what it will not do for a jowl.
- Conductive gel, what you actually need
- Do microcurrent devices need gel
- The best gel is probably already on your shelf
- Gel against serum against aloe
- Side effects, normal and not normal
- Is a microcurrent facial safe
- Thyroid, pacemakers and metal implants
- Long term side effects and the evidence
- Do microcurrent devices work, the studies
- What a microcurrent device does to your face
- Reading before and after photos
- How to use one, step by step
- Where to move the probe, the diagram
- The muscles you are actually working
- The proper professional procedure
- The strongest device, and the wrong question
- FDA cleared devices and their K numbers
- Frequency specific microcurrent explained
- Professional machines against at home
- Cost, a salon course against a device
- How long a microcurrent facial lasts
- The best device for a jawline
- Microcurrent for the eye area
- Microcurrent for skin tightening
- Microcurrent for a double chin
- Microcurrent against red light therapy
Reading the category for yourself
These pieces are the method rather than the verdict, so you can run the same checks on any brand including us.
- Every published output figure, in one table
- Where filings and marketing disagree
- The five questions to ask before buying
- What makes a serum conductive
- What every branded gel costs per session
- What we would tell you not to buy
Prices and competitor specifications verified on 17 September 2026 against each brand's own published material and the FDA 510(k) database.