Is This At-Home Wrinkle Treatment the Next Botox?

Are Radara patches as good as Botox? (Photo: Radara)

Are your eyes making you look older? Radara patches are the latest treatment to try to turn back the hands of time around the eye area. It combines the concept of microneedling without the pain, paired with hyaluronic acid. Microneedling is an of-the-minute procedure, plumping skin using thousands of tiny metal needles that create little wounds in the skin and stimulate collagen production. Hyaluronic acid occurs naturally in the body to restore and protect tissue, and is an extremely effective moisturizer since it can hold 1,000 times its weight in water and it adds instant volume.

Radara patches are made from flexible plastic and have 2,000 little needle-like fixtures, each .5mm long. Users first press the patches into the skin around their eyes to target crow’s feet, then remove the patches, apply a pure hyaluronic acid serum, and reapply the patches for about 5 minutes. Writers at the Daily Mail and Allure gave mixed reviews about pain. One says that it feels like Velcro, and the other says it feels like pressing a hairbrush into your face, but others think that is a small price to pay for beauty.

Radara claims to function like microneedling with no pain and most of the gain. (Photo: Radara)

But how effective can it really be? According to New York dermatologist Dr. Sejal Shah there are some concerns: “The issue I have is that the Radara system cannot penetrate as deeply as in-office microneedling and lasers and what is being delivered is basically hydrating serum, so just by improving the skin hydration I would expect to see some temporary benefit in wrinkles, since even using a good moisturizer can do that,” Dr. Shah tells Yahoo Beauty. She believes Radara can help the moisture to penetrate the skin, but may not have all the benefits of microneedling. “Because the Radara does not penetrate as deeply as in-office lasers or miconeedling, I’m not sure whether it can truly stimulate collagen synthesis, leading to improvement in wrinkles and skin texture, as the in-office treatments can, so I wouldn’t consider it a long-term or permanent solution,” she adds.

Radara guinea pigs said the same to the Daily Mail. “My skin felt plumper, my undereye shadows less obvious and I found myself wearing less makeup without thinking about it,” wrote Hannah Ebelthite. Still, she was a bit disappointed with her results. The box of Radara comes with four weeks of treatment, and their studies showed wrinkle reduction by 35 percent in four weeks compared to 24 percent for the serum alone. Ebelthite’s consultations before and after the treatment showed an 18 percent reduction in wrinkles, which doctors attributed to the good quality of her skin and minimal wrinkles before treatment. Four weeks later, the wrinkles were only 8 percent better than when she first started the treatment. Keeping it up could get expensive, with the four-week treatment pack checking in at $341. If crow’s feet aren’t your problem, and cost is not an problem, Radara’s site lists plans of expansion to include forehead, under eyes, upper lips, and neck areas.

Related:

Why Everyone is Talking About Microneedling

This Really Works: The Way to Instantly Hydrated Skin

Korean Beauty: What to Try Now