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deborahwaters@iectskin.com · 2021-11-18T16:28:44Z

In Good Hands A new class of at-home devices purports to lift, smooth, de-puff, re-plump, and revive pandemic-weary complexions. But can anything this easy be that effective? asks Maya Singer. FACE TUNED Purporting to calm, clear, and de-wrinkle skin, LED light-therapy masks are among the popular tools getting the out-of-office treatment. The internet runs on hyperbole, so when the tweet “J.Lo SLAYS” flashed before my eyes this past July, I took it with a grain of salt. When I inevitably clicked through to Jennifer Lopez’s birthday Instagram post, her caption—“52…what it do”—sat below selfies of the world’s most radiant middle-aged megastar posing in a string bikini on a yacht in St. Tropez. The online mob was fixated on the shot of Lopez smooching her once-and-current boyfriend, Ben Affleck. But for me, the story was her skin. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that my own birthday was two weeks away, but as I zoomed in on Lopez’s creaseless, perfectly contoured face, I became consumed by the idea that whatever J.Lo had done to fend off the ravages of age, I needed to do, too. Some of this was unattainable: I couldn’t go back in time and un-smoke cigarettes or apply more sunscreen in my youth. Nor do I share her superhuman genes, or—frankly—her commitment to sano, short for the Spanish phrase vivir sano, to live healthily, which is a key ethos of the eight-piece skin-care line J.Lo debuted earlier this year, by popular demand. What I could do was acquire a microcurrent device like the one Lopez reportedly purchased back in 2013—in her case, a $25,000 Caci Ultimate, a machine usually found at a spa, and in my case, the handheld Ziip, a $495 gadget developed by facialist-to-the-stars Melanie Simon. Sleek as an iPhone and controlled by an app with 10 different facial-toning settings, the Ziip is just one of a fast-expanding range of high-tech skin-care tools made for at-home use. Microcurrent’s not your thing? Fend off acne and inflammation with an LED mask by Dr. Dennis Gross, which purports to calm, clear, and de-wrinkle skin while making you look like a demon in a horror flick (according to my boyfriend). Maybe you’re not into light therapy. In that case, try the Magic Glow Wand, a massager created by bicoastal facialist Joanna Vargas, which features hot and cold settings meant to approximate the steam and cryotherapy included in her signature treatments. There are also collagen-boosting microneedlers (more prickly than painful, and not to be overused); buffing/polishing microdermabraders (ditto); and skin-tightening at-home multipolar radio frequency devices (what?!). “I think people are a little overwhelmed,” acknowledges New York dermatologist Ellen Marmur, M.D., who created her light-emitting MMSphere 2.0—which offers four different colors of glow, each with its own alleged benefit—to help her patients maintain their in-office results between appointments. “There’s such a variety of devices coming to market now—you can wind up choosing blindly if you don’t understand the technology,” says Marmur, alluding to the spiking interest in these skin-care gadgets, which locked-down consumers have flocked to with gusto. (Sales at the multi-brand skin-tech e-tailer CurrentBody were up more than 180 percent in the past year alone.) Marmur goes on to give me a much-needed primer in LED light therapy, which operates at a cellular level, and elicits different reactions depending on color: The antibacterial blue light in the MMSphere is used for treating acne, for example, while red light may help build collagen for a smoother, plumper appearance. Microcurrent, meanwhile, trains your facial muscles “the same way you work out the muscles in your body at the gym,” adds Tera Peterson, who launched NuFace—the first at-home microcurrent apparatus—with her mother, former Golden Door esthetician Carol Cole, in 2005. “If you’re starting to see sagging around the jawline, that’s when you want to use it.” My first exposure to these technologies was a decade ago, when I capped off a Joanna Vargas facial with a trip to her newly installed Revitalight bed. Vargas informed me at the time that repetition is the key to LED light therapy’s effectiveness, whether the aim is shrinking pores or promoting collagen production; back then, I couldn’t afford the recommended 12-session package, and even now, I find the $150-per-session expense hard to justify. “That’s the real promise of these at-home tools—they’re a convenient, cost-effective way to create consistency,” Vargas told me when I returned to her Fifth Avenue salon for a tune-up this summer via the Triple Crown Facial. Vargas administered several modalities with a loving hand as huge radio frequency and microcurrent machines whirred in the background, and mechanical compression stockings sucked on my legs to stimulate lymphatic drainage. There was no way I could reproduce this experience in my living room, but after a 20-minute rest in the LED bed—meditative, if a bit clau...

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Brandy Hunter

(@brandyhunteriectskin-com)

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August 24, 2025 12:14 pm

the only at home device I've ever purchased was the current body LED right light mask. There are a lot of fake ones out there that are just gloried christmas lights as I like to call them. I have noticed a difference in my skin since using it, but the price tag is a bit high. You have to make sure you understand the specs in which the devices operate and make sure you device is in that range. What I like about the current body is that they test each individual mask to make sure the lights are operating and will penetrate your skin. I am such a fan of their craftsmanship and I will continue to purchase from them. They have a sauna mat that I've been eyeing up.

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Brandy Hunter

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August 24, 2025 12:15 pm

@melissalandersiectskin-com I agree there are lots of fakes out there.

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Brandy Hunter

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August 24, 2025 12:16 pm

@megancumberiectskin-com I love our high frequency machine! But honestly I haven't been a huge fan of home devices for the same reason!

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