If your skin shows signs of sun damage or aging (think: brown spots, melasma, deeply etched wrinkles or uneven skin tone), there's a good chance a dermatologist will recommend microdermabrasion. It's exfoliation on steroids, all thanks to an aluminum oxide crystal disk that spins away your dead skin cells and then sucks them up like a personal vacuum cleaner for your face. Just one brush over your face is enough for fresher -- if at first a bit rosier -- skin. While some at-home beauty treatments are only available at lesser strengths than their in-office counterparts, microdermabrasion is so effective in low levels that you want it to be super gentle on skin. At less than $200, the PMD microdermabrasion kit is a far more cost-effective way of sloughing off dead skin. Just don't get too vacuum-happy -- you only need to use use this once per week for improvements in skin tone and fine lines.
Drooping skin is one of those depressingly inevitable skin concerns. Thankfully, technology can help turn back the clock. The Newa uses radiofrequency to stimulate collagen and elastin, the two skin-plumpers you may currently be taking for granted. The device is shaped to fit in your palm while you run the warm flow of energy over your skin. The microcurrents penetrate three layers deep into skin to begin rebuilding from the inside out. The eight-minute treatments work to tighten the jawline and cheeks and even plump existing crow's feet.
Laser hair removal has been on my to-do list for, no exaggeration, ten years. Between making the time for repeated treatments and inevitably having to buy more sessions when my Cuban-Italian hair proves more resilient than expected, in-office removal has just never been worth my time or money. Enter the LumaRX, a device that will never gasp at your grown-in leg hair. It uses pulsed light technology, which knocks out existing hair and stops new growth at the root. Bonus: Unlike some devices, the LumaRX comes with different modes for face and body, so you can handle your upper lip and your bikini line all in one day.
Injectables may not be your thing, but that doesn't mean you have to settle for thin lips. Beauty gadgets are here to save us yet again with JuvaLips, a breathalyzer-looking device that fits around your lips and uses regulated suction (it's been described as a "hickey machine") to put pressure on the lips. This increases blood flow to the lips just like topical plumpers, only it takes less than two minutes. Suggested usage even includes keeping it in your purse to plump up more than once a day.
It may pop up like an unwelcome neighbor, but acne doesn't just appear out of nowhere. Bacteria, egged on by hormones, breeds in your skin with the goal of ruining your day in the form of an angry-looking blemish. That's where blue light treatment comes in. It's a literal blue acne-fighting light that penetrates under the surface of the skin to zap bacteria. Paired with a cleanser and a spot treatment, you'll have an entire system dedicated to prevent your next breakout. And short of the ability to hire a live-in dermatologist to stop a zit, isn't that what you've always wanted?
