This Futuristic Beauty Device Gave Me Glowing Skin in 20 Minutes

The fact that I’m a die-hard skin-care addict means my coworkers are accustomed to me testing various serums and creams at my desk on any given day. But after slipping on cult-facialist Georgia Louise’s new GLOPulse Deep + Quick Ion Enhancer and ionized sheet masks in the middle of the workday, I found myself staring out at a sea of bewildered faces. Let me explain.

I’d heard rumors in the beauty community that Louise (who treats celebs like Sandra Bullock and Cate Blanchett, among others) was going to drop a new beauty device—you may recall when she helped popularize the Deesse Professional LED Facemask in the US four years ago, which drove a shocking number of beauty devotees to shell out $1,500—that would change the game for skin-care technology. So, naturally, I visited her serene Manhattan atelier to get the scoop on her latest creation. To my surprise, she unveiled what looked like a set of plastic headphones with a tiny glowing light where the ear mic should be. “The core of my treatments has always been using galvanic treatment or currents to get that dewiness, glow, and stimulation,” she says after seeing my confused expression. “My professional machine is a galvanic machine, and this is a home-care version.” She holds out the GLOPulse headband (only $165, by the way) and situates it over my hair with the silver discs resting on my cheeks.

“Galvanic currents stimulate blood flow, shrink pores, and deliver actives into the skin by using positive and negative ions,” explains Louise while demonstrating the three power levels—one for sensitive skin, one for combination or oily, and the strongest setting for mature. “If you think about magnets, they sort of meet and give each other a big kiss. Put a conductive medium in the middle of that, and that is also going to better penetrate into the skin.”

The conduits, in this case, are her three specially formulated sheet masks, which, along with active ingredients like hyaluronic acid, vitamin B5, vitamin C, propolis, and green tea, contain an ionizable essence made specifically for galvanic current. That means not only does your head become a circuit board (seriously!), but you won’t feel anything zapping you while the device does its thing for the recommended 20 minutes. “I think the beauty tech space is really interesting,” she says as I prepare to leave with my own GLOPulse to try. “There will be a point one day when we’ll be walking around and you’ll be like, ‘Oh, she’s wearing a beauty device.’ It will become the norm. That’s my goal—to help people realize that beauty isn’t a luxury anymore. It’s actually self-care.”(And given that we just saw Katy Perry hit the streets rocking a sheet mask, Louise might be right.)

With that in mind, I set off for the Coveteur office armed with a handful of masks and the GLOPulse, eager to try it out. I figured, if this thing is really meant to be wearable and can help me get my glow on without disrupting my workflow, then I might as well put it to the ultimate test. So, unbeknownst to everyone, I rolled up to an afternoon meeting wearing the Aqua sheet mask—my skin has been dry since returning from vacation—with the device set to low. While it may have been slightly disruptive for my coworkers (I looked like a futuristic DJ),  I quickly forgot that I was wearing any sort of treatment on my face. It didn’t move or make a sound, and I felt nothing that would indicate galvanic currents were running through my face.

After 20 minutes, the device beeped and I removed it, along with the sheet mask, in my best Patrick Bateman impression. I rubbed the remaining serum from the packet onto my face, neck, and hands, and marveled at my exceptionally soft, dewy skin. Granted, leaving any quality sheet mask on for that long will reward you with an immediate glow, but my complexion looked admittedly more even and bright, as if I had just spent the last 20 minutes jogging rather than sitting at a desk eating gummy worms. The promises of the active ingredients did seem more obvious with the device rather than when I've used them in other products on their own. Best of all, I didn’t have to think about anything else other than the task in front of me. No holding up a tool or timing myself, just effortless skin care at its most technologically savvy. And at $165 for the GLOPulse, and $20 for three masks, it’s definitely cheaper than indulging in a weekly facial or other cult gadgets. Although, I still attest, getting someone else to pamper you for an hour is always money well spent.

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