Red Light Mask with Makeup or Sunscreen On?

No. The mask goes on clean, dry skin, and everything else goes on afterwards. Makeup and sunscreen are designed to sit on top of the skin and deal with light, which is precisely the job you do not want anything doing between a red light mask and your face. Serums and oils get in the way for similar reasons. So the order is cleanse, light, then your normal routine, with sunscreen last in the morning. The rest of this article explains why each product interferes and lays out a morning and an evening routine that avoid the problem.

Can you use a red light mask with makeup on?

No. Makeup is pigment on the skin, pigment absorbs visible light, and red light is visible light, so a layer of foundation takes some of the dose before it reaches you.

Nobody has run a trial of a red light mask over foundation. What we can say is that the dose figures in the trials, and the ones on our product page, describe light reaching the skin. The 113-volunteer trial in Photomedicine and Laser Surgery, to take one example, measured collagen and roughness after 30 sessions of light, twice a week. Full paper. Put anything between the light and the skin and you are getting less than those numbers describe.

There is a second reason, and it has nothing to do with science. Wear a silicone mask over makeup and the makeup ends up inside the mask. A mask you have to scrub every time is a mask that quietly stops getting used.

Can you use a red light mask with sunscreen on?

No. Sunscreen exists to stop light reaching the skin. Take it off before a session and put it back on after.

Sunscreens are built to absorb or reflect ultraviolet light, and the mineral kinds, zinc oxide and titanium dioxide, also scatter visible light, which is why they can leave a white cast. Whatever fraction of red light a particular sunscreen blocks is a fraction you paid for and did not receive. So in the morning it is the last thing on, after the light, and in the evening it is the first thing washed off, before it.

None of that makes sunscreen optional. Red light offers no protection against UV, and sun damage arrives faster than any home device can offset it. Light first, then sunscreen, every single morning.

What about serums, oils and moisturiser?

Afterwards. Products on the skin during a session can scatter the light, and some active ingredients were never meant to be warmed under a mask.

Two things happen when a serum goes on under the mask. One is physical: a film of product, especially an oil or a thick cream, sits between the light and the skin. The other concerns the ingredients themselves. Retinol, vitamin C and exfoliating acids can sting on an ordinary day, and there is no good reason to find out how they behave warmed under a mask. Apply them once the session is over. What a normal session should feel like, and what should worry you, is covered in red light mask side effects.

Hyaluronic acid and plain moisturiser wait too. Ten minutes is a short wait.

Do you need to cleanse first?

Yes, if there is anything at all on the skin. A quick wash and a pat dry will do. Clean skin lets the whole dose through and keeps the mask clean into the bargain.

First thing in the morning, on skin you cleansed the night before, a splash of water and a towel is enough. In the evening, cleanse properly, since the day's sunscreen and makeup are still sitting there.

What is the right morning order?

Cleanse, light, serum, moisturiser, sunscreen, makeup. The light comes before anything that would sit on top of the skin.

1. Cleanse or rinse, and pat dry.
2. Mask session: 10 minutes up to four times a week at high brightness, or 15 minutes up to three times a week, and never more than 20 minutes in a day.
3. Serum, if you use one.
4. Moisturiser.
5. Sunscreen.
6. Makeup.

What is the right evening order?

Cleanse thoroughly, light, then treatment products and night cream. Retinol comes after the session, never under it.

1. Cleanse off makeup and sunscreen, with a second cleanse if you wear a lot of either.
2. Pat dry. Nothing on the skin.
3. Mask session on the red mode for lines and texture. The blue mode is better kept for mornings, for reasons set out in red light therapy: morning or night?
4. Retinol or other actives.
5. Night cream.

How do you keep the mask clean?

Wipe the inside after each session, following the care instructions in the manual. With clean skin underneath, that takes about ten seconds.

The inside of the Kivorla mask is food-grade liquid silicone, smooth and easy to wipe, but it is still a surface that meets your face several times a week. If you do wear it over product by mistake one day, clean it before the next session instead of leaving it until after.

What about the panel?

Same rule, fewer products to worry about. Bare skin on the area being treated, goggles on, and sunscreen afterwards if that area is going to see daylight.

On the back, shoulders or legs there is usually nothing to take off. If you point the panel at your face and neck, treat it as you would the mask: cleanse first, sunscreen after, and never look into the light. The distance and height for each area are in how to set up a red light panel at home.

What makes this easy with the Kivorla mask?

The session is short, hands-free and ends by itself, so slotting it in before your products is not much of a chore.

The timer runs 5, 10 or 15 minutes and then switches the mask off, so "light first" adds ten minutes to a routine rather than a decision you have to make each time. It is cordless and weighs 408 g with the remote, light enough to put on at the bathroom mirror or on the sofa, wherever your routine tends to happen. The eye area is an open cutout, so you can keep your eyes open and get on with something while it runs. And the inside is wipeable silicone, cleaned after use according to the care instructions in the manual.

Bare skin during the session, and everything else after it. That is the whole rule. The 4-Wavelength Red Light Therapy Mask page lists its modes, timer and brightness levels. One thing to know before you order: a return is accepted within 30 days, less a 10% restocking fee if the mask is unopened with its seals intact, or 20% if it is opened but undamaged and complete, so have a look at the precautions page first. Standard shipping to the US, UK and Germany is free.

Kivorla devices are general wellness devices, not medical devices.