LED blue light therapy is a treatment for clearing acne bacteria on the skin using blue LED light. This is a treatment that you can either have at a clinic or administer to yourself with a home-use device. LED blue light treatment is as easy as relaxing for around 20 minutes in the cool glow from a large canopy studded with small LED bulbs, or wearing a face-shaped mask which has LED bulbs on the inside.

LED blue light therapy is one of several forms of LED light therapy. The different colours of light have different effects on the skin. LED red light therapy calms inflammation, boosts the production of collagen, and improves your skin texture; see the LED Red Light Therapy page for more information. Yellow (or amber) LED light therapy improves the communication between cells. Near infra-red light, like red light, helps boost collagen production.

To be honest, it feels like almost nothing. The LEDs produce a cool light, so it doesn’t even feel warm. All you have to do is turn up, lie on the treatment couch, and relax while the light glows at your face.

Yes. LED blue light therapy has been demonstrated to help improve spotty skin.

LED light therapy – with any of the colours of light used – is also the only treatment I can think of that defies the usual maxim of ‘no pain, no gain’ which applies to most tweakments.

Blue light helps denature P. acnes, the bacteria that causes acne. It won’t stop spots from forming in the skin, but it will reduce the redness and inflammation by knocking out the bacteria on the surface of the skin that are provoking spot formation.

Because blue light only works at a surface level, it doesn’t kill bacteria deep in pores in the skin. As with red light, you can get treatment at a clinic or salon, in which case you will need to visit once or twice a week, or you can try using a home-use device, which you will need to use more regularly.

Yes, LED blue light therapy is effective for denaturing acne bacteria and reducing spots.

Home-use LED devices are less powerful than the light sources used in clinics, but they can still be helpful if you are diligent about using them.

Most cosmetic clinics and many beauty salons now offer light treatments. Red light therapy is the most common, but many clinics offer LED blue light therapy as well.

You can use the Find a Practitioner tool on this website to find a clinic or practitioner for LED blue light therapy.

Another option is to get a home-use device for LED blue light therapy. A home-use device is particularly useful if you find it hard to get to a clinic on a regular schedule. Here are two home-use devices to consider:

• MZ Skin Light Therapy Treatment Mask. Covered with LEDs inside, this can provide red, blue, a combination of red and blue, and green light therapy. As the name suggests, this device is a mask that you put on for the treatment.
• Foreo Espada. With this device, you target your spots one by one with focused blue light. This is more work, but it lets you give individual spots more attention as necessary. The device costs £129.

A session of LED blue light therapy on its own costs around £30 to £50, depending on the clinic. To reduce acne substantially, you will normally need to have a course of four to six sessions over several weeks, followed by maintenance treatments every three months or six months.

A LED blue light therapy session takes around 20 minutes. A typical regime would be two sessions per week.

The effects of LED blue light therapy usually last for several months.

LED blue light therapy occasionally has relatively mild side effects:

• Redness. The treated area may be red for several hours after treatment.
• Swelling. The treated area may be swollen for several hours after treatment.
• Tenderness. The treated area may be tender for several hours after treatment, especially if it swells.
• Crusting or peeling. The skin on the treated area may crust over and then peel off within a few days.