EMface in London: results, cost, sessions and who it suits

If you are searching for EMface in London you will find many pages that say "needle-free facelift" and very little that tells you what actually happens, what it costs for your face rather than a generic "area", and when it is the wrong choice. This guide is written by the team that has run EMface at our clinic since the device arrived in the UK, and it is reviewed by our clinician. It is meant to answer every question you would ask in a consultation, including the ones other clinics skip.

What EMface is

EMface is a facial treatment made by BTL Industries, the same company behind EMsculpt NEO and Emsella. It is the first device to treat the skin and the muscles of the face in one session, through flat applicators placed on the forehead and cheeks, with further applicators for under the chin and for the eye area. We run the full set.

Two energies run at the same time:

• Synchronised radiofrequency warms the dermis to the temperature at which the skin starts producing new collagen and elastin. That is the part that smooths lines and improves texture.
• HIFES (high intensity facial electrical stimulation) makes the lifting muscles of the face contract selectively. The frontalis muscle lifts the brow, the zygomaticus and risorius lift the cheeks and the corners of the mouth. Working those muscles increases their density and resting tone, which is what gives the lift.

Nothing goes through the skin. There is no needle, no filler and no toxin. You lie down, the applicators are fixed to your face with a light adhesive, and the machine runs the 20-minute programme on its own.

Does EMface actually work?

Yes, for the right face, and it is worth being precise about where the evidence comes from. BTL, the manufacturer, reports from its own trials an average of 37% fewer wrinkles, 30% more muscle tone and 23% more lift for people who complete the course, with the best results six to twelve weeks after the last session, plus a 26% increase in collagen and a doubling of elastin. Those are company figures, not independent peer-reviewed results. The one EMface paper in an independent journal so far is a ten-patient, BTL-sponsored pilot, which found improvement in seven of the eight faces assessed at three months and no adverse events. Treat the numbers as the best case rather than a promise for your face. Our own experience over several thousand sessions matches the pattern: the brow and the cheeks lift first, the nasolabial fold softens, and the skin looks tighter and brighter at around three months.

What EMface does well:

• Lifting a brow that has started to drop and opening the eye area.
• Restoring volume at the cheekbone without adding filler.
• Softening the lines from the nose to the mouth and the early jowl.
• Improving skin tone and texture across the forehead and cheeks.

What EMface does not do:

• It does not remove fat under the chin on its own. The submentum applicator helps with a soft double chin, but a fat pad needs a different plan.
• It does not replace surgery when the skin has lost its elasticity and the jowls hang. If you can lift a fold of loose skin at the jaw and it stays, you are in facelift territory and we will tell you so.
• It does not freeze expression lines the way Botox does. It lifts, it does not paralyse.

Who EMface suits, and who it does not

The best candidates are people in their late thirties to sixties with mild to moderate laxity: an early drop at the brow, flattening cheeks, a softening jawline, fine lines on the forehead. EMface has been studied on Fitzpatrick skin types I to IV; if your skin is darker we discuss it at the consultation rather than assume.

You should not have EMface if you have any of the following, and a reputable clinic will ask before booking you:

• A pacemaker, defibrillator or any implanted electronic device.
• Metal implants or plates in the face or jaw, or non-dissolving metal threads.
• Pregnancy, or you are trying to conceive.
• Epilepsy, or a history of seizures.
• An active skin infection, open wound or severe acne in the treatment area.
• Facial surgery or threads in the last three months.
• A cancer diagnosis under active treatment.

We do not offer Botox or dermal fillers. Our clinic works with your own muscle and collagen, and EMface is the treatment we built the clinic around because it does that without a needle, a toxin or a foreign substance. If you have had injectables elsewhere they are not a reason to stop you: we ask for a gap of two weeks after Botox and four weeks after filler before the first session, and many people come to us precisely because they want to keep a lifted look without more injections.

What a session is like, step by step

1. Consultation. The clinician looks at your face at rest and moving, confirms there is nothing on the list above, and agrees which areas are worth treating: forehead, cheeks, submentum, or all three.
2. Preparation. Skin is cleansed. No numbing cream is needed. The applicators are placed and fixed. The clinician starts low and raises the energy to the level you can hold comfortably.
3. The 20 minutes. You feel the muscles contract in pulses, a bit like a strong facial massage, with a warming sensation under the pads. You can talk. Many people find it relaxing enough to doze.
4. After. The pads come off, the skin is a little pink for ten to twenty minutes, and you go back to work or dinner. Makeup is fine straight away.

The submentum applicator adds about 20 minutes if you include it. A full course of four sessions is therefore about 80 minutes of treatment time in total.

How many sessions, how far apart, and when you see the result

The muscle part of the result behaves like exercise: it builds with repetition and it fades without it. That is why the sessions are close together and why a single session, however much a deal site promotes it, does not give a lasting lift.

What EMface costs in London

London prices for EMface run roughly from £200 to £700 a session depending on how many areas are treated, whether a doctor-led clinic is doing it, and whether you buy a course. The top-ranking clinics in our research for this guide quote from £250 to £525 for a single two-area session and £1,500 to £2,700 for a four-session course of two areas.

At our clinic EMface starts from £199 a session, and a full four-session course costs less per session than paying as you go. The forehead and the cheeks are one area each, the submentum is a third. Every consultation and every follow-up review is free; the price covers the treatment itself. We price match any comparable written quote and we offer 0% finance over the course. Ask for the current course prices when you book: they change with offers, and the figure on this page is the starting point, not the full menu.

A warning on cheap sessions: a single EMface session sold at a low price on a voucher site is one quarter of a treatment. Compare course prices, and ask who is placing the applicators and setting the energy, because the result depends on that more than on the machine.

Results you can check

The before and after pairs you see on EMface websites, ours included, come from BTL's clinical studies and are supplied by the manufacturer for its clinics to use. They show what the device does on a face like the one in the photograph, not what any one clinic achieved, so treat them as a guide to the kind of change EMface makes, not as a promise. At your consultation the clinician shows you photographs of our own patients, matched to your face and your concern, with their consent, and you can compare them with your own photographs at three months.

Our patients have reviewed the clinic on review.clinic, an independent review platform, where EMface at our clinic holds 4.9 out of 5 from 140 reviews with 99% saying the treatment was worth it (October 2026). Read them before you book; the ones that mention the eyes and the jawline are the most useful.

EMface compared with the alternatives

EMface vs Botox. Botox stops a muscle moving so a line cannot form, and the effect wears off in three to four months. EMface does the opposite: it strengthens the lifting muscles so the face sits higher, and it leaves every expression intact. We do not offer Botox. Our view is that a face should move, and that lifting what has dropped gives a more natural result than freezing what still works. If your concern is sagging, EMface is the answer; if your only concern is a frown line, EMface will soften it less than a toxin would, and we will say so.

EMface vs fillers. Filler replaces volume where it has gone, with a substance that is not yours. EMface restores some of that volume by building the cheek muscles and tightening the skin over them, so the face looks fuller without anything being added and without the risk of over-filling. We do not offer fillers, and people who have stopped liking the look of filler are among our most satisfied EMface patients.

EMface vs Morpheus8. Morpheus8 is a needle-based radiofrequency treatment that reaches deeper into the skin and remodels texture, scarring and laxity, at the cost of several days of recovery. EMface has no downtime and gives the lift from the muscles, which Morpheus8 cannot. For jowls and crepey skin with a few days to spare, Morpheus8; for lift and a natural refresh with no recovery, EMface.

EMface vs Sofwave. Sofwave uses ultrasound to heat the mid-dermis in a single session and is strong on the brow, the jawline and the neck. EMface works the muscle as well as the skin and spreads the work over four short sessions. Patients in their sixties with real laxity often do best with Sofwave first and EMface to maintain the lift.

EMface and Exion. We combine EMface with Exion Face, a needle-free radiofrequency and ultrasound treatment, when the skin quality (pores, crepiness, pigment) needs more help than the lift alone gives. Your clinician will say whether that applies to you.

Side effects and aftercare

EMface has a short list of side effects and they are mild: temporary redness under the applicators, a feeling of having exercised the face for a few hours, and occasionally a mild headache on the day of a forehead session. The published pilot study reported no adverse events and we have not seen a serious one in our clinic, but EMface consent forms list temporary crusting, blistering and burns as rare risks, and muscle soreness or a brief spasm as common ones. Tell the clinician if the heat feels too strong at any point; the energy comes down immediately.

Aftercare is simple. Drink water, skip a hard gym session that evening, and use sunscreen as you would anyway. There is nothing to avoid the next day, and you can have a facial or your regular skincare as normal.

How to choose an EMface clinic in London

• Ask who sets the energy and places the applicators. Placement decides whether the lift lands on the brow and cheek or on the wrong muscle. Our sessions are run by trained clinicians under a doctor-led team, not left to a receptionist and a timer.
• Ask to see the device. A genuine BTL EMface unit carries the BTL branding and the clinic should be listed by BTL as a provider. Our clinic is in BTL's provider finder, listed under our group name Chelsea Clinic, and runs every EMface applicator.
• Check the regulator. The clinic should be CQC registered. Ours is.
• Ask for the clinic's own before and after photographs, not the manufacturer's.
• Compare course prices, not session prices, and ask what is included.

Frequently asked questions