Welcome to Deep Reviews—your one-stop destination to discover the absolute best products and brands the beauty industry has to offer. Every month, our beauty crew and editors will research, test and review the market’s most sought-after and buzzed-about products to see which are truly worth your hard-earned money and attention. You can expect honest, completely uncensored feedback and no-BS recommendations our hard-to-please testers endorse without reservations. To put it simply, stick with us, and buyer’s remorse will be a thing of the past.
If there’s one skincare category that really enthrals the Who What Wear UK team, it has to. be tools and devices. For last month’s Deep Reviews, we tested out the best microcurrent devices to sculpt, lift and snatch, and back in January we put the best hair multi-stylers to the test. For this month’s Deep Reviews, we decided delve deeper into skincare gadgets by testing the best LED face mask devices. That’s right, the Who What Wear UK team willingly turned themselves into Iron Man for a full month-long test of the best LED face masks around.
LED is a popular facial treatment in clinics, but at-home LED devices allow you to reap the benefits of LED from the comfort of your sofa, ideally while watching Daisy Jones and the Six. But what are the benefits of LED? LED stands for light-emitting diode, and you’ll find that there are different lights, called wavelengths, that target specific skin concerns. Blue light, for example, is great at killing off the bacteria that contribute to acne, red light helps to stimulate collagen and treat skin concerns such as pigmentation, whereas near-infrared is ideal for healing and calming inflamed skin. There’s a whole spectrum of different wavelengths. Some devices will feature a range, whereas others will have more targeted options, and some can even be used on the body to treat concerns such as eczema, back acne and psoriasis too. LED has also been touted to improve your mood—it’s a win-win for the mind and skin.
But let’s be honest—LED devices are a big investment. Most start around the £200 mark, but the top-of-the-range ones can easily set you back £1-2k. So if you’re considering buying one, you’re probably wondering if at-home LED devices are really worth it. And that’s where our Deep Reviews comes in. I rallied the Who What Wear UK team to test out the best LED devices on the market right now for an entire month, from the most affordable to blow-the-budget face masks. As with all of our Deep Reviews, you’ll find us sharing before and after pictures alongside our honest opinions—we don’t hold back. Ready to find the best LED face mask for you? Scroll on for our take on the six different ones we tested.
In addition to the red-light therapy I decided upon, the MZ Skin Light-Therapy Golden Treatment Facial Mask also features four more settings; blue light, which balances and clarifies the skin, treating acne and, with repetitive use, improves blemished skin. Green, which calms skin and reduces pigmentation, broken capillaries and sunspots. Yellow, which reduces redness and boosts circulation (this setting is ideal for sensitive skin as it boosts lymphatic flow and soothes). And, finally, white, which penetrates deeply to promote wound healing and skin repair. I like how easy it is to tailor your sessions, be it five minutes or twenty-five minutes, on the lowest setting of 1 or the highest setting of 5, as well as the selection of different colour therapies you have at your disposal in one mask.
I’m the sort of person who responds to rules, so I followed those on the box stringently. MZ Skin advise applying the LED mask to cleansed, dry skin. Use two to three times per week, starting with 10 minutes of LED mask time and slowly building up to 20 minutes. I did so, starting on a low setting (I started out on two and built my way up to four and five). As for first impressions, I’d seen the MZ Skin mask doing the rounds on Instagram; its luxurious gold face piquing my interest. Indeed, the mask itself feels substantial and durable—it certainly feels premium.
Before I embarked on this at-home light-therapy course, my usually clear skin was in turmoil; I put this down to hormonal changes as well as experiencing a reaction to the washing powder used on the sheets in our temporary rental accommodation. I was also pretty sleep-deprived. So, the first positive reaction I saw was the simple act of carving out the downtime to enjoy my light-therapy session. Even on the weakest setting for the shortest amount of time the light is very bright, and it is advised you keep your eyes closed for the duration of wearing the mask, which I gladly obliged. First use over, and I didn’t see any results, but I did feel relaxed.
As you can see, my blemishes have entirely disappeared. Whether that’s down to switching back to my usual laundry detergent, the MZ Skin mask, or a combination of both, I’m not entirely sure. Either way, my confidence is up! I had been hoping the red-light therapy would help even out my skin tone, but perhaps this wasn’t the best setting for that. I do, however, feel as if my skin is firmer and plumper, which were some of the promised benefits of the red-light setting. My face feels tauter and I could be wrong, but my fine lines do appear to be slightly minimised, too. I imagine this is one of those beauty products that you only really realise its benefits when you stop using it, so I’ll be very interested to see how my skin is looking in two weeks time. In an ideal world, I’d retry the mask when my life is more settled (and I’m not sleeping on an airbed for the fourth week in a row).
The cons: Wearing the mask presented some issues, but they may be isolated—hear me out. I was sent a press sample to try for a month with the agreement of sending it back after the trial. My exact mask has likely been used and reviewed by several different people, but I was disappointed when I realised the clasp didn’t work. This meant I could only use it when I was laying flat on my bed. I didn’t think this was a big deal until I realised that, especially as I upped the frequency and timings, the sheer weight of the mask itself was creating impressions in my skin, which would take at least an hour to subside.
Actually, looking at my “after” photograph, which was taken after ramping up my mask usage, I’d say doing so has made my eye bags look more pronounced. As I say, the mask I was using had likely been handled by several people, so some wear-and-tear is expected, but I would urge you to check your clasps upon purchasing to make sure they work as they should so you can wear it as designed. I do, however, think the mask is well contoured and the edges are smooth throughout its inside. I like how easy it is to tailor your sessions, be it five minutes or twenty-five minutes, on the lowest setting of 1 or the highest setting of 5, as well as the selection of different colour therapies you have at your disposal in one mask.
Final verdict: At £390, this would easily be the most expensive item in my beauty arsenal if I did. However, as someone who is relatively happy with their skin 99% of the time, I probably wouldn’t buy it. But, then again, I wouldn’t buy another LED mask in its place! Who knows—in a couple of weeks when its effects have worn off, I might find myself on the MZ Skin website, bank card in hand. I’ll keep you posted.
Rating: 7/10, but I’d definitely be open to trying it again just to make sure…
Up Next, Deep Reviews: We Tried 5 Hair Multi-Stylers—Here Are Our Honest Thoughts