Red Light Mask vs Retinol: Do You Need Both?

If you already have retinol on the shelf and are wondering whether a mask would replace it, it would not, and it does not need to. The two reach collagen by different routes, both take months, and many people use them side by side. Retinol has the longer track record for fine lines and costs very little, though it irritates a lot of skin in the first weeks. A red light mask costs more up front and asks for ten minutes a few times a week, and in return it does not peel or sting. Skin that tolerates retinol has a cheap place to start. Skin that does not, or a routine that is already full of actives, is where a mask comes into its own.

What does retinol do?

Retinol is a form of vitamin A. Once it is in the skin it gets converted, in steps, into retinoic acid, which is the active form that prescription tretinoin supplies directly. The result is faster turnover of surface cells and a push on the deeper layer of the skin to make more collagen.

One of the clearest trials appeared in the Archives of Dermatology in 2007. Thirty-six people aged 80 and over applied 0.4% retinol lotion to one inner arm three times a week for 24 weeks, with a plain lotion on the other arm for comparison. Fine wrinkling improved on the retinol arm, and skin samples showed more procollagen, the building block of new collagen. Most of them also had mild reactions along the way: redness, peeling, dryness, itching or stinging.

So that is the deal retinol offers. It works slowly, and skin usually gets worse before it gets better.

What does a red light mask do?

A mask leaves cell turnover alone. It puts red and near-infrared light onto the skin, where the mitochondria in skin cells absorb it, and over weeks the cells that receive the right dose make more collagen.

In 2014 a controlled trial in Photomedicine and Laser Surgery gave 113 volunteers 30 light sessions, twice a week. The treated groups ended up with smoother skin and higher collagen density on ultrasound than the untreated controls. A 2007 split-face study treated 76 people with 633 nm and 830 nm light twice a week for four weeks, and wrinkles on the treated side went on improving for weeks after the sessions ended. The week-by-week picture for fine lines has its own article.

Nobody has run a head-to-head trial of a home mask against retinol. What the research does show is two separate routes to the same destination, more collagen, each on its own clock.

How do they compare?

Can you use a red light mask and retinol together?

Yes, and many people do, since the two are not competing for the same job. A handful of rules keep it manageable.

• Start one at a time. Begin with either, and bring in the other after two to four weeks, so that if your skin reacts you know which one to blame.
• Light first, retinol after. Run the mask on clean, dry skin and apply the retinol once the session is over. That way nothing sits between the light and your skin, and the product is not being warmed under the mask.
• Pause the light when skin is irritated. If retinol has left your face red, raw or peeling, skip the mask until it settles, and never use it on broken skin.
• If your retinoid is a prescription, ask before combining. Tretinoin and the other prescription retinoids are stronger, and some oral acne medicines make skin sensitive to light. Photosensitising medication is on our precautions list, so the doctor who prescribed it is the person to check with.
• Sunscreen every morning. Retinol makes that non-negotiable anyway, and it protects the collagen both of them are building.

Which should you start with?

Start with retinol if your skin copes with actives and you want to spend as little as possible: it is the cheaper test. Where retinol keeps irritating your skin, a mask gives you a way to collagen that does not involve peeling. People who already use retinol and want to add something often land on a mask for the same reason, since it adds a second route without putting another active on the skin. Pregnancy changes the picture entirely. Retinoids are commonly avoided during pregnancy, and pregnancy is also on our list of reasons not to use the mask, so talk to your doctor before you start either one.

Where does the Kivorla mask fit?

For fine lines you would use the red mode, which runs 665 nm red together with 850 nm near-infrared and 1064 nm deep near-infrared. The manual allows 10 minutes up to four times a week on high brightness, or 15 minutes up to three times a week, and never more than 20 minutes in a day, so a session slots into the same evening as your retinol, before the retinol goes on. The inside is food-grade liquid silicone and the mask is cordless, so you are not tied to a socket for those ten minutes. Whether a mask is a sensible buy for you at all is a separate question, and we take it up in are red light therapy masks worth it.

Both routes lead to collagen and both take months. Retinol is the better studied and the cheaper of the two, at the price of some irritation early on; the mask does not peel or sting and sits comfortably alongside it, as long as you add one thing at a time, run the light first and wear sunscreen every day. If that sounds like the right addition, the Kivorla 4-Wavelength Red Light Therapy Mask page lists its wavelengths, irradiance and session times.

Kivorla devices are general wellness devices, not medical devices.