It’s an age-old, albeit First World problem: You return to “real” life from a spa stay looking like a billion bucks, only to have results of all that expert esthetician handiwork start to dissipate. Depending on how quickly you jump back on the hamster wheel of daily activities and start to neglect your self-care, you can find yourself looking like the “pre-spa” you before you know it.
But what if that didn’t have to happen? What if, with a little determination and discipline—and the exact beauty gadget your skin pro used on you at the spa—you could replicate those results until your next excursion? Happily, it’s getting easier than ever to do that, thanks to the rising popularity of high-tech tools criss-crossing back and forth between the consumer market and spas.
“At-home maintenance is responsible for eighty percent of your long-term [skin] results,” says Tera Peterson, CEO of NuFACE, a pioneer on the microcurrent device front. The company’s super-popular tools, including the face-firming NuFACE Trinity and the cellulite-pummeling NuBODY, are deployed at numerous Four Seasons, Montage, St. Regis, and Canyon Ranch spa locations. “Today we have over five thousand estheticians using NuFACE,” says Peterson, “and retailing it to their clients.”
Using the exact device at home that played a starring role in your professional treatment brings with it a certain comfort level, and lets you take real ownership of your skin.
A second-generation “microcurrent esthetician,” Peterson developed the NuFACE alongside her mother, who has been using electricity on clients since the 1980s. But before creating the lightweight, easy to owner-operate original NuFACE and its successor, the Trinity, Peterson and her mother marketed a much larger microcurrent machine called Micro Dermal Tone (MDT) directly to estheticians.
As soon as the consumer-friendly NuFACE hit the market, however, buh-bye clunky, ol’ MDT. “The estheticians preferred the NuFACE because of the ease of use and the immediate results,” notes Peterson.
Another current-based consumer device, ZIIP, is also finding its way into the spa space. A favorite of red carpet makeup artists Pati Dubroff and Jillian Dempsey, ZIIP bills itself as the first-ever app-connected beauty device. “Think of your ZIIP as an exquisitely beautiful battery that creates a circuit with your skin,” states the website. “It is able to send nanocurrents and microcurrents of varying wave forms to increase cell energy and repair.”
After downloading ZIIP onto their other hand-held device (read: their phone or iPad), users can select from a roster of eight DIY-friendly treatment protocols targeted to specific needs. The four-minute “Instant Gratification” program, for instance, is designed to “lift, sculpt and awaken,” and is recommended for all skin types three times per week. The more intensive “Sensitive Energize,” to “calm, heal and energize” touchy skin, clocks in at 12 minutes, also recommended three times weekly
ZIIP creator and co-founder Melanie Simon, an “electrical esthetician,” has more elaborate, pro-level treatment protocols loaded onto her device that she uses on clients, and she intends to make those more readily available to fellow skin experts in 2020. Already, Rescue Spa has incorporated the buzzy tool into its menu at its New York City and Philadelphia locations, and the spa at Shutters in Santa Monica is also ZIIP-ing along.
Though she doesn’t offer ZIIP to her clients, Georgia Louise, go-to facialist for such perpetually glowy celebrities as Gwyneth Paltrow, Cate Blanchett, and two Jennifers (Aniston and Lawrence), is a real gadget girl. In addition to NuFACE Trinity and NuBODY, Louise stocks the über high-tech GLOLite LED Mask at her Atelier on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, as well as her own Pulse+GLO Ion Enhancer, a headset-like gizmo she designed to enhance the effects of her Pulse+GLO sheet masks and enable clients to “recreate the Georgia Louise Bespoke Facial at home.”
While definitely an investment—the NuFACE Trinity and the ZIIP cost north of $400, and the GLOLite will set you back a cool $1395—using the exact device at home that played a starring role in your professional treatment brings with it a certain comfort level, and lets you take real ownership of your skin. At least until you get back to the spa, that is. Then it’s all hands on deck.
Dana Wood
Dana Wood is the Contributing Beauty Editor at InsidersGuidetoSpas.com. She has been writing about beauty and wellness for decades, and no matter how many times she taps the words “hyaluronic acid” or “healing modalities” into her keyboard, it never gets old. Dana spent a total of 20 years at Condé Nast, serving as Beauty Director for W, Cookie, and Brides. A transplanted New Yorker, Dana now lives in St. Petersburg, Florida. Her peak spa experience? Dana says it’s impossible to decide between the Coco-Mango Body Buff at the Driftwood Spa at Jakes in Treasure Beach, Jamaica, The Land of Beautiful Waters Anti-Aging Facial at Four Seasons Nevis, and the 80-minute 5 Senses massage at the Spa by JW in Marco Island, Florida.