NuFACE debuts smaller, lower priced microcurrent device

NuFace is launching a smaller, more affordable microcurrent skin-care device.

The NuFace Fix is a pocket-size tool that uses microcurrent energy to smooth fine lines and wrinkles around the forehead, eyes and lips in three minutes. A smaller, gentler microcurrent device than the brand’s NuFace Trinity Facial Toning Device, which retails for $325, Fix will sell for significantly less — $149.

The device is meant to be used with the NuFace Fix Line Smoothing Serum, $49 —  a new topical skin-care product, the brand’s first to contain an ionized formula that works in tandem with the device to help instantly plump lines. 

Fix is rolling out through March to NuFace retail partners in the U.S., including Nordstrom, Sephora.com, Space NK, Ulta Beauty and Barneys New York, and will begin being launched globally in April.

“I saw the need for [a device] that was mascara-size,” said Tera Valdez-Peterson, NuFace’s chief executive officer. “We’re busy women, always going from one place to the next.”

The Fix launch comes at a time when NuFace is gaining younger customers — the brand’s biggest growth category is women from 25 to 35 years old. “Our younger clients are not timid with these devices,” said Valdez-Peterson. “They’re used to being on their cell phones, so technology and devices are not intimidating to them. I definitely think the younger client is going to be excited she can get into microcurrent [devices] at a more affordable rate.”

WWD reported earlier this year that independently owned NuFace is said to have tapped Intrepid to evaluate sale options. NuFace would not comment on sales, but the business is said to have $40 million in net sales and $4 million in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.

Growth has been fueled in part by the health and wellness trend. NuFace devices are sold both as in-home tools in 19 international markets and are used in professional treatments in over 1,600 spas. The microcurrent-based devices, which are all FDA-approved, are said to lift, tone and contour the face and the FDA recently gave clearance for use on the neck. NuFace NuBody, a device for the body, debuted in January 2017.