Can your vibrator double as a face massager?

What happened when I put this beauty experiment to test (with a little help from two dermats).

- Sakshi Deshmukh

A few years ago in college, I was wandering through the lanes of Churchgate, heading toward the iconic stretch of booksellers, ready to splurge my hard-earned internship stipend on as many cheap books as I could carry. But on the way, I noticed something unexpected. In a shady lane not far from Kitab Khana, a couple of vendors were casually selling vibrators and similar toys.

What really struck me was the packaging—each one labelled as a massager. The euphemism was obvious, a not-so-subtle attempt to sidestep the taboo still surrounding female self-pleasure.

It made me wonder—how would someone encountering this for the first time react? How safe is this, really? What if someone completely uninitiated picked one up, thinking it was just a regular back massager? Or worse, used it without any understanding of hygiene, safety, or proper usage? And who, exactly, is buying these off the street in the first place? This was in 2019.

Fast-forward to 2025, and there's a curious new trend in the beauty world that eerily echoes those lanes. People are using vibrators on their faces as massagers. Why? The reasons vary: Affordability, convenience, perceived effectiveness, and more. While this trend has been simmering in the West and is on the cusp of going mainstream, it's only a matter of time before it makes its way to the Asian beauty market.

Back in 2021, Canadian adult toy brand We-Vibe launched Touch X, a “powerful mini massager” marketed as part of both your sexual wellness routine and your beauty regimen. At the time, Hypebae—a news and commerce platform—noted how the beauty and skincare community was using it to apply everything from makeup to serums, transforming it into a multi-use tool. But the question remains: Does it actually work like a face massager?