What Depth Should a Beginner Use? Start at 0.5 mm

Start at 0.5 mm. StatPearls describes 0.5 to 1.0 mm as the shorter end of clinical needle lengths. 0.5 mm is the floor of that range. Run one full session there. Watch how your skin settles. Then decide whether to move up one step.

Why 0.5 mm is the right first setting

0.5 mm is the shallowest setting on the collar. It sits at the short end of the published needle lengths.

The StatPearls review of microneedling calls 0.5 to 1.0 mm the smaller needle lengths. It says 1.5 to 2.0 mm may be used for scars. It also notes that home-care rollers carry needles of about 0.1 mm.

Needle length had the strongest effect on pain of the variables Gill tested. Gill and colleagues tested single microneedles from 480 to 1,450 µm in ten volunteers, double blinded and randomized. Tripling the length raised pain scores sevenfold. Needle number mattered too. A tenfold rise in needle count raised pain just over twofold. Tip angle, thickness and width did not significantly change the score. Source: Gill HS, Denson DD, Burris BA, Prausnitz MR, Clinical Journal of Pain, 2008.

Read that pairing again. Length moved the score most, and needle count came second. Both are fixed needle dimensions in that study, not an operator setting. Even so, the collar is where a beginner spends their caution.

The dial number is not the depth you get

The collar number is a tip-travel setting, not a measured result in skin. Skin compresses under the tip and rebounds after it.

Cota and Brogden applied stainless steel microneedles of 800 µm to 49 people. They imaged the result with optical coherence tomography. The sites were the forearm, the upper arm and the palm. Group means for micropore depth ran 70.3 to 106.6 µm immediately after application. Individual measurements ran 47.1 to 180.1 µm. The paper reports 98 measurements, two applications per site for each of the 49 subjects. Its abstract describes 98 as the total across all subjects. Source: Cota V, Brogden NK, Drug Delivery and Translational Research, 2025.

An 800 µm needle produced pores measured in the tens to low hundreds of microns. Those needles were pressed by hand and held still, not driven by a motor. The numbers do not transfer directly to a pen. The principle does. In those subjects the measured pores were far shallower than the needle was long.

Read that as a caution about big numbers. It is a reason not to chase a deeper setting when the first session feels mild.

Which cartridge should you start with?

Start on the R-Nano. It carries a 15 µm tip, the larger of the two in the box, and it is where we point beginners.

The 5D-Nano runs an 8 µm tip. Sharper is not the same as gentler, and it is not the same as harsher either. Published pain data covers needles far larger than either tip. It does not speak to how these two cartridges compare. The dial is the setting you can reason about.

Both cartridges in the re:tones Tap Pen are sterile and single use. Three ship in the box. A cartridge is used once and discarded. Our note on microneedling sterilization covers why reuse is the line you do not cross.

If you are still deciding between nano tips and longer needles, read nano needling versus microneedling first.

Where your face is thin and where it is thick

Your face is not one thickness, and the difference is measurable.

Jeong and colleagues scanned eight facial points on 99 people with ultrasound. Full skin thickness was thinnest at the lateral forehead, at a mean of 1.31 mm. It was thickest at the corner of the mouth, at 1.64 mm. Source: Jeong KM et al., Skin Research and Technology, 2023.

Histology gives the layers. Oltulu and colleagues measured six regions in 180 people under a light microscope. Epidermal thickness ran from 65.91 ± 14.44 µm to 120.91 ± 44.74 µm in the 90 women. It ran from 79.08 ± 13.88 µm to 122.75 ± 32.5 µm in the 90 men. Those six regions include the scalp and the ear, not the face alone. The thickest epidermis sat on the upper lip. Source: Oltulu P et al., Selcuk Medical Journal, 2022.

The barrier itself is thinner still. Sandby-Møller and colleagues measured stratum corneum at three body sites in 71 volunteers. It ran 18.3 µm on the dorsal forearm, 11.0 µm on the shoulder, 14.9 µm on the buttock. That study did not measure the face. Source: Sandby-Møller J, Poulsen T, Wulf HC, Acta Dermato-Venereologica, 2003. See what the stratum corneum is for the full picture.

Take those as published anatomy, and nothing more. The barrier sits in the tens of microns. The measured epidermis runs from about 66 to 123 microns across that histology, women and men together. Full skin thickness is reported in millimetres by ultrasound. The collar number is a setting on the device, not a measurement taken in skin.

A conservative first-session map by area

Session one is 0.5 mm everywhere you treat. The right column is where the area can go later, not where you start.

Area	Session 1	Possible later range	Why
Cheeks	0.5 mm	0.75 to 1.0 mm	Broad flat plane. Easiest area to keep even.
Forehead and temples	0.5 mm	0.75 mm	Lateral forehead was the thinnest of the eight points measured. Bone sits close.
Nose and nasolabial fold	0.5 mm	0.75 mm	Curved surface. Hard to hold the tip flat.
Upper lip	0.5 mm	0.75 to 1.0 mm	Thickest epidermis in the histology data.
Jaw and chin	0.5 mm	0.75 to 1.0 mm	Firm base. Watch pressure along the jaw line.
Under eyes	Skip	0.5 mm once experienced	Delicate skin over the orbital rim. Not a first-session area.
Neck	Skip	0.5 mm once experienced	None of the studies here measured it. Learn the face first.

These are conservative starting points, not a prescription. The studies above measure populations, not your face. Ask a dermatologist before you start if you have any skin condition. Our fuller microneedling depth guide covers the whole range. Microneedling under the eyes covers that area alone.

Why you work up across sessions, not inside one

You cannot undo a pass. That single fact sets the whole method.

Feedback from your skin arrives on a delay. Pink at minute two tells you almost nothing about day three. Raise depth mid-session and you have changed two variables at once, so neither one reads clean afterwards.

The re:tones cadence is once a week, one cartridge per session. StatPearls sets a minimum of three weeks between clinical sessions. It does not tie that interval to a depth. It reserves 1.5 to 2.0 mm for scar work in a separate passage. We read a clinic session and a shallow home pass as different procedures. That reading is ours, not the review's. Each session buys you one clean data point. Spend it on one question.

A workable sequence looks like this. Session one runs at 0.5 mm across the cheeks only. Wait the full week. Session two adds the forehead and jaw at 0.5 mm. Session three repeats the full face at 0.5 mm. Only then does one area move to 0.75 mm, and only if the previous three settled without incident.

That is slow on purpose. See how often to microneedle and what to expect for the timeline around it.

What the micropore studies measured

Micropore lifetime has been measured. It was not measured on a face or with a pen. The day after a session still matters as much as the session.

Ogunjimi and colleagues tracked micropore lifetime in 111 people using skin impedance. Mean lifetime ran 44.1 ± 14.0 hours in the Asian group. It ran 66.5 ± 19.5 hours in the Black group. The White group sat at 50.2 hours, the Latino group at 61.1. Micropores stayed open longer in darker skin. Source: Ogunjimi AT et al., Scientific Reports, 2020.

A separate study by the same group compared three body sites in 35 people. Closure times ran 58 to 63 hours and the differences between sites were not statistically significant. Source: Ogunjimi AT et al., Skin Pharmacology and Physiology, 2021.

Read those numbers with the caveat used in the Cota section. The 2020 study pressed solid microneedles onto the upper arm. The 2021 study used the upper arm, the volar forearm and the abdomen. Neither used a nano cartridge, a motorised pen or facial skin. The durations do not describe a re:tones session, and no published closure time exists for this setting.

Those closure figures are not the reason for the rule that follows. The reason is a published clinical instruction. StatPearls advises at least a week away from harsh chemicals and sun after a clinical session. Keep the next 48 hours plain as an absolute minimum. No acids, no retinoid, no scrub, no new product. Longer is the safer read. Read microneedling aftercare, microneedling and retinol, and vitamin C after microneedling. Read them before your first session.

Your first session, step by step

Read the contraindication list below before step one. It decides whether you start at all.

1. Wash your face and dry it. Wash your hands.
2. Open one sterile cartridge. Seat it. Do not touch the tip.
3. Set the collar to 0.5 mm. Set intensity to the lowest step.
4. Load the ampoule you chose. The pen releases it as the tip meets skin.
5. Treat one cheek. Move in short passes, then cross them at a right angle.
6. Let the weight of the pen do the work. Adding pressure changes depth.
7. Treat light pink as a ceiling, not a target. Uneven pink means uneven pressure.
8. Stop at once if you see bleeding or feel lasting pain.
9. Discard the cartridge. It is single use.
10. Apply nothing else that night. Use sunscreen the next morning.

re:tones puts a full face at about five minutes, once a week. A one-cheek first session is shorter than that. StatPearls puts a full facial treatment in a clinic at 15 to 20 minutes. Our at-home microneedling guide walks the same routine in more detail. At home versus professional microneedling explains where the home range stops.

Who should not microneedle at all

Depth is a second question. The first is whether you should needle at all.

StatPearls lists these contraindications:

• Active acne, especially inflammatory lesions
• Active herpes labialis, or another local infection in the area, including warts
• Moderate to severe chronic skin disease, such as eczema or psoriasis
• An extreme keloidal tendency
• Immunosuppression, including patients on chemotherapy

It also advises care near recent botulinum toxin injection sites.

Ask a dermatologist first if any item above applies to you. The same goes for pregnancy and isotretinoin. More detail sits in who should not microneedle and microneedling side effects.

Frequently asked questions

Is 0.5 mm below the published needle range?

No. 0.5 mm sits at the shallow end of the published needle lengths. StatPearls calls 0.5 to 1.0 mm the smaller needle lengths. The layer measurements above are published anatomy, not a statement about this setting. Whether any setting does anything for a given person is not something we can tell you. This article does not try.

How long before I move to 0.75 mm?

Give it at least three full sessions at 0.5 mm. Hold the once a week cadence while you learn. Move one area at a time, never the whole face at once. If marks last past 48 hours, stay where you are. Ask a dermatologist before going deeper.

Should a beginner use the R-Nano or the 5D-Nano cartridge?

Start on the R-Nano at 15 µm. It is the larger of the two tips, and it is where we point beginners. The 5D-Nano at 8 µm is the everyday option once you know how your skin responds. No published work has compared these two tips for sensation. Change one thing at a time and judge it yourself.

Can I treat under my eyes in my first session?

No. Skip the eye area entirely for your first several sessions. The skin there is delicate and the orbital rim sits close beneath it. Learn how the pen behaves on your cheeks first. That plane is flat and forgiving of an uneven pass.

Does 0.5 mm hurt?

It produces a real sensation, and it varies by person and by area. Gill and colleagues scored every microneedle at 5 to 40 percent of a 26 gauge hypodermic. Length drove the score more than any other variable. Those were single needles pressed into forearm skin by hand, not a pen on a face. The range is general context, not a figure for this device. No home device should call itself painless.

Do I need numbing cream at 0.5 mm?

We do not recommend it at the shallowest setting. Numbing cream removes the feedback that tells you when pressure is too high. Feedback is worth keeping in a first session. If 0.5 mm is intolerable without it, that is a reason to stop, not a reason to numb.

How often can I microneedle at 0.5 mm?

The re:tones cadence is once a week at the shallowest range, one cartridge per session. StatPearls sets a minimum of three weeks between clinical sessions. It does not tie that interval to a depth. It reserves 1.5 to 2.0 mm for scar work in a separate passage. We read the two as different procedures, and that reading is ours. Wait longer if your skin is still pink 48 hours later.

What if I feel almost nothing at 0.5 mm?

Do not raise the depth that same session. Sensation is a weak signal and it arrives faster than any other feedback. Finish the pass, wait the full interval, and see how your skin reads after a week. Then change one setting on one area.

Where to go next

Pick the ampoule before you pick the depth. The ampoule finder takes one question. The re:vive-B3 Pore Tightening ampoule runs niacinamide at 21 percent. One ampoule takes 25 percent off automatically with the Tap Pen.

Still choosing a device? How to choose a microneedling pen covers the collar and the cartridge. Does microneedling hurt goes through the pain research in full.

Last updated: 2026-08-19