Choosing an LED mask

Most LED mask listings lead with one number: how many diodes it has. It is the easiest figure to print and the least useful one to compare, because a diode count on its own tells you nothing about what wavelength those diodes emit, how much light reaches your skin, or whether they sit close enough to your face to matter.

Here is what to look at instead, roughly in the order it matters.

1. The wavelengths, in nanometres

A mask that advertises "seven colours" and never prints a single nanometre figure is telling you something. Colour is a description of what your eye sees. Nanometres are a measurement.

The two that appear in nearly every serious device are red, around 630 to 660 nm, and near-infrared, around 830 to 850 nm. Near-infrared is close to invisible, so a mask running it can look like it is barely switched on. That is expected, not a fault.

If a brand cannot tell you the exact figures, they either do not know or would rather not say. Both are reasons to keep looking.

2. Whether it touches your face

Rigid plastic masks are moulded to an average face and hold that shape. Because faces are not average, the mask makes contact at the high points, the brow, the cheekbones, the bridge of the nose, and bridges over everything in between.

The gaps matter. Light falls off sharply with distance, so a diode sitting a centimetre off your jaw delivers considerably less to it than one resting against your cheekbone. The jaw, the sides of the nose and the hairline are usually the areas furthest from a rigid shell, and often the areas people bought the mask for.

Flexible silicone drapes instead of bridging. It photographs less dramatically and works better.

3. Whether you will actually wear it

This is the specification nobody publishes and the one that decides whether the device does anything at all. A mask that needs you to lie still, tethered to a wall socket, gets used enthusiastically for a fortnight and then lives in a drawer.

• Can you move around while wearing it?
• How long is a session? Anything over twenty minutes competes with the rest of your evening
• Does it charge over USB, or need its own adaptor?
• How heavy is it? Past about 350 grams you notice

Consistency beats intensity. A device you use four nights a week will always outperform a better one you use twice a month.

4. Timers and controls

A fixed cycle with a single button is a cost decision, not a design one. Look for a selectable timer and the ability to choose the setting, so you can run something short on a weeknight without committing to the full thing.

5. Your eyes

Red light is bright. Masks handle this differently. Some have openings, some have opaque eye areas, some supply cushions. Whichever the design, plan to keep your eyes closed for the session, and check what the manufacturer says about it before you buy.

The number that tells you least

Diode count. Consider that the most respected mask in the category runs 132 LEDs. Plenty of cheaper masks advertise triple that. If diode count were the thing that mattered, the price relationship would run the other way.

Count matters only once you know the wavelength, the spacing and the output. On its own it is a big number chosen because big numbers sell.

The number nobody publishes

Wavelength tells you what kind of light. It does not tell you how much.

The figure for that is irradiance, measured in milliwatts per square centimetre at the surface of the skin. Two masks can both claim 630 nm and deliver very different amounts of light.

Very few brands publish it. Fewer still can produce a test report when asked.

Including us, today. We publish our wavelengths because the manufacturer states them. We do not publish an irradiance figure, because we do not have an independent test report in our hands yet. We have asked for one, and we will put it on this page the day it arrives, including if the number turns out to be unremarkable. We would rather tell you that than print a figure we cannot stand behind.

The checklist

Before you spend anything, you should be able to answer:

• What wavelengths does it emit, in nm?
• Does it cover the jaw and hairline, or bridge over them?
• How long is a session, and can I change it?
• Is it comfortable enough that I will use it on a Tuesday?
• What is the return policy if I do not get on with it?

If a listing cannot answer the first one, the rest of it is decoration.

Where we land on it

We sell one of these, so read this accordingly, but we would rather hold ourselves to the same list.

• Coverage. Bendable liquid silicone that follows the shape of the face rather than bridging across it, including the jaw and hairline
• Wear. Cordless, with a magnetic controller and a short session. Nothing to sit in your lap
• Wavelengths. Published in nanometres on the product page, as the manufacturer states them, not described as a number of colours
• Return policy. Thirty nights. Send it back for a full refund if it has not become part of your routine

Last updated 1 September 2026. General information about the category, not medical advice. Sorisse is a cosmetic beauty device and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any medical condition.