Can a radio frequency device give me my face back?
Disclosure: my radio frequency device was supplied free of charge, for the purpose of this review
As regular readers may know, I’ve spent the last few years engaged in a fierce and ongoing battle against sagging skin, and all of the other fun things that come with the aging process. I’m talking fine lines. I’m talking straight-up wrinkles. I’m talking jowls, people. (I talk a lot about jowls these days. I’d apologize, but, honestly, you’ll probably talk about them a lot too when you’re my age, so…)
Last month, however, I took the battle up a notch with the arrival of the Current Body Radio Frequency Device, which you can find here.
Isn’t it a beauty? I opted for the rose gold version, obviously, but it also comes in silver.
What is radio frequency?
RF is something I’d been vaguely aware of for a while, and it basically involves using radio frequency waves to stimulate collagen production and reduce wrinkles. During treatment, RF waves pass through the skin from one electrode to another, and when the skin resists these waves, it heats up, stimulating the production of new collagen fires while remodeling existing collagen. Until recently, it’s a treatment that’s mostly been offered in salons, however the Current Body RF device is an at home radio frequency device which targets things like crow’s feet, ’11’ lines between the eyes, smile lines, jowls, and sagging skin.
“Sign me up!” I thought, looking critically at my face, and, more specifically, at those lines around my eyes which seems to get worse every time I look at them:
(I’m honestly quite mortified that this photo even exists, let alone being published online, but, well, here we are. This is why I would rather walk across very hot coals than see my own face in the reverse camera on my iPhone… )
In addition to these lines, I was also keen to target my sagging jowls and overall appearance of my skin, so I excitedly unboxed my shiny new radio frequency skin tightening device, and we were good to go.
How the Current Body Radio Frequency Device Works
The RF device comes with a tube of conductor gel, which you first of all apply to clean, dry skin, having first of all removed all jewelry from the treatment area. You then plug in the mains power cable and turn on the device, which has three separate energy levels: it’s recommended to start off with the first (lowest) level, and gradually work your way up as your skin gets used to the treatment.
Once the green light starts blinking, you just slowly move the device over the treatment area for five minutes, after which the light will turn orange, signaling that it’s time to move on to the next area. You use the rf facial device for five minutes on each area, once a week for 8 weeks, then treatments can be topped every 4 to 8 weeks to maintain long term results.
I found my device really easy to use. It does make the skin feel hot at first, but I quickly got used to it (I actually quite like the feeling of heat on my skin, but, then again, I REALLY hate being cold, and I live in Scotland, so I’ll take any heat I can get), and the radio frequency device constantly monitors skin resistance and changes power output accordingly to maintain constant power. This means it’s always operating at its most effective level, while never exceeding its safety limit. Pretty cool, no?
The only downside I found to using it, in fact, is that it is quite time-consuming; I’ve been concentrating on my jowls and crow’s feet with mine, but if I was to use it on every possible area of the face, then full treatment would take over an hour. With that said, this may be an rf home device, but it’s really more comparable to a salon treatment than anything you’d normally use at home, so it’s not an unreasonable amount of time under the circumstances – especially as it should only be used once per week.
After the treatment, the areas I’ve used it on will be quite red at first, which is completely normal. In my case, the redness fades within 10 minutes or so, so there’s no real downtime involved, and afterwards I can just put my makeup on, and go about my day as normal.
My results from using a radio frequency facial device for 4 weeks
As I said, the recommendation is to use the RF device once a week for 8 weeks, after which you can top it up every so often. At the time of writing, I’m 4 weeks in, so exactly halfway through the treatment … which means I now feel like I have to show you even MORE extreme close-ups of my face. Damn.
Here you go:
(There’s literally nothing more humbling than being forced to look at extreme close-ups of your own face, is there? And nothing more likely to make me want to run out and buy ALL THE SKINCARE DEVICES immediately. GIVE THEM TO ME.)
It’s obviously difficult to replicate the conditions exactly, but I did my best to take both photos in roughly the same kind of lighting, and I might just be imagining it, but I’m convinced I can see an improvement in that line.
Anyone?
The lines are still there, obviously, which is to be expected as I’m still only halfway through the treatment (and also because it’s an RF device, not a magic wand…), but I definitely notice a difference, both in the ‘crows feet’ around the eyes, and in my under-eye shadows, which I hadn’t even realised were quite that bad until I saw the close-up photos of them.
It’s the 6 week results, though, that really sold me on this…
Please ignore the redness of my cheeks here (I’d used a set of collagen eye patches, and let’s just sat that’s something I do NOT recommend…) and, well, everything else about this photo other than THE LINE. THE LINE, guys. Do you see it? Because I can only JUST see it here, and when I tell you that before I got this device I was about to book in for botox/filler/both, because that’s how much these lines were bothering me, that should say it all, really. At the time of this update, I’m now seven weeks in, and, in addition to the improvement in my crow’s feet, I’ve always noticed an improvement in my skin overall, which is smoother and somehow tighter. This only really happened in the last couple of weeks, which is when I started to also use the device on my cheeks – until then, I’d been concentrating mostly on the crow’s feet, because those were my biggest issue, but I’m really excited to continue with it and see what other improvements I get from it.
Want your own skin tightening RF device?
CurrentBody are offering 10% off your purchase with the discount code FOREVERAMBER. Just enter the code at checkout to get this £299 device for £269.10, and don’t forget to come back and tell me what you thought of it!
L P C
Interesting! This is so conflicting because at first reading I felt sad that you are so critical of yourself, and can’t see why as you look great. But as someone in her mid-late forties I am exactly the same with my own face (or, even worse, neck!!) so completely understand too!
Great review – thanks.
Amber
Ah, yes, we’re so hard on ourselves, aren’t we? I think in my case a lot of it comes from the years I spent beauty blogging – no one should ever have to see that many close-ups of their own face! – but I’m definitely much more critical of myself than I am of other people, which is a shame!