Another day, another scandal in the beauty industry, this time in the form of an article decrying hugely popular at home LED face masks and questioning their efficacy. The report, published in The Times, is damning, the overarching theme being that LED masks only impact the “outer layer of the skin, rather than deeper down in the dermis.” They claim that the only tech that can achieve the goal of penetrating into the dermis and therefore having an effect are low-level laser therapies (LLLT), before going on to reveal that the research uncovering this scandal was commissioned by a brand who make an LLLT.
Shocker. “A lot of brands rely on discrediting previous technologies and formulations in order to sell their products, and it’s an effective marketing strategy, commissioning studies to convince consumers that they have been ‘duped’,” Viola Levy, Brand Strategist and founder of Smart Beauty Creative , tells me. She quickly adds that “that’s not to say these studies don’t have any merit (although one could argue that they are not entirely impartial).
” It’s a shame both the article and the study weren’t able to employ Viola’s integrity, but let’s set that aside and take a deeper look at the veracity of the claims being made. I first spoke to three of the most respected names behind LED masks, all of whom cited numerous studies that hadn’t been commissioned by their brands and are therefore worth heeding: “LED is well documented though multiple c.