Red and blue LED lights both reduce inflamed acne spots significantly.
SKINCARE
Red Light Therapy for Acne
RESEARCH
- Reduces inflamed lesions
- Effect size modest
- Works best combined
- Safety profile good
COMMUNITY
- Noticeable improvement
- Works best combined
- Requires ongoing use
SAFETYRed light therapy is noninvasive and safe for typical adult skin use; no major drug interactions or serious side effects reported.
WHAT THE RESEARCH SAYS
ALL 15 ON PUBMED ↗Red light therapy with a photosensitizer cream showed small but real benefit for moderate-to-severe acne.
Red light alone (without photosensitizer) showed no significant difference in reducing non-inflamed acne spots.
Red light therapy is safe, noninvasive, and convenient compared to oral medications.
WHAT PEOPLE SAY
READ THREADS ON REDDIT ↗COMMUNITY SENTIMENT
62% positive
“RLT user for 3 years here.. I had mild acne on my back for over a decade. I tried everything to get rid of it over the years. Things would help, but not truly eliminate it. I finally just gave up and have been living with it. Within a month of starting RLT, it was gone. I was so used to it being there that I didn't even notice... it was my wife who noticed and pointed it out. I didn't even buy my RLT for that purpose, it was just one of several "extra" benefits I've noticed from using it. The panel I use is a Hooga HG1000.”
U/DAVIDAG02 ↗“Have definitely noticed it helps quite a bit. I have a biomax 300. It's not a total cure, the acne will come back if I stop using the light but considering I didn't even buy it for that, it's been a nice surprise bonus. Over the last few years, I've found several other things that also help so stacking them all has made a huge difference. The other ones that work are zinc paste creme, emu oil, vitamin c face serum (but just taking a lot as a vitamin also helps a lot), and not using soap on my face (natural face oils are antibiotic).”
U/LOONYGECKO ↗“my sister has the mask, and it helped her. she even use to have a big deep scar on her face before, but after using the red light mask it's gone. the bummer side is, it doesn't make your acne go away, is what my sister says. she went to her doctor to get a treatment or find out what is the course of her acne, she found out her acne was course my hormonal unbalance and was also caused by her stress. the only thing that will ever help her would be pills, even laser treatment wouldn't help so much.”
U/COMFORTABLE-TOP-8358 ↗COMMENTS
Add context that might help others — skin type, conditions like PCOS, what you'd tried before. The more specific, the more useful.
Loading comments…