Is self-care a big priority for you this year? Do you want to sleep a little better, eat healthier or just take better care of your health?
This year, more than ever, you can find gadgets and tools to help you reach those goals. These are some of the wellness gadgets we’re excited about in 2019.
P.S., stay tuned: we’ll be sharing our experiences with these devices in the coming weeks.
Read more: Perfect skin, sinus relief and a Roomba-like toothbrush: 5 wellness devices you’ll want in 2019
Better skin
Foreo UFO
Angela Lang/CNET
Face masks are about as low tech as they come — slather your face with a thick paste or a press a light sheet mask to your skin, wait 20 minutes, remove the mask and you’re done.
Foreo’s approach is more high-tech. The UFO is a palm-size gadget that uses sonic pulses, LED treatments, cold cryotherapy, heat and a one-time use pad loaded with skincare serums to give your face all of the benefits of a mask in 90 seconds.
Each UFO mask has its own routine, where the device will use specific features — pulses, LED lights, cold and heat — to achieve the desired result. By connecting the UFO to the Foreo app, you can scan the mask you want to use and the app will tell the UFO which routine to use.
$279.00 at Foreo
Know what you’re eating
Nima Gluten Sensor and Nima Peanut Sensor
Nima
If you live with food allergies, you know that going out to eat can be a struggle. Even if a menu specifies that a dish is gluten-free or doesn’t contain peanuts, it may still have come in contact with something that does. And for people with severe allergies or intolerances to gluten or peanuts, the risk isn’t worth it.
Nima has two devices — one for peanut allergies and one for gluten — that can help you determine if a food is safe. You simply pour or place a small portion of the questionable food into a test capsule, put the capsule into the sensor and wait a few minutes to find out if the food is safe to eat.
Nima uses “antibody based chemistry” to test the food you put into it, and according to them the tests are right around 97% accurate.
$279.00 at Nima
Watch this:
Tech essentials for fitness buffs
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Clean water
Larq Water Bottle
Angela Lang/CNET
I go through dozens of paper cups every week at my office because I hate cleaning out my water bottle. Larq is taking aim at that exact problem.
The Larq bottle has a UV light in the cap that sanitizes the bottle and purifies any water inside to make cleaning easier. It’s double insulated, and automatically turns on the UV light every 2 hours to keep your water clean all day.
Granted, you should still clean off the rim of the bottle often to remove any gunk, but the UV light should make it much easier to keep the interior clean.
$95.00 at Larq
Fitness classes at home
ClassPass Live
Angela Lang/CNET
Want to exercise more, but can’t make it to the gym? ClassPass brings real-time group fitness classes to you through your TV.
ClassPass Live includes a heart rate monitor and a Chromecast. Connect the Chromecast to your TV to participate in prerecorded and live fitness classes that you can find in the ClassPass app.
Put on the heart rate monitor to see how hard you are working and if you are in the target heart rate zone — both metrics are shown at the bottom of your TV screen. You’ll also be able to see who else is taking the class at the same time as you.
It’s $79 up front, $19 per month for classes.
CNET Review
Menstrual pain relief
Livia
Angela Lang/CNET
Period cramps can be debilitating and they don’t always respond to medications. Knowing that, Livia created a small, discrete device that helps eliminate cramps and pain when you don’t have the option of lying on a heat pad all day.
Livia is essentially a transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) unit, which sends electrical pulses to your nerves to prevent them from transmitting pain signals. TENS units are often used in physical therapy to manage chronic pain. To use Livia, you attach two pads to your abdomen and turn on the device to help stop menstrual pain.
$199.00 at Livia
Measure your results
LikeAGlove smart shorts
LikeAGlove
When you start a new fitness regimen or healthy eating program with the goal to lose weight, tracking your progress through the scale isn’t always the best approach. That’s because you can see changes in your body as you lose fat and gain muscle, but the number on the scale might stay the same.
Instead of using weight, LikeAGlove’s smart shorts measure your hips and waist to find changes in your physique. You can also use those measurements to find perfect-fitting jeans from major clothing brands — including Levi’s, Gap and True Religion — on LikeAGlove’s app.
It’s available in two sizes, and can measure sizes 0 through 32.
$79.00 at LikeAGlove
Sun protection
La Roche-Posay My Skin Track UV
Angela Lang/CNET
Ask any dermatologist and they’ll tell you that the most important product to stop signs of aging and wrinkles is sunscreen. And yet, most of us do not apply enough each day. La Roche-Posay, a French skincare brand now owned by L’oreal, wants to correct that with it’s My Skin Track UV sensor.
This tiny sensor — which looks a bit like a nazar — attaches to your clothing or a necklace to measure your daily UV exposure. You hold the sensor up to your phone to transfer those measurements to the My Skin Track app to let you know when you’ve reached your maximum exposure.
When setting up the app, you’ll fill out a questionnaire about your skin, and any skin concerns you have. For someone who’s fair-skinned like me, the app will warn you when the UV index is high enough to cause skin damage and encourage you to apply sunscreen.
The app also tracks pollen and pollution in your environment and warns you when those factors might aggravate skin issues, such as eczema.
$59.00 at La Roche-Posay