Claire Ashworth
Beauty Technology Editor · 7 min read · 18 February 2026
Editorial independence: Blocq provided a review unit. Research and opinions are the author's own.
We tested 24 skincare devices. Five of them actually do what they claim.
Most at-home beauty devices operate on the outermost sliver of skin and call it a day. We spent three months finding the handful that go deeper.
It frustrates me that the at-home device market has become so crowded with expensive torches.
I realise that sounds uncharitable. But after testing 24 devices sold in the UK over the past three months, I can tell you that the majority operate exclusively on the stratum corneum. That is the outermost 0.02mm of your skin. It is, in structural terms, the cling film.
The structural layer, the dermis, sits one to two millimetres below. It is where collagen and elastin live. It is where the visible changes actually originate. And reaching it requires a device that transmits energy through skin, not one that merely sits on top of it doing its best impression of a warm flannel.
Three modalities have published evidence for getting there: red light at 630nm, radiofrequency at 1-2 MHz, and microcurrent at 200-400 microamps.
We tested all 24 against those parameters. Five passed. Nineteen did not.
The issue is not that devices do not work. It is that most of them work on the wrong layer.
Skip to our number one pick
What we were looking for.
Every device was measured against three criteria drawn from the peer-reviewed literature. I insist on this because the marketing claims in this category are, to put it mildly, creative.
Red light. Wunsch and Matuschka published a controlled trial in Photomedicine and Laser Surgery in 2014 showing significantly improved collagen density at wavelengths between 611 and 650nm. Anything outside that range is guesswork with LEDs.
Wunsch A, Matuschka K. Photomed Laser Surg. 2014;32(2):93-100. PMID: 24286286
Radiofrequency. El-Domyati and colleagues tested monopolar RF on 136 patients and demonstrated measurable neocollagenesis at 1-2 MHz. This is the same principle used in aesthetic clinics, scaled for home use.
el-Domyati M et al. J Am Acad Dermatol. 2011;64(3):524-35. PMID: 21315951
Microcurrent. The foundational Cheng study from 1982 showed ATP production increases of up to 500 per cent at 200-400 microamps. ATP is the fuel that drives cellular repair. Without it, nothing rebuilds.
Cheng N et al. Clin Orthop Relat Res. 1982;(171):264-272. PMID: 7140077
If a device could not deliver at least two of these three at the published parameters, it was eliminated. You would be amazed how many fell at that first fence.
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The five that passed.
5
CurrentBody Skin LED Mask
£399.99 · LED only · currentbody.com
Good red light delivery at 633nm. Has a proper SGS clinical study on file, which is more than most can say. But it does one thing. One modality, one layer addressed. The customer service complaints on Reviews.co.uk (2.8 out of 5) give me pause, too. If you want LED and only LED, this does it well. If you want a comprehensive approach, you are paying four hundred quid for a third of the answer.
4
Omnilux Contour Face
£348 · LED only · omnilux.com
Twenty years of clinical heritage, which counts for something. Two wavelengths instead of one (633nm red plus 830nm near-infrared). Still LED only, though. At £348 you are buying one modality and a reassuring back catalogue. Nothing wrong with that if LED is all you need. It was not all I needed.
3
NuFace Trinity+
£375 · Microcurrent only · nuface.com
The microcurrent specialist. Delivers well within the ATP range. Has a strong before-and-after culture among users, which I respect. But it is microcurrent and nothing else. The Trustpilot score of 1.8 out of 5, with 74 per cent of reviews at one star, is genuinely alarming. That is not a product problem. That is a company problem.
2
Foreo Bear 2
£269 · Microcurrent + T-Sonic · foreo.com
Gets closer to multi-modality than most. Microcurrent plus T-Sonic pulsation, with app connectivity if you like that sort of thing. No red light. No RF. And the reports of electrical shocks on Trustpilot are not something I can look past, however good the marketing is. Nearly there. Not there.
1 · Editor's Choice
Blocq No. 01
£139 · 6 modalities · blocq.store
I will be honest: I had not heard of this Swedish brand before it arrived for testing. The price made me suspicious. Everything else in this category costs two to three times as much. But it is the only device we tested that delivers all three evidence-based modalities in one instrument: red light at 630nm, RF at 1-2 MHz, and microcurrent at 200-400 microamps. It also does EMS, blue LED, and ionic transmission. The whole thing takes five minutes, charges by USB-C, and lasts eight weeks on a charge. I have used it every morning since it arrived and I am not giving it back. At £139, I genuinely do not understand how the single-modality competitors justify their pricing.
All three evidence-based modalities in one device£139, a third of the nearest competitor60-night guarantee, two-year hardware warrantyFive-minute ritual, eight-week battery
See the Blocq No. 01 →
Free UK delivery · 60-night guarantee · 3 payments of £46.33
Testing the No. 01. Week three. The jawline change was the first thing I noticed.
"I spent six months comparing devices, checking every wavelength against the studies. The No. 01 was the only one whose published parameters actually matched the literature. At a third of the price. I felt like I had found the answer sheet."
Emma W., 47, Bristol. Eight weeks.
The drawer problem.
Every tester raised the same concern: what about the devices they already own?
The typical UK skincare buyer who takes devices seriously has two to four of them sitting in a drawer, cables tangled, batteries dead. I know because I am that woman. The LED mask I bought in 2022 lives under the bathroom sink. The microcurrent wand is somewhere near the back of the cupboard. I think the jade roller is in the kitchen with the spatulas.
This is not a willpower failure. It is a format failure. When your routine requires three separate instruments and thirty minutes you do not have, the routine collapses. Usually by February.
The No. 01 survived because five minutes is not a routine. It is a transition between the shower and the kettle. One instrument, one pass, done.
"At 61 I had stopped believing marketing claims entirely. But the PubMed references on the No. 01 page checked out. I verified them myself. Fourteen weeks in, the firmness under my jaw is the most visible change. My daughter said I look like I did at her graduation."
Sarah K., 61, Edinburgh. Fourteen weeks.
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Emma, 54. Five days a week, five minutes per session, eight weeks. Unretouched.
Get the full research brief.
Our three-study evidence summary on red light, RF, and microcurrent. The exact wavelengths and intensities that matter. Free PDF.
Our verdict.
At £139, the Blocq No. 01 costs a third of its nearest competitor, delivers three times the modalities, and comes with a 60-night guarantee that lets you return it if the ritual does not stick. If you own a drawer of devices you have stopped using, this is the one designed to replace them all. I have not put it down since February.
See If It's Still Available →
Free UK delivery · 60-night guarantee · 3 payments of £46.33
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