What We Would Tell You Not to Buy, Including From Us
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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There are four situations where buying a PureLift is a mistake, and in three whole categories a competitor will serve you better than we will.
This article covers what actually decides the answer, such as:
- the concerns a muscle device genuinely cannot address
- the three categories where a competitor beats us
- the model in our range most people should skip
- when the honest advice is to buy nothing at all
- how to tell which problem you actually have
and many more!
A brand that has never told you not to buy something has not told you much.
Key Points:
If your concern is skin texture and fine lines rather than facial contour, an LED mask or an RF device addresses it more directly than we do.
If you want percussion massage for jaw tension, Therabody does that and we do not.
If you want the largest possible light dose across the whole face, a well-specified mask beats GLOW's light layer by a wide margin and costs a third as much.
If you will not use a device three times a week for twelve weeks, no device in this category will do anything for you, including ours.
Within our range, most people buying Pro Plus or GLOW for the output figure alone would be better served by Face or Pro.
If the problem is the surface, not the shape
Pinch the skin on your cheek gently. If it feels thin and crepey and settles slowly, that is a dermal problem.
Radiofrequency heats the dermis to provoke a collagen response over weeks, and light therapy works on skin cells, and both address texture more directly than muscle work does.
We do not make an RF device and have no plans to, so if a clinician has told you heat-driven remodelling is what you need, buy one.
NEWA publishes its frequency, wattage and thermal cutoff in its regulatory record, which makes it the most checkable option in that category.
If you want light, buy light
GLOW publishes 1.13 W/m2 and 678 J/m2 over ten minutes, which converts to 0.113 mW/cm2 and 0.068 J/cm2.
HigherDOSE publishes 50 mW/cm2 and files 30 J/cm2; Shark files 128 mW/cm2 and doses up to 431 J/cm2; Omnilux publishes about 30 mW/cm2.
There is no version of that arithmetic where our light layer delivers more, and a mask covers the whole face at once while a probe does not.
Buy a mask if light is the purchase, and buy GLOW only if you want the muscle work with light alongside it.
If you want percussion, or an app
Therabody's TheraFace PRO does percussion massage and we do not, so for jaw tension specifically it is the better tool.
Some people genuinely want a guided app that scores their consistency and walks them through a routine, and ZIIP and NuFACE do that well.
Our devices have no app at all, which we consider a feature and some buyers will consider a gap, and both readings are reasonable.
There is no point pretending a preference is a defect just because it is not ours.
If you will not keep it up
Every result in this category comes from repeated sessions over three months, and the research protocols look like that because nothing shorter shows change.
If you already know from experience that a four-times-a-week routine will not survive your February, the honest answer is to buy nothing and spend the money on sun protection and sleep, which do more for a face than most devices.
That is not false modesty. A device used twice and shelved is worse value than no device at all.
If you are unsure, buy at the bottom of a range rather than the top, from anyone, and find out cheaply.
What not to buy in our own range
Pro Plus at $899 and GLOW at $999 publish 9 mA against 7 mA on Face, and people frequently buy up for that figure alone.
Higher output is not automatically better, since comfort decides whether you keep using a device and everything above your working level goes unused.
Buy Pro Plus for PDM++ and the diamond-faceted probe if you want them, and buy GLOW if you specifically want light in the same session; do not buy either for the milliamps.
Most people are well served by Face at $499, and Pro at $699 or Pro Edition at $799 if the slim professional pen format suits your hand better.
That advice costs us money on every customer who takes it, which is the only reason it is worth printing.
Working out which problem you have
Look at the line from cheekbone to chin in a mirror, and compare it with a photograph of yourself from five or ten years ago.
If the shape has changed, that is contour, and contour sits on muscle, which is our argument and the only one we make.
If the surface has changed while the shape has held, that is skin, and light or RF is the more direct answer.
Most people over forty have some of both, in which case devices stack rather than compete, and we have written about how to run them together.
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.
Positions and figures checked on 21 September 2026 against each brand's own published material and the FDA 510(k) database.