My Favorite High-Tech Beauty Gadgets

 

We live in such an interesting period with so many discoveries, so many innovations in technology. We have tablets instead of newspapers, we have wristbands to calculate out daily steps to know if we move enough, we have fertility monitors to plan our family size, we have power exoskeletons – a wearable mobile machine that makes a wearer lift 100 kg with no effort. It would be just foolish not to take advantage of this and to repudiate the importance of technology and its contributions to our daily life’s ease. Intelligent technology gadgets are changing our beauty routines as well.

Everyone is obsessed with changing his smartphone to a newer version, and I am obsessed with the latest beauty gadgets. I thought I would write about my favorite beauty gadgets that I have been using for some time already and can recommend them.

I have several reasons why I choose to spend money on these devices:

1. I believe many of them really work and have a positive effect;
2. The cost that you pay is much smaller than you would pay for the same procedure at a salon or in an anti-aging clinic;
3. It is hard to find a trustworthy dermatologist when you live an expat lifestyle and need to change your living place constantly;
4. You can save lots of time when you do these procedures at home.

Tria Age-Defying Laser

Fractional laser treatment, also called Fraxel (because the first device in the market was called Fraxel, it is like mummies say pampers when they want to say diapers J ), is a very popular anti-aging procedure performed in anti-aging and dermatology clinics. This treatment is used for reducing facial lines and wrinkles, sun damage, skin pigmentation. The downside of this procedure is that it is very expensive – around 1,000 Euros, or more per one session, and the recovery time is very long – for one week your face is burned red, itchy, sensitive and you definitely cannot go to work looking like this (remember, Samantha from Sex and the City got this laser treatment in one of the episodes and showed up with a horrible red face trying to hide it under her hat). Good news is that this type of treatment, only without the negative side of it, is available for home use.

I am using Tria Age-Defying laser, which uses targeted beams of light to stimulate the natural cell renewal cycle in order to generate collagen. This kick-starts the skin’s self-repair process, resulting in fresh new cells, with diminished fine lines and wrinkles as well as less noticeable age spots. It should be used every evening. This laser is less powerful than the one used for salon treatment, but just because you use it every night it does its job, but you do not look red next day.

Foreo Luna

Have you ever thought why men have better skin than women have? Scientists think that one of the reasons might be using a shaving machine every day. Men get regular exfoliation and massaging while shaving, and perhaps this has something to do with their wrinkle resistance, too.

Foreo created a silicone dual frequency sonic face scrubbing brush Luna, which does quite a similar job. This bristle-less device has one side for cleaning and another for anti-aging. T-Sonic pulsation with silicone touch-points gently exfoliates dead skin cells, and lower-frequency pulsation makes the skin look firmer and more radiant. I use it every morning and night. It is such a pleasant way to wash and massage your face. It is like a mini SPA ritual at home.

Philips Lumea

Women’s grooming ritual of shaving some areas of their bodies became a social norm in the Western societies only in the 20^th century. Of course, it started in the USA. It is clearly connected with dramatically changed clothing fashion. It started with underarms when the sleeveless dress was introduced as a new fashion wave in Harper’s Bazaar in 1915. The time for legs came a bit later with a new fashion of shorter dresses and skirts. Ladies started to worry about the bikini area in the fifties, when swimsuits and lingerie became smaller. However, in Middle Eastern societies, removal of the female body hair has been considered proper hygiene, necessitated by local customs, for many centuries. In Muslim countries brides-to-be remove all their body hair before the wedding night, and usually they stick with the same aesthetic after marriage.

There are lots of ways to get rid of embarrassing hair: waxing, shaving, sugaring, electrolysis, chemical creams, laser and IPL hair removal. The last two are the best for sure. It is easy and simple, painless, does not course infections or folliculitis. But both are very expensive to get in the salon. Good news is that there are many salon treatment alternatives for home use that cost way less these days.

I use Philips Lumea IPL hair removal device. I have had it for many years already. That is such an ease for ladies, and for men, too – in many societies hairy men’s bodies are increasingly often considered embarrassing as well. You spend less than one hour once a month and you have smooth body without any hair to worry about.