These tools are intended to help you achieve smoother, firmer and brighter skin, achieving better results that with topical skincare application alone.
Whether you’re after the latest technology or prefer an approach that is tied into more traditional practices, there are options to suit your routine or budget. The scope is huge and expanding all the time, but choosing can be overwhelming. Prior to purchasing it’s good idea to consider your skin type, what you’d primarily like to achieve and the the skincare products you already use. Then, take an internet deep dive, and read all the reviews you can to weigh up the pros and cons.
Finally, its important to take an honest look at how often you are realistically going to commit to using a tool ro device. Most approaches need consistent use over a number of weeks and months to achieve results, so if you aren’t able to stick to it, you’re more than likely throwing your money away.
That being said, these are five of the best and most popular approaches and the results you can hope to achieve with regular use:
Face roller and Gua Sha
Rose Quartz Face Roller; Salt by Hendrix Gua Sha
Some people love the low-fi nature of these tools and the repetitive ritual of using them on the face.
Typically made from jade, rose quartz or other stone or crystals, face rollers feature a handle with a rotating wheel designed to roll across your face with gentle pressure. The stone remains cool, adding an element of cryotherapy, particularly when stored in the fridge prior to use.
Gua sha is a traditional Eastern and South-East Asian technique in which a smooth, flat credit card-size stone tool is pressed or firmly stroked along the skin of the face (and sometimes the body), hugging the facial contours.
Increasing movement and pressure in the facial area with massage from these tools is said to increase blood flow, sculpt and tone facial contours, release tension and stress and move sluggish lymph fluid around the face and away from areas where it can cause puffiness. (Lymph fluid is a key part of the lymphatic system, a network of tissues and organs that help rid the body of toxins, waste and other unwanted materials as well as helping the body fight infection.)
There are plenty of tutorials found online but in general you should use upwards and outwards strokes.
NuFace Trinity
More than just a massager, this little device delivers microcurrent technology, said to help tone and tighten your face muscles while also reducing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. Used after applying a special ‘activator’ gel with a decent amount of slip, you glide it over the face and it delivers a low-grade electrical current to ‘train’ your facial muscles to appear more lifted, tightened, and firm.
Given how faast technology moves, it’s surprising how few serious contenders there are competing for the crown well and truly held by NuFace and its Trinity and mini devices for a number of years now, but at this stage it’s one of the only popular devices of its type.
To see any kind of results, the brand recommends you use it for 5 minutes a day for at least five days a week for 60 days, and then to maintain those results, you’ll need to continue using it two to three times a week.
Ice globes or wands
Skintopia Cooling Ice Globes; Angela Caglia Gold Cryo Facial Set
They used to be more commonly found in skin clinics where they were used in facials, but as more people embrace at-home treatments and a little ‘me-time’, ice globes or metal cryo wands (seen above) are becoming a relaxing and useful tool you can use on yourself.
Based on the principles of cryotherapy, or the benefits of cold temperature for skin, ice globes are said to boost your complexion in a number of ways.
This includes, but is not limited to de-puffing, cooling, refining, adding radiance and soothing red or reactive skin. The movement across your face helps improves circulation to oxygenate skin and helps with lymphatic drainage.
The glass globes are filled with anti-freeze, and are designed to be placed in the fridge or a bowl of ice for approximately 10 minutes before use. Metal versions work in a similar manner
Then, smooth your favourite cream or serum onto clean, dry skin and gently massage the face and neck starting on the jaw line and working upwards and outwards in circular motions.
LED masks
CurrentBody Skin LED Light Therapy Mask
The robot-like masks might look intimidating but there’s evidence to suggest they can help rejuvenate your skin. Not just any old red light works however, it’s the frequency of light that matters. This is what’s able to penetrate through your skin and encourage regeneration on a cellular level.
LED light therapy is thought to stimulate collagen production. Studies have shown improvements to the appearance of fine lines, wrinkles and inflammatory conditions like psoriasis and acne and even wound healing.
“It’s important to go for the optimum wavelengths that have been proven to be the most effective in clinical trials,” explains Emily Buckwell, Head of Brand at global beauty device retailer CurrentBody. Our CurrentBody Skin LED Light Therapy Mask combines red light (633nm) and infra-red light (830nm) as these two wavelengths are proven to give the best results.”
Beyond the face, there are a variety of LED devices that also treat the skin on the neck decolletage and other areas of the body.
Derma roller
Environ Cosmetic Gold Roll CIT and Focus CIT tools
This is an at-home version of a microneedling treatment.
Rollers and stampers are lined with tiny needles, usually between 0.1 and 0.5mm in length. They are intended to be rolled or pressed over skin lightly, without pain but with a prickly sensation, to create tiny microchannels in skin.
With tiny and short pin-prick needles on these devices, the results wont be as dramatic as professional needling treatments like Dermapen, but they do offer some benefits.
In particular, the healing of the tiny microchannels is said to stimulate collagen and elastin production and help with a number of skin conditions as well as increased product absorption immediately after use, in particular helping serums to penetrate skin.
According to Environ, whose founder Dr Des Fernandes pioneered the use of microneedling, the tools can assist in improving the appearance of aging, pigmentation, dehydration, scarring and sun damage. Dr Fernandes found while studying the use of Vitamin A that patients’ skin reached a plateau and using needling helped achieve further results.
