Microcurrent facials offer big results (2024)

Microcurrent facials offer big results (1)

Have you been working out? It’s an age-old (almost obligatory) follow-up question to “You look great!” Like, so great you must know how they’re doing it. It’s widely known that exercising boosts skin radiance and strength work can help reshape the body (it’s probably not that simple, but the results do show). So what happened when aestheticians took workout principles and applied them to the face? Unsurprisingly, the results were a more youthful-looking complexion.

Known as the “natural facelift,” microcurrent facials use non-invasive devices to send low-grade electrical currents to the face’s muscles and tissues. Essentially, these machines replicate your body’s natural electrical currents, sending soft, gentle waves that tell it to promote collagen, increase lymphatic drainage, and reduce fine lines and wrinkles. It’s the hottest tool in today’s natural anti-aging kit, with sales (at home and spa) expected to grow 7.8 percent globally by 2033, according to Future Market Insights. Yet the technology has been around and proven for decades.

Microcurrent facials offer big results (2)

“The FDA approved microcurrent in the 1980s to help treat patients with Bell’s palsy, a condition that causes paralysis of the facial muscles,” explains Melissa Croff, licensed medical esthetician (LME) and owner of Root + Glow, who utilizes electrical muscle stimulation (EMS), a deeper muscle stimulation, as well as microcurrent technology in her ninety-minute Lift + Sculpt Facial ($400). “Doctors discovered that using microcurrent could help reeducate the muscles and reverse the loss of elasticity in the face. By the 1990s, microcurrent advanced into the treatment room of aestheticians to improve clients’ elasticity, reduce fine lines and wrinkles, and increase circulation.”

A gentle facial, suitable for all skin types, microcurrent facials have the pros of no downtime or side effects—but it’s still not right for everyone. Clients with pacemakers, heart conditions, history of seizures, internal metal plates or pins, thrombosis, recent Botox or filler, facial implants, active acne, or who are pregnant should not receive microcurrent therapy.

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“Microcurrent works by sending electrical currents that mimic the body’s own electrical impulses,” adds Croff. “It charges cells by increasing their adenosine triphosphate, or ATP. It’s signaling the brain to contract the muscle, to tone it, to tighten, to lift it.”

ATP is a naturally produced energy molecule in the body, but, as we age, our ability to create it declines. While there are other popular anti-aging modalities, from injectables like Botox and filler, to topicals like Gua Sha and facial massage, microcurrent seeks to treat skin from a holistic, inside-out approach, with results lasting anywhere from two to six weeks.

“Gua Sha, facial massage—all increasing circulation, it’s all very good,” says Croff. “But microcurrent is better because it’s actually increasing energy in the cell so that skin looks more youthful and vibrant. Healthy cells, healthy skin.”

As with most exercise programs, consistency is key to long-term results. “The skin’s an organ. It’s your largest organ. So it is like exercising; the treatments build on one another,” shares Jacqueline Moran-Jenkins, LME with Tres Aurae Spa, who recommends once-a-month maintenance microcurrent treatments after an initial six-week starter series; Tres Aurae offers a one-hour TriaWave Microcurrent Facial ($125). “You can do all the Botox and fillers, but if the skin is unhealthy, it’s not going to change that dynamic. Microcurrent can improve the health of the skin—stimulating collagen, elastin, and cell regrowth.”

So what does this mean for the rest of our typical skincare routine—sunscreen, vitamins, serums? Are they pointless? Estheticians are adamant that they still have their place in our bathroom cabinets; healthy skin is a lifestyle. “Home care contributes a large percentage on how the effectiveness of these modalities works,” adds Moran-Jenkins, an advocate for overall wellness to promote healthy skin.

Thanks to direct-to-consumer products like NuFACE—a handheld device with a devoted celebrity following from Bella Hadid and Jennifer Aniston to Kate Hudson—you can now even do microcurrent safely several days a week at home. “We suggest clients use NuFACE at home, morning or night,” said Excuria Spa LME, Olivia Favata. In the treatment room, Excuria Spa offers a ninety-minute OxyLight Facial ($425) featuring Myolight microcurrent. It also carries the NuFACE TRINITY+ Starter Kit for retail purchase ($395).

“It connects to your phone and gives you the motions for what type of result you’re looking for. If it’s your jawline, it’ll give you a workout for that. If it’s a brow lift, it’ll give you a workout for that,” says Moran-Jenkins. “It comes with the activator gel and three-in-one silk creme as well.” NuFACE’s website recommends using their product five times a week for two months, then several times a week for optimal, long-lasting results.

“Either preventive or corrective, you’re going to want to keep up on it. Just like you wouldn’t go to the gym and work out once,” echoes Anna Haag, licensed esthetician and owner of Anna Elizabeth Esthetics who utilizes a dynamic microcurrent tool by Neurotris in their ninety-minute Signature Forklift Facial ($200).

“But if it is once, you will still get the benefits. You’ll notice an immediate difference, your skin will look great immediately,” adds Haag, who suggests clients drink at least a quart of water before and after microcurrent to boost results (water helps to increase your cellular metabolism). “For people craving more of an authentic view of themselves, microcurrent is proactive with aging. But it’s also for people who are trying to reverse it, who don’t want to wake up and have a different face. My clients in their seventies who do microcurrent typically say; ‘People look at me and they’re like—wow, you look great. What’s going on? They don’t say, “Did you have a facelift? Do you have Botox?’ They still have their lines, but they’re faded. Their faces just look healthier.”

Microcurrent facials offer big results (2024)
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