LED mask wavelengths, explained with a chart you can actually use

Wavelength is the first specification on every LED mask product page and the least explained. Here is the whole picture in one table, then the detail.

If an anti-aging mask has only two wavelengths, these are the two. Red at around 633 nm is absorbed in the epidermis and upper dermis; near-infrared at 830 to 880 nm reaches further into the dermis. The proposed mechanism in both cases involves absorption by cytochrome c oxidase in the mitochondria, with a downstream effect on cellular energy, fibroblast activity and inflammation.

This is the band where the photobiomodulation literature actually lives. Most of that work uses professional devices at irradiances home masks either do not reach or do not disclose, which is the central honesty problem in this category - but the mechanism and the wavelengths are not in dispute.

Practical implication: a two-wavelength mask running 633 and 830 nm is not an inferior product. It is a mask that spends every diode on the two bands with the best evidence, and the Omnilux is the clearest example.

Blue around 415 nm is absorbed by porphyrins produced by Cutibacterium acnes. The absorption generates reactive oxygen species inside the bacterium and kills it. That is a specific, well-described antimicrobial mechanism, and it is the basis of every blue-light acne clearance.

What it does not do: anything for lines, anything for sebum production, anything for hormonal acne drivers. Blue is a single-purpose wavelength and it does its one job well. The acne roundup covers which masks are actually cleared for it.

532 nm green, 590 nm yellow and 605 nm amber appear on the newest multi-wavelength masks, usually marketed at pigmentation, redness or tone. We want to be careful here rather than dismissive.

There is some published interest in these bands. What there is not, as far as we can find, is a body of work establishing that a consumer mask delivering an unpublished irradiance of green light produces a measurable change in pigmentation. The literature for red, near-infrared and blue is simply much larger, and no manufacturer publishes irradiance at these wavelengths specifically.

Deep near-infrared at 1072 nm penetrates further than 830 nm. That is not in dispute. CurrentBody built its Series 2 upgrade story on it, and Omnilux reserves it for the Men model.

What is not established is whether the additional depth produces a different cosmetic outcome on facial skin, and neither brand publishes an irradiance at 1072 nm. Treat it as a tiebreaker between two masks you are already choosing between, never as a reason to replace a working one. The upgrade argument in detail.

Everything above tells you what each band is for. None of it tells you whether a given mask delivers enough of that band to matter, because dose is irradiance multiplied by time and almost nobody publishes irradiance.

That is why a mask with six wavelengths is not automatically better than one with two, and why diode count is the least useful number on a product page. The irradiance guide is the companion to this one, and arguably the more important of the two.

1. Check the numbers are in nanometers. A page that says red, blue and infrared without figures is telling you less than it appears to.
2. Count how many diodes serve the wavelengths you will actually use. Four channels across 160 diodes is fewer red diodes than two channels across 132.
3. Match the wavelength to your concern. Blue does nothing for lines; red and near-infrared do nothing for acne bacteria.
4. Check whether the clearance matches. A mask with blue diodes cleared only under the wrinkle code has not been reviewed for acne. How to check.
5. Look for the irradiance. If it is not there, note that the wavelength list is the only thing you have been told.