Red light therapy improves your skin

For acne, a 2025 pooled analysis of six small randomized trials found that people using at-home red, blue or combined red and blue LED devices for 4 to 12 weeks saw about 45 percent more reduction in inflamed spots than people in the comparison groups. For wrinkles and skin aging, the evidence is thinner and less consistent. Small sham-controlled trials report fewer or shorter wrinkles on instrument, software and investigator measures, but the most recent sham-controlled trial of a red LED face mask found no difference from a fake mask on its main, pre-registered measure: specialists scoring wrinkles in photographs.

Most of these trials were short, enrolled between about 30 and 140 people, and used devices supplied by the study, and in four of the five controlled wrinkle trials described below the device maker supplied the devices or paid for the study. The acne trials enrolled people as young as 12. UK national acne guidance (NICE, updated August 2026) does not list light devices among its recommended treatments and calls for more research on them. Reports sent to the US FDA about one home acne mask describe eye symptoms, headaches, and more frequent seizures in people with epilepsy, including reports made by parents about their children and one about a teenager. These reports record that problems were reported, not that the mask caused them.

On wrinkles, four trials compared real light with a sham. In a 2007 Korean trial, 112 adults aged 35 to 55 were randomized to 633 nm light, 830 nm light, both, or a sham light on one side of the face twice a week for four weeks, and the 76 who finished were analysed. In the three light groups, wrinkle roughness fell by up to 36 percent and skin elasticity rose by up to 19 percent from starting values; the published summary reports these against starting values rather than against the sham group. In a 2025 trial funded by the device maker, 70 adults used a home LED neck device (630 nm and 850 nm) for 9 minutes a day, five days a week, for 12 weeks: investigators rated neck wrinkles improved in 77 percent of the device group and 9 percent of the sham group, although the device group started with more visible wrinkles and participants' own ratings did not differ between groups. A second 2025 trial by the same research group, funded by the same device maker, tested a face mask with the same two wavelengths on the same schedule in 60 adults: an independent rater judged wrinkles at the corners of the eyes improved in 86 percent of the mask group and 17 percent of the sham group, whose mask still gave off red light at a tenth of the strength, and participants' own ratings again did not differ between groups. In a 2025 Brazilian trial, 95 women aged 45 to 60 used a 660 nm LED mask for 21 minutes two or three times a week for four weeks. Specialists scoring photographs found no difference from sham, while software measured shorter frown lines and shorter wrinkles at the corner of one eye, and more women were satisfied with their appearance.

The largest study compared light with no treatment rather than with a sham. In a 2014 German study paid for and equipped by the company that supplied the lamps, 136 adults took part: 113 were assigned at random to one of four lamp units, three treating the whole body and one the face and chest, giving red light or red light plus a broader band of visible and near-infrared light twice a week for 30 sessions, and 23 people, most of them employees of that company and not randomly assigned, had no treatment. Experts scoring photographs without knowing who had been treated judged wrinkles improved in about 70 percent of the treated groups and 4 percent of the untreated group, and ultrasound readings of collagen density rose with light and not without it. The broader band of light did no better than red light alone.

On acne, the 2025 analysis covered 216 people aged 12 to 50 with mild to moderate acne. Only one of its six trials tested red light alone, and the comparison groups ranged from sham devices and no light to white light and benzoyl peroxide cream. No serious side effects were reported; a few people had mild dryness, redness or discomfort. A 2023 analysis that also pooled wrinkle studies reported a large effect, but it combined randomized and non-randomized studies, red, blue and near-infrared devices, and comparison groups ranging from sham light to retinol cream, so its pooled number describes a mix of very different treatments.

The proposed explanation is that red and near-infrared light is absorbed by an enzyme in mitochondria, the cell's energy-producing structures, which is thought to raise energy production and set off signals tied to collagen production and calmer inflammation. That pathway has been mapped mostly in cells and animals. A 2026 study in 12 young adults found that one session warmed the skin by about 8 degrees C but did not change energy production measured in skin or muscle samples taken afterwards.

Most trials treated faces and necks for one to three months with study devices at set doses, and the one study of full-body units ran for 30 sessions over about four months. Home panels, masks and beds vary in wavelength, power and time. No sham-controlled trial followed people beyond about four months, and the one study that re-measured people six months after their last session had no comparison group at that point. That study excluded people with epilepsy, a history of sensitivity to light, recent use of medicines that increase sensitivity to light, pregnancy, and past or current skin cancer. The trials do not report outcomes for people using acne medicines, with eye conditions, or with epilepsy.