Beauty gadgets: what are the best home use devices?

You’ve been asking for a proper round-up of home-use devices – the ones I have, the ones I use, the ones I mean to use but don’t…  so here it is, from top to toe. You can watch the video I made about these devices for the full detail on why I like them, or get the gist from the text, below.

Cleansing:

FOREO LUNA 3: £99 l love this cleansing brush with its silicone bristles. It’s effective, gentle on the skin, and the sonic vibrations help get the skin really clean.

BEGLOW TIA: £199  I also love this sonic device, one part of it is a cleansing brush, while the smooth part of it pushes serums deeper into the skin.

I do still like the Clarisonic cleansing brush but don’t use it very often as it can be quite rough on the skin.

Microcurrent muscle-tightening:

NUFACE TRINITY facial trainer kit: £315 – I love this and use it a lot. With the Trinity, you can swap attachment heads eg the Trinity ELE attachment: though that’s another £142

If you don’t want the attachments, go for the Nuface Mini: £167

One I didn’t include because I’ve lent it to a friend is the little NuFACE FIX Line Smoothing Device: £150  – it’s brilliant for fine lines around eyes and lips and also great for dispersing bruises which was why I lent it to her…

Before you ask -the FaceGym PRO is similar (it’s electrical-muscle-stimulating technology, rather than microcurrent. I used to have one but didn’t use it so much so passed it on.

Radiofrequency skin tightening:

These devices heat the skin to tighten the collagen a tad and stimulate the growth of new collagen. I haven’t used any of them properly but they all look promising, other people tell me they love them which is why I’m including them:

SENSICA SENSILIFT Skin Tightening System: £279

NEWA – £349

TRIPOLLAR STOP Facial Skin Renewal Device: £249.

Peach-fuzz removal:

DERMAFLASH Luxe Facial Exfoliation and Peach Fuzz Removal Device: £179 Like home dermaplaning – and strangely addictive.

Microneedling:

If you have to do it, please do it carefully – I’m not a massive fan, because it is easy to get careless with it and scratch up the surface of the skin. Skin experts tell me they see so many people who have caused trauma to the surface of the skin like this. Also, most skincare products are designed to be used on the surface of the skin, not to be dropped through holes into its lower layers. Get professional advice on which products are ok to work with needling rollers, and avoid anything with fragrance, which is an irritant. Also, be scrupulous about hygiene and sanitising the roller.

GLOPRO Microneedling Regeneration Tool + Body attachment: £254

Light therapy devices:

It’s almost cheating, putting this in here, as it’s a clinic-standard piece of technology — ie a powerful piece of kit — so it blows other home-use LED devices out of the water, but the DERMALUX Flex MD: £1,895 is available to use at home. I was lent one during lockdown and I loved it. At the cheaper end of the market, you also have the LIGHTSTIM device: £349, which has clinical trials to show how it reduces wrinkle depth.

(And before you ask, I haven’t tried the Deese mask which is the other nearly-£2k mask which can be bought for home use. Nor have I seen the data on the precision of its wavelengths etc. But I know many clinic owners rate it.)

Hair removal:

Philips Lumea Advanced IPL Hair Remover: £350 – Just fab, works a treat. As do most home-use Intense Pulsed Light devices. You shave, then zap the target area, and repeat this every fortnight until you get results. Most people see a massive reduction in hair growth after eight weeks. This cleared my armpits in a couple of months.  IPL doesn’t promise permanent removal of hair, just a permanent reduction in growth, but I have found the results last well.

Braun Silk-épil Epilator: from £100  – this is an old favourite, still going strong. It wrenches hairs out from the root, so it is easiest to shave, then work on the hairs as they reappear, rather than diving into a thicket of hairs on your shins.

Pelvic floor strengthening:

Elvie Personal Trainer: £169 – makes doing pelvic floor exercises almost enjoyable.

Electric foot file:

Scholl Velvet Smooth Electric Foot File: £39.99 (but often cheaper online) Just brilliant.

Let me know what you think!

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NB all of these devices have been given or loaned to me as press samples over the years. None of these are ‘required mentions’ or collaborations.