Tag: leds

If your skin is crying for help but you’re too tired to care, the best red light therapy mask is the easiest fake-it-till-you-make-it hack around. You might have seen a wave of people on social media channeling their best Hannibal Lecter while wearing a red light therapy device, like our top pick, the CurrentBody LED Face Mask Series 2 ($470). They’re not sipping Chianti but instead claiming that the wrinkles and fine lines on their faces have disappeared with the help of red light therapy. There’s nothing wrong with aging (duh), but after seeing the hype of these skin care devices, we had to find out if the “anti-aging” technology behind them could make a big impact on your skin health.

You can’t get the same effect with just any red LED from the hardware store. If the wavelength isn’t strong enough, it won’t penetrate your skin—sorry to the one TikToker sitting in front of a chicken coop heat lamp. After talking to board-certified dermatologists and testing several at-home devices, we’ve rounded up the best red light therapy masks for every sensitive skin condition, budget, and lifestyle.

For more beauty and wellness recommendations, check out our guides to the Best Electric Toothbrushes, Best Hair Dryers, and Best Lip Balms.

Updated October 2025: We’ve reevaluated the Dr. Dennis Gross SpectraLite FaceWare Pro. We also added more information about our testing methodology and updated prices.

Best Red Light Mask Overall

The CurrentBody LED Face Mask Series 2 is a medical-grade, silicone mask. It also comes with a more secure strap—each side is shaped like a U, instead of using a single strap, making it much more secure. I can wear it and walk around if I like, without worrying about it slipping off, and the attached remote even has a little clip on it to hook it to your body.

This red light face mask only has one mode, but it does have three red light wavelengths, while most others only have two. The three levels are red (633 nanometers), near-infrared (830 nm), and what CurrentBody calls deep near-infrared (1,072 nm). CurrentBody says the deep near-infrared lights are designed to target areas that will have more signs of aging, though you can’t tell a difference in the lights just by looking at the lit-up mask.

It also has more LED bulbs in it than most other masks, with 236 LED bulbs in total. It’s a powerful mask, but I didn’t see much different results than I did from the cheaper LED Esthetics, once again seeing my acne clear up quickly with fewer scars left behind and a good glow to my skin. It was noticeably more comfortable and easier to wear around the house, so if you’re looking for a red-light-only mask you can multitask while wearing, the CurrentBody Series 2 is a great choice. —Nena Farrell

Best Value

Courtesy of Shark

Shark

CryoGlow Red Blue and Infrared iQLED Face Mask and Under Eye Cooling

The Shark CryoGlow is one of the best LED face masks on the market and is a great choice for newcomers, since it holds your hand through the process. There are two main programs to follow—Blemish Repair, which uses a combination of blue light (415 nm), infrared, and red LED (630-830 nm) for eight minutes, and Better Aging, which uses just infrared and red LED for six minutes. It’s recommended to follow one program daily for eight weeks, switching to the four-minute Skin Sustain program afterward to maintain the best results. It comes with a handy controller that counts down your time remaining and also tracks your progress, plus the mask has a party trick of cooling under-eye pads that can be used in combination with the LEDs or on their own, to soothe puffiness.