Red Light Therapy for Acne: Does It Work?

If breakouts are the reason you are looking at a light therapy mask, the colour that matters is blue. Red gets the attention, but in the acne trials it was blue light, used alone or alongside red, that brought spot counts down, and it took about three months to do it. Red on its own has not shown that result. So what you want is a device with a blue mode, twelve weeks of patience, and a dermatologist involved if your acne is more than mild.

Does red light therapy work for acne?

Red alone has not been shown to clear spots. The trials that reduced acne used blue light, or blue and red together, over roughly twelve weeks.

Two studies matter here, and both counted spots over three months.

The first appeared in the British Journal of Dermatology in 2000. It split 107 people with mild to moderate acne into four groups: blue light, blue and red together, white light, and benzoyl peroxide cream. By week twelve of daily sessions, inflamed spots in the blue-and-red group had dropped by a mean of 76%. Study summary.

The second, in the same journal in 2013, tested a home device against a sham one in a double-blind trial. 35 people used 420 nm blue and 660 nm red light on the forehead and cheeks, two and a half minutes twice a day, for four weeks. When they were checked at week twelve, inflamed spots were down 77% and blackheads and whiteheads 54%. The sham group barely moved. Study summary.

The researchers explain the mechanism like this. Acne bacteria produce compounds called porphyrins, porphyrins absorb blue light, and that reaction damages the bacteria. Red light does not set off the same reaction. In these trials it played the calming, repairing role it has in the wrinkle studies.

How long does it take?

Give it twelve weeks. That is when both trials took their main measurements.

Two weeks in, you will not know much. Photograph your skin before you start and again at weeks four, eight and twelve, in the same light, and count the spots rather than trusting how your face feels that morning. The same rule applies to skin goals generally, which we go into in how long red light therapy takes to work.

What does the research not cover?

Severe or cystic acne, hormonal acne, and people already on prescription treatment. For any of those, see a dermatologist before you add a light.

Both trials recruited people with mild to moderate acne. Deep cystic acne was not tested, and neither was combining light with prescription medicine. That second point matters because some acne treatments, including certain antibiotics and retinoid tablets, make skin more sensitive to light, and our precautions rule the mask out for anyone on photosensitising medication. If you have a prescription, ask the doctor who wrote it.

Is blue light safe for skin?

At the doses in these trials, yes for most people: the side effects were mild and short-lived. The exception is skin that darkens easily or already has melasma.

Dryness and a little redness that settled without treatment were the complaints the acne trials reported. Pigmentation is a different story. In a 2014 study, blue-violet light at 415 nm left a lasting darkening on volunteers with medium skin tones, while red light at 630 nm did not. Study summary. If you have melasma, marks left behind by old spots, or skin that tans quickly, talk to a dermatologist before using any blue mode. There is more on this in red light mask side effects.

How do you run a blue-light session for breakouts?

On clean, dry skin, with nothing on your face until the timer ends. Your usual products go on afterwards.

1. Wash and pat dry. Leave off spot treatments, serums and sunscreen for now, since anything on the skin sits between it and the light.
2. Switch to the blue mode. On the Kivorla mask the manual allows 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. Do not look into the mask from the outside while it is on.
4. Once it switches off, go back to your normal routine. If your skin feels dry, a plain moisturiser helps.
5. Wipe the inside of the mask after every session, following the care instructions in the manual. It is sitting on breakouts, so keep it clean.

If a spot is open, including one you have picked, skip the session until it has closed.

What does the blue mode on the Kivorla mask do?

The blue mode pairs 460 nm blue with 850 nm near-infrared. The blue is the part the acne research points to.

Our 460 nm sits close to the 415 to 420 nm the trials used, inside the band that acne bacteria absorb. Where the trials paired blue with red, we pair it with near-infrared, which reaches a little deeper into the skin. That is a real difference, and it is why we do not borrow the trial percentages for our own mask. The timer stops the session at 5, 10 or 15 minutes, and brightness has three settings, so reactive skin can start at 50 percent. No diodes sit over your eyes, since there is an open cutout there, but blue is the wavelength eye-safety standards take most seriously, so the rule about not looking into the mask from outside matters most in this mode. The inside is food-grade liquid silicone: soft on skin that is already sore, and easy to wipe down.

The 4-Wavelength Red Light Therapy Mask page lists both modes, the brightness levels and the timer. It can be returned within 30 days, less a 10% restocking fee if it is still sealed or 20% if it is opened but undamaged and complete, as our returns policy explains, so please read the precautions before you order. Shipping to the US, UK and Germany is free.

Kivorla devices are general wellness devices, not medical devices. They are not a treatment for acne. If your acne is painful, scarring or getting worse, see a dermatologist.