The Pros, the Cons and the Future of At-Home Beauty Devices
Once confined to clinics, advanced beauty treatments are now entering the home, raising new questions around efficacy and safety.
Do you own an LED mask? Or, perhaps, a microcurrent lifting wand has become part of your morning routine, while 20 minutes before bed is now reserved for a lymphatic drainage device. Once confined to dermatology clinics and celebrity facialists’ treatment rooms, beauty devices are sitting alongside toothbrushes and serums in bathroom cabinets across the world.
According to Research and Markets, the global at-home beauty device market is currently valued at $14.4 billion, and is projected to reach $21.85 billion by 2030, fueled by consumers seeking clinic-level results without the recurring appointments and expenses. The category is also expanding rapidly thanks to a growing ecosystem of new technology, including radiofrequency devices, at-home microneedling tools, NAD+ injectable pens, and sleep tech. Many of these products are still emerging, but industry experts see this wave of innovation as the next potential “gold rush” in beauty and wellness, and are actively positioning themselves to capitalize on it.
From temperature-regulating mattress covers to high-tech wearables, products that promise to improve your sleep are booming.
That growing appetite is creating fertile ground for increasingly sophisticated devices, but as beauty tools edge closer to medical territory, experts warn the line between skincare and procedure is becoming harder to define. “Once you are penetrating the skin, injecting substances, creating controlled injury or trying to remodel tissue, you are no longer simply ‘doing skincare’ — you are performing a medical or quasi-medical procedure,” says aesthetic practitioner Dr. Michael Moore, who works at cult London clinic Dr. Dray. “The marketing often focuses on the device or the product, but the real value comes from the practitioner’s knowledge.”
Which technologies, then, will define the next wave of at-home beauty, and how safe and effective can they realistically be without clinical oversight?
Two years ago, few would have predicted that LED masks would become as commonplace as sheet masks, yet consumers proved willing to spend. Now, the next frontier of at-home devices appears to be moving closer to medicine.
At the center of that shift is NAD+ (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide), a naturally occurring coenzyme found in every cell of the body that plays a key role in DNA repair and cellular function. The ingredient has gained cultural momentum in recent years, amplified by figures such as Hailey Bieber, Kendall Jenner, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Jennifer Aniston. It can be taken through supplements, IV drips, or injections, and claims to boost energy, support cognitive function, improve recovery, and slow visible signs of aging.
The IV drip therapy has won over celebrities and intrigued consumers with its promise to naturally slow down ageing.
NAD+ therapies are not FDA-approved as anti-ageing or wellness indications, and are instead offered in clinics where regulatory oversight and clinical evidence vary upon formulation and provider. As with other emerging wellness injectables, like peptides, use is often based on practitioner-led protocols and early-stage scientific research. Despite this, demand is growing: according to research firm Insights Probe, the global NAD+ market was valued at $184 million in 2022 and is expected to reach $655 by 2028, ramping up at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23.6%.
Dr. Jonathan Leary, founder and CEO of social wellness club Remedy Place, earlier this year released an NAD+ pen needle designed for at-home use. “These are practices you want to do consistently, and the people who are proactive about their health are usually proactive in life generally. They’re busy. They have a lot going on,” he adds, explaining the decision to expand beyond the clinic’s popular NAD+ IV drips. Developed in partnership with NAD Clinic, the device is positioned as one of the most potent options on the market, bringing clinical-grade NAD+ therapy into a more accessible format that can be self-administered. NAD+ used in such devices is typically synthetically produced in pharmaceutical facilities to match the body’s natural coenzyme, rather than directly derived from natural sources. It is priced from $599 per pen, and online sales have already increased 165% month-on-month.
Dr Jonathan Leary, founder and CEO of Remedy Place.
“When we first opened, even getting a vitamin shot or an NAD+ shot probably felt a little more unapproachable, because people weren’t familiar with it,” says Dr. Leary. “When people don’t understand something, it tends to get misunderstood. Then, as awareness grows, it becomes normalized.” Dr. Leary points to the meteoric rise of GLP-1 drugs as a turning point in consumer psychology around self-administered treatments. “Because of how widespread those drugs have become, the idea of injecting yourself no longer feels as extreme to people.” Increasingly, that shift is spilling into adjacent wellness categories, like peptides.
The design of these products is also evolving to reduce friction and intimidation. Dr. Leary explains that his cartridge-based injection pens allow users to twist to a desired dosage, swap disposable tips, and administer treatments without handling vials or syringes manually — as is the case with in-clinic IV drips. “Having a pen where you simply change the tip, adjust the dose, and go makes the whole process much easier,” he says. “It’s a really good way of bridging the gap and making the experience feel more approachable.”
Elsewhere, at-home microneedling has also been on the rise, despite traditionally sitting firmly within the remit of clinics. Brands such as Dr. Pen and Vita Vitae Beauty have helped drive the trend, offering handheld microneedling pens that create controlled micro-injuries in the skin to stimulate collagen production and enhance product absorption.
In-clinic treatments typically use deeper penetration under clinical supervision, but at-home, devices are designed to operate at more superficial levels — usually around 0.25mm to 0.5mm — making them both more accessible and more limited in their results. Still, demand is rising as consumers look to replicate clinic-style results without the recurring cost of appointments. For context, a single in-clinic microneedling session can range from roughly £150 to £400+ in the UK, with practitioners typically recommending a course of at least three treatments for optimal results. By contrast, at-home alternatives such as Vita Vitae Beauty’s multi-use microneedling device, priced at £142, position themselves as a one-off investment in a longer-term, at-home routine.
Radiofrequency (RF) is also emerging as a likely breakout category. Traditionally, radiofrequency therapy is performed in aesthetic clinics or dermatology practices, where controlled heat energy is delivered into the deeper layers of the skin using a specialized device. The heat stimulates collagen and elastin production — key proteins responsible for firmness and elasticity — resulting in gradual skin tightening and a more lifted appearance over a course of treatments. In-clinic RF typically costs anywhere from £150 to £500 per session in the UK. By contrast, at-home RF devices aim to replicate aspects of this technology in a safer, lower intensity format. Suzanne Scott, associate global beauty director of Seen Group, cites devices like the CurrentBody RF Radio Frequency Skin Tightening Device, priced at £299, as an early example of the shift to home.
Sleep is another relatively unexplored frontier that’s ripe for at-home devices. “People are finally waking up to the fact that it is the most important pillar of health,” says Alexandra Zatarain, co-founder and VP of brand and marketing at Eight Sleep, a sleep fitness company best known for its AI-powered, temperature-regulating smart mattress technology. “What makes this moment exciting is that technology can now do more than measure sleep. Wearables helped people understand the problem. Eight Sleep is focused on the next step: using AI, biometrics, and real-time interventions to actually improve sleep while it is happening.”
Alexandra Zatarain, co-founder and VP of brand and marketing of Eight Sleep.
Increasingly, this extends beyond sleep itself into broader nervous system regulation — particularly the role of temperature, stress response, and the vagus nerve in shifting the body between states of alertness and recovery. “We operate inside a $500 billion global sleep industry where one in three Americans aren’t sleeping well, and our AI is now trained on more than one billion hours of real-world sleep data from users across 35+ countries,” Zatarain adds. “That data set allows us to solve problems no one else can.” The company’s Women’s Sleep Initiative alone has analyzed more than 344,000 nights of sleep from over 5,000 women.
Eight Sleep is the world's first sleep fitness company, using AI and real-time biometric tracking to optimise body temperatures.
As at-home devices become increasingly sophisticated, the industry is confronting a central tension: the closer a treatment moves to clinical efficacy, the more clinical-level risk it begins to carry.
It’s why some brands have opted to avoid certain categories entirely. “We think anything that involves breaking the skin barrier, carries a higher risk profile, or requires professional assessment and hygiene protocols — such as microneedling — should remain in-clinic,” says Chris Hedges, VP of design and engineering at Shark Beauty. The brand has seen strong momentum in the at-home beauty device space, with the success of its CroGlow LED Mask helping to propel them to the number one skincare facial devices player in the US less than a year after entering the market. Since then, Shark has expanded its portfolio with a popular hydrofacial-style device. “Traditionally, treatments like hydrofacials required large, expensive, clinic-based machines to control extraction, exfoliation, and hydration in a controlled environment,” explains Hedges. “What’s changed now is the miniaturization of that technology, allowing multi-step systems to be safely replicated at home.”
