Beauty power tools the pros use are available for consumers
Automated beauty tools are beginning to make the days of applying makeup or washing your face by hand look quaint.
Professional-level devices are now available for use at home as manufacturers refine their products -- and their sales pitches -- to reach the large consumer market. The sometimes-pricey devices are more available than ever as spas, doctors’ offices, websites and infomercials sell them with celebrities and others touting their effectiveness. And with many devices now in their second or third incarnations, manufacturers may be approaching the right combination of price and performance, erasing the memories of gimmicks gone bad. Consumers now can laser away hair, treat acne, reduce uneven pigmentation, airbrush on cosmetics and cleanse skin, as well as (or better than) a professional.
These new beauty power tools are part of a growing trend for at-home spa treatments that can replace or complement professional services, said Michael Moretti, editor of the Medical Insight Report, which covers the aesthetic medical industry. His recent report on home-use devices profiled 26 companies that make consumer versions of professional products, a market that he projected will grow about 25% annually for several years to come.
As with cameras or cookware, the target market is the “prosumer” who craves the pro’s tricks and tips but is hoping for little pain to the body, wallet or ego. After all, how are you going to feel if you spend $270 on the no!no! 8800 device to zap body hair with patented heat waves if it doesn’t work? (It does, and it can keep hair from growing back, but you’ve got to tolerate the scent of burning hair and, most important, follow the directions.)
The at-home products are “more compact and won’t do the same job as a physician- utilized machine, but over time, they get great results,” said Cindy Vandruff, editor in chief of Aesthetic Trends & Technologies, a journal for physicians and aestheticians.
Cosmetic companies are hopping on the bandwagon. Neutrogena recently launched the new two-speed Wave Duo Power-Cleanser with Foaming Pads. The buzzing, $14.99 palm-sized plastic device comes with single-use foaming pads and the required AA battery. Vibrating mascaras by Maybelline and Lancome promise to mimic the delicate wiggle a makeup artist uses to build color on the lashes. Garnier’s $16.99 Ultra-Lift Pro Deep Wrinkle Roller puts ingredients such as Vitamin A in a roll-on dispenser that promises to firm and lift skin on the neck and face.
Skin care may have led the revolution in gadgetry, but color cosmetics are following up with technical innovations too. This fall, about 100 Sephora stores launched the $225 Temptu Airbrush Makeup System, designed to mist skin with an atomized foundation that looks slightly more dewy than most professional-level airbrushed makeup. Temptu Chief Executive Michael Benjamin says the company is developing an entire range of cosmetics or beauty products that could be airbrushed -- including sunscreen.
Though Temptu has long sold a professional airbrush, the new at-home model allows users to switch easily between colors of foundation, blush or highlighter without cleaning the spray head. Makeup artist Gina Brooke says she sometimes prefers the smaller, lighter consumer Temptu system to apply makeup, or on location. Brooke said she also likes how the light mist can create a smooth complexion that can stand up to high-definition scrutiny. Lancome followed up its much-hyped $34 to $39 vibrating mascaras with a $48 buzzing powder puff, the new Oscillation Powerfoundation mineral makeup. It features a motorized, cushioned applicator that the company says delivers 7,000 vibrations a minute to wiggle micronized powder foundation smoothly across skin. Yet the item, which looks like a child’s top, relies on smooth human-powered strokes, not vibrations, to achieve a fine finish.
The old adage you get what you pay for proves true with many of these buzzing beauty products. Before buying, shoppers should investigate the manufacturer’s history and even check out Internet buzz, said Dr. Tina Alster, a clinical professor of dermatology at the Georgetown University Medical Center.
“Any of these at-home devices are a lot more cost-effective, and certainly they are more convenient [than professional treatments],” Alster said. “This is a huge trend. We are just at the tip of what will become widely available and widely used,” she said.
Alster is a fan of the Clarisonic skin-care brush and recommends the $149 to $225 devices for patients who have clogged pores, oily skin or whiteheads, or who are acne prone. Spas and doctors’ offices, including hers, are using the brushes to quickly remove surface dead skin for better product absorption, makeup removal or skin smoothing. The company recently launched a version that is designed to scrub your body. Alster also recommends the brushes for anyone who uses glycolic acid, retinols or Vitamin C products.
Like a power toothbrush for your face, the Clarisonic bristles move a few millimeters, 300 times a second in an oscillatory fashion, said Dr. Robb Akridge, co-founder and vice president of clinical affairs at manufacturer Pacific Bioscience Laboratories Inc., in Bellevue, Wash. And the message seems to be getting through: Sales have increased 2,179% in three years.
Not all consumer versions of professional devices get the thumbs up, however. Alster and Veronica Barton-Schwartz, who runs a spa in Malibu, gave tepid reviews of the micro-current devices that aim to firm facial muscles with electric stimulation.
Yet aestheticians have been using micro-current technology since the 1970s, according to Carol Cole, whose namesake company has been selling her NuFace hand-held micro-current device for four years. Though some experts debate the usefulness of micro-current, at-home devices can offer a cost savings. Cole said professional micro-current treatments can cost $120 to $400 a session, and an effective regimen requires 12 to 18 twice-a-week sessions. Her device sells for $325.
Naturally, even with DVDs, charts and guides to using the products, someone will probably airbrush their sinuses in medium beige. Alster and others urge consumers to research all claims and, please, read the instructions.
