No, we haven’t quite reached the point of robot-owned and -operated spas, but we’re close. The Foreo Luna 3 — for men, specifically, which plainly means it’s black instead of pink, but they do have one for sensitive skin as well — proves it. Its vibrating core shakes silicone bristles or raised silicone ridges across your skin’s surface as you move it in slow, circular motions. The pulsating massage that comes from this dual-sided device helps you clean, massage and tone your skin. It’s your own at-home, pocket-sized facial. Excessive? Maybe, considering both its price — $200 dollars, which is steep but definitely not extreme — and that you need to open an app and connect it via Bluetooth to use it. To be fair, though, two trips to the spa down the street will cost you more, and the Foreo Luna 3 can do 650 sessions on a single charge.
Ask any dermatologist which part of the skincare routine should happen first and most often, and they’ll say cleansing — a simple face wash. The 2-5 minute routine will remove dead skin cells, unclog your pores and leave the skin’s surface clear and receptive to whatever products you put on next. The same can be said of massaging your skin. (Our stint with SolaWave’s massaging Blue Light Wand taught us this.) Doing either in excess, though, to the point where you damaging your skin’s surface, is easier to do than you’d think.
“You’re going to do this twice a day — morning and night,” Dr. Jeremy Fenton, Medical Director for Midtown Manhattan’s Schweiger Dermatology Group, says of face washing. “I generally recommend some sort of gentle skin cleanser. You don’t want something that’s going to strip the oils away or is overly harsh… Too many people think they need to be stripping their skin of all of its oil in order to get it clean. If you strip all of the oil off of your skin, you’re going to create an imbalance and end up doing more harm than good.”
.Dr. Fenton’s mostly talking about the damage an overly intense cleanser could do — something filled with ingredients you should really be avoiding or not intended to be used for your face (i.e. a body wash). But you can also be too rough with your skin, whether by scrubbing too hard with your crusty, dingy hand towel, massaging too intensely (you’re more likely to bruise here) or incorporating an exfoliant for too long. Soft-bristled brushes — even loofas — designed to lift dirt off the skin’s surface can inflict the same damage if used incorrectly or for too long.
Cleaning your face should be easy. Foreo promises to make the process even easier… I think.
That’s what’s made me a purist, someone who steers clear of gadgets and tools (at least when it comes to cleansing) and washes my face with clean hands and a coin-sized dot of face wash. I’m naturally skeptical of any device (like the Foreo Luna 3) that promises to remove “99.5-percent of dirt, oil and makeup residue” or “drastically reduce lines and wrinkles.” A small serving of a physical exfoliant and a pair of clean hands does wonders for my skin. If I’m tense, a few presses on my temples will loosen things up. Why would I pay for a device that does things I think I’m already OK at doing? I’ll be damned if a robot takes my job.
