Based in Colorado, I’m all too familiar with dry skin. In fact, our winter humidity level is so low that just about every house has a humidification system, either connected to central heat or as a separate box in the bedroom. Let your skin get too dry and you’ll start to mummify, and it ain’t pretty.
So when MiLi gave me a MiLi Pure skin hydration sensor to try out, I thought it’d be quite interesting to see how much the dry air of Colorado affected my skin.
The MiLi Pure is a small, simple unit with an elegant interface and a simple enough interface that even a child — or grandma! — can use it, but it requires a smartphone and the download of the MiLi Pure app. I grabbed it for an Apple iPhone as that’s my primary test device (courtesy of AT&T Wireless, as it happens. Thanks AT&T!) and unlike most bluetooth devices, it doesn’t require any explicit pairing. Just start up the app then power up the Pure by pushing on the recessed button on the very top of the unit.
Through the use of lower power bluetooth, the app sees the Pure unit and they’re ready to test and measure.
First, my hand model 12yo daughter tried the unit so you could see its size and the simplicity of using it:
With an actual Swarovski crystal as the power indicator, it’s super easy to put it on a portion of your skin and gently push down to engage the sensor. Takes about three seconds to register and measure hydration level, all of which is shown on the app:
Her hand was at 30.2% hydration, which is pretty good for Colorado and in the “normal” range, as shown.
Notice along the bottom you can measure and track four different regions of your skin, hand, face, eye and neck. As a guy I’m not sure why you’d want to, but I can imagine that if you’re worried about dry skin (see “mummify” earlier) then being able to understand how and where your skin tends to dry out could be a real boon.
But what happens if you put skin lotion on dry skin? Does it really hydrate? To test it, we rubbed in a dab of the “Swiss line Cell Shock Age Intelligence Cellular Recovery 3D Hand Cream” (I’m not making up that name, by the way) and measured a second time:
Okay, a 7.6% increase in skin hydration. That’s not too bad at all, this cream must have some legitimacy!
Even better, with a device like the MiLi Pure, you could compare moisturizing lotions on your skin to find out which worked best and even ascertain the decay as your skin dried out again to then be able to calculate how often you should be applying the lotion for maximal benefit.
The unit itself is completely enclosed and self-contained, and the sensors might emit a tiny electrical charge to measure (I don’t really know how it works) but I can assure you that you feel absolutely nothing when it’s in use:
I’m actually rather impressed with this unit. It’s tiny, very well designed, and with a three second analysis and decent smartphone app that records skin hydration over time, I think it can really help people who are concerned with dry skin to better manage the condition based on data, not guessing. And for those of you who think you don’t have dry skin? Well, this might just surprise you…
Now the down part: MiLi doesn’t yet seem to have a US distributor, so you can either buy this approximately $40 USD item through MiLi’s International Web site or through Amazon Canada (but not Amazon USA). If you’re a beautician or aesthetician, this could be a really great addition to your gear too. If you can figure out how to get one!
Disclaimer: MiLi Corporation gave me one of these units to review when I visited their booth at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, January 2016.