Technology and skin health have seemingly collided with the growing sector of skin care apps. Can an app really tell you and your clients how healthy their skin is or how effective your treatments and products are at combating concerns? Can this be the tool that finally gets your clients not only compliant but consistent with their homecare?

A quick search for apps returns with more than 50 available skin care downloads. The claims range from the standard of helping change habits, creating custom skin care routines, tracking progress with artificial intelligence, analyzing skin, scanning products for hazardous ingredients, linking to a home device, and integrating with cosmetic manufacturers to the more niche of tele-connecting with a licensed practitioner, self-checking moles, finding comparable product on a budget, receiving alerts for the ultraviolet light index, and even facial exercise programs all from the comfort of our smartphone.

These interfaces are obviously more consumer-driven and vow to give the user more empowerment and education with their skin. But can these claims be too good to be true? With clients spending more time than ever on their devices, this may be the point to shift our focus onto helping them appropriately use and integrate apps into their routines.

Elizabeth Brasher has been a licensed aesthetician since 2011 and has been practicing with a strive for advanced skin care education ever since. Brasher is an aesthetician at Premier Med Spa in Richardson, Texas. She continues to devote herself to helping her colleagues by offering expert training, heading online aesthetics forums, and writing contributions to industry magazines. At the beginning of 2020, Brasher became DERMASCOPE Magazine’s lead in-house aesthetician.