Think light therapy for your skin and you’re instantly transported to a mental image of neon coloured lights on a mask worn on your face—intriguing yet equally daunting. While LED therapy was only an in-clinic treatment at your dermatologist or aesthetician’s, skincare brands are increasingly introducing masks that can also be worn and used at home. Two dermatologists help us identify the right LED colour to treat every skin concern and describe everything you should know before you decide to give the treatment a go.
LED Therapy 101
Even though LED therapy may seem intimidating, once you know what to expect, it has a fairly straightforward mechanism. “It is a non-invasive treatment that uses low-level light therapy (LLLT) by surface-mounted LEDs to expose the skin to wavelengths of light, delivered at safe, therapeutic doses,” explains Dr Geetika Mittal Gupta, founder and medical director, ISAAC Luxe. “It stimulates collagen production, increases cell turnover along with improvement in the texture of skin.” Every light used as part of the LED treatment has a different impact on your skin. “Different wavelengths of the visible light spectrum correspond to different colours of LED light and penetrate the skin to different depths,” adds Dr Jaishree Sharad, Mumbai-based celebrity dermatologist and medical director, Skinfiniti Aesthetic and Laser Clinic. “Depending on how deeply they penetrate, LED lights are thought to have different biological effects.”
Understanding every colour of light used in LED therapy for skin
Dr Mittal Gupta simplifies the benefits of each coloured light so you can choose the right one for your concerns:
Blue light
Blue light has powerful antibacterial properties and is able to destroy bacteria deep within follicles and pores. It is able to able to improve the look of congested and breakout-prone skin too. According to Dr Sharad, “Blue LED light is most often used to treat acne. It may do this by reducing activity in the sebaceous glands, so they produce less of the oil that can plug the hair follicles, leading to acne. Blue light may also kill acne-causing bacteria known as Cutibacterium acnes.”
Green light
It reduces the production of melanin, lightens and reduces existing pigmentation and is very effective at tackling redness and skin irritation.
Yellow light
Yellow light penetrates very deeply. It triggers the lymphatic system, therefore improving the removal of toxins from the treated area too. It is also able to increase wound healing and skin hydration.
Red light
Like blue light is specifically for acne, red light is most popularly known as the anti-ageing and would healing hero. It increases the production of collagen and elastin, helps reduce fine lines and stimulates circulation. Dr Sharad adds, “Red LED acts on cells in the skin known as fibroblasts, which play a role in the production of collagen, a protein that makes up a large part of the connective tissue and helps the skin to recover when it's harmed.”
At-home vs in-clinic LED therapy
LED therapy is non-invasive and has no downtime, making it a relatively safe skincare treatment to try at home or at your skin expert’s clinic. While the skincare market does have at-home devices available, they cannot replace the efficacy of the in-clinic treatment. “The therapy performed at the clinic in the presence of skin experts enables us to look at the following details like what's the exact penetration and saturation level of the skin, which type of light will be the best for your skin concern and which therapy can be combined together to increase efficacy of the treatment,” says Dr Mittal Gupta. These tweaks and combinations are harder to understand and administer by yourself at home. “The downside is that the results at home may not be as dramatic,” says Dr Sharad.
Dr Mittal Gupta recommends LED therapy sessions “to be taken in a gap of a minimum 15 to 21 days when in-clinic or to be used thrice a week at home to see visible results.” Dr Sharad suggests getting the treatment once a week for the first 10 weeks and then once every few months. It’s important that you start off with the treatment in-clinic so that your dermatologist can suggest the best course of action for you. You can then consider investing in a device for home use to make your in-clinic results last longer.
5 at-home LED light therapy masks you can try now
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