VIP anti-ageing treatments you can now do at home

No waiting lists. No snooty beauty therapists. And a heck of a lot cheaper!

THE best antiageing treatments used to be the exclusive preserve of the lucky few.

If the pain and the price weren’t enough to put you off, there was the hassle of needing to be able to pop by the usually Londonbased clinics that offered them.

But now, thanks to an onrush of technological innovation, a slew of new beauty devices offer very decent versions of high-tech salon treatments: everything from permanent reduction of unwanted hair to wrinkle-busting, boosting hair growth and treating acne.

In fact, DIY devices have become the hottest sector in the beauty world. A democratic beauty revolution? Who’d have thought it!

You might have to use them a bit more often to get results, since none is as powerful as clinicalgrade equipment — but that minor drawback is offset by the convenience of being able to use them in your own home.

Even Boots and Tesco are in on the act, selling cleansing devices and Neutrogena’s anti- acne mask, while beauty tech retailer

currentbody.com, which offered just a handful of gadgets when it launched five years ago, now has a range of 350.

‘Thanks to all the beauty blogs, women are much more educated about beauty treatments,’ says facialist Teresa Tarmey, who looks after the complexions of model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and socialite Poppy Delevingne. ‘They’ve realised that with the right tools it’s possible to do these treatments on yourself.’

She is launching a home-use kit — including a derma roller, a massage device, 12 weeks’ worth of skincare products and a reusable silicone mask — to enable women to replicate her collagen-stimulating salon facials.

‘What I’ve put together enables women to give themselves, at home, the whole treatment that they would get if they came to see me. There will be a video to show people how to use it, so it’s incredibly user-friendly.’

Here are the other anti-agers that are worth checking out — in the privacy of your own home of course . . .

Too scared to try Botox?

Try: Natura Bisse Inhibit High Definition Patches for wrinkle lines (£ 350, naturabisse.

What it is: These small, stick- on antiwrinkle patches look like mini sheet masks — but they’re much more high-tech.

Built into each patch is a mass of tiny ‘ needles’ composed of dried, compressed anti-ageing ingredients. You stick one beside each eye, one along each nose-to-mouth line and one between your eyebrows.

The ‘needles’ prick the outer layers of the skin to allow the concentrated, compressed ingredients to dissolve deeper over the next two hours.

The wrinkle - r e l a x i n g ingredient they contain, conotoxin, works in a comparable way to Botox to reduce muscle contractions, while hyaluronic acid plumps out lines from the inside.

What it’s like: There’s a prickly sensation as I smoothe them on to the curve around my crow’s feet. But once they’re on I can hardly feel them and am only reminded that they are there when I scrunch up my eyes. There are no marks when I peel the plastic off, and all the ingredients that made up the ‘needles’ have melted into my skin.

Do my crow’s feet already look softer? Not really, but using these twice a week for a month gives impressive results [according to the brand’s trials], which last a further month.

Verdict: This is a leap forward in skin-rejuvenating technology, which helps explain the high price point. It’s a great alternative to Botox if you’re nervous to take the leap.

Not ready for lip fillers?

Try: PMD Kiss (now £85, currentbody.

What it is: This little device uses a pulsating vacuum to apply suction to your lips, which makes them swell. It’s like a kinder version of the shot-glass trick (where you stick your lips inside a shot glass, suck out the air and wait for your poor lips to swell in protest).

There’s a serum that comes with the device to hydrate the lips and boost volume, for up to two or three hours. Daily use is meant to boost collagen production and help plump lips for as long as six weeks.

What it’s like: Easy enough to use. It vacuums up a chunk of your lip at a time. It doesn’t hurt and it takes about three minutes.

Verdict: It certainly boosts your lip volume and colour (due to the increased blood flow) for an hour or two.

Be careful not to go too near the edge of your lip as it could leave a red ring around the mouth that you can’t hide with lipstick.

I can see it being popular for older women with thinning lips or younger women looking to achieve a Kylie Jenner pout without injections of filler. Call me old-fashioned, but this is something I can’t really be bothered with.