Why beauty insiders are using machines now

Elisabeth strides into an after-work event in Mayfair looking what Hollywood swingers used to call “money”. It’s not the Gucci blazer or the wide-leg Gabriela Hearst trousers, though they help. No, it’s her face. No evident tweaks or work, no weird immobility, no stretched tension in the skin, no toddler-scale volume in her fiftysomething cheeks, no make-up at all, in fact — yet her face looks incredible. She looks entirely her age, with a healthy lustre. Elisabeth has the ultimate status symbol: an “expensive face”.

No needles, no scalpels, no threads, no filler, no heavy-duty procedures. She claims only to be a devotee of energy-based devices, cosmetic enhancement that comes via a machine plugged into the walls of a growing number of cosmetic clinics.

A hard-grafting financier and mother of boisterous teens, she is busy and does not spend all day in the lotus position. “My friend says I should look like the bottom of a handbag, and I do deserve to,” she says with a cackle. “Machines have saved the day. I’ve done nothing else for years.” She admits this only with the assurance of anonymity, by the way, because “I like confusing people, I don’t want them to know.”

Expensive face is now a specific ask of cosmetic doctors and dermatologists. “Pore-free, oil-free, no fine lines, no pigmentation, no acne. It’s what we call here ‘the perfect canvas’,” says the dermatologist Dr Vali, who has a clinic in Selfridges London. “It’s that patient who doesn’t want to layer on make-up, who wants no more than a little blush, concealer, lip gloss, a dash of mascara. You can only do that by treating the medical layer of the skin, the reticular dermis, using your cells to fix you from the inside out.”

With clever targeting, machines work by prompting the skin to repair and rebuild, essentially harnessing the body’s natural ability to restore itself to good cosmetic outcomes. Elisabeth’s annual investment is about £5,000. The most expensive treatment on her card is the £2,000 yearly course of Ultherapy, which uses micro-focused ultrasound (MFU) waves to stimulate new collagen growth, tightening, restructuring and rejuvenating the skin.

“It takes ages to kick in, but it is the Rolls-Royce,” Elisabeth says, “even though it hurts so much you can feel it in your teeth. I take painkillers before I go.” It’s not unusual for doctors to prescribe a little Xanax along with facial-numbing cream for some of the more painful treatments. Elisabeth considers the cost, the pain and the time a solid investment. “I’ve done my due diligence — you go hard on the machines, then you won’t need a facelift. I believe it’s going to be worth it.”

“Ultherapy? That’s old hat,” says Dr Rita Rakus from her Knightsbridge clinic, which has one of the widest selections of machines in the country. “Sofwave uses newer ultrasound technology, hurts less and gives greater increases in collagen and elastin.”

Machine-led beauty — an area of the cosmetic industry that is projected to grow about 10 per cent annually over the next few years — moves fast and has a dizzying array of products. Machines “account for about 50 per cent of our work now”, Rakus continues. “It used to be more like 20 per cent. This is partly because the results are so good and partly because a certain type of patient is chasing conservative and organic results.”

If you’re staring down a barefaced forty- or fiftysomething celebrity enviably radiating beauty while having ditched the fillers or Botox — Gwyneth Paltrow, Courteney Cox and Jennifer Aniston, to name a recent few — you’ll find tucked away somewhere that catch-all phrase: “I take care of my skin.”

The former supermodel Paulina Porizkova, 58, is another who has declared her face is natural, yet she freely admits she uses all kinds of machines including lasers, a crucial category with a mind-boggling range of uses not just in beauty but in all branches of medicine.

A word of caution, though. “This area is not just baffling, in the UK it’s a Wild West, as machines are still largely unregulated. In the US they are subject to FDA control,” says the veteran beauty journalist Alice Hart-Davis. “It’s crucial that people don’t just do whatever is popping up on their social media feed that day,” she continues, noting that many of these machines are heavily promoted by influencers. “People need help navigating what’s out there, what works, what is best for them and who is best placed to do it. It’s important to let an expert decide which machines can work best for your specific desired outcome. Too many treatments can really stress the skin.”

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Rakus echoes that. “They’re pretty safe, but an idiot could easily cause marking, burns, blisters or an uneven result. Also, have the right expectations. You can’t rely on them to turn back the clock. Machines have their limitations. They cannot affect muscle contraction like Botox, they cannot volumise to any great extent, because they can only stimulate your body’s capacity to repair itself and stimulate natural collagen production.”

Rakus’s clinic spent £140,000 on the latest piece of kit, which explains why the expensive face can be, well, expensive. Her priciest treatment is £4,800-£5,600 for a course of ultrasound and radio frequency that “lifts, tightens and will last you three years”.

That supernatural expensive face gleam to the skin could entail fortnightly microneedling or a JetPeel to deliver active materials like stem cells, exosomes or polynucleotides crucial millimetres into the dermal layers. To misquote Dolly Parton: “It costs a lot of time and money to look this natural.”

Of course cold water swimming, great genes, loads of sleep and a dedicated daily facial yoga and lymphatic-draining routine could produce an expensive face that costs nothing. Dropping money doesn’t guarantee expensive face. But women like Elisabeth think machines are worth the time, money and effort to look “natural”. “That chipmunk look isn’t cool any more — especially at our age.”

Try Radiofrequency, which uses heat to increase the production of collagen and elastin.Names to know Thermage, Pellevé and Accent Prime.Where to go The Skin Repair Clinic, Bristol. From £595. theskinrepairclinic.co.uk

Try Lasers — there are two types: ablative removes the skin, non-ablative regenerates lower skin layers.Names to know Candela, Cynosure, Lumenis and Advatx.Where to go Lumiere Clinic, Manchester. From £120 a session for Coolview Laser. lumiereclinic.co.uk

Try High-intensity or micro-focused ultrasound technology to stimulate the production of new collagen.Names to know Ultherapy, Ultracel Q+ and Sofwave.”Where to go Dr Joney De Souza, London W1. From £2,800 a session for Ultherapy for the face. drjoneydesouza.com

Try HIFES technology, which uses electromagnetic currents to stimulate facial muscles and trigger contractions.Names to know BTL, the creator of the cult new treatment EmFace.Where to go Dr Rita Rakus, London SW3. From £1,200 a session.drritarakus.co.uk