Choosing a red light therapy face mask in Australia

A high LED count is meaningless if the emitters are clustered where the mask is easiest to build. What you want is even distribution across forehead, cheeks and jaw, because the parts of your face furthest from an emitter receive the least light.

Look at photographs of the inside of the mask, not the outside. If a seller only photographs the exterior, that is a choice.

A rigid shell holds a fixed geometry but sits away from parts of the face it does not match. A flexible silicone shell follows the contours and keeps emitters at a consistent short distance, which makes the dose more predictable across the face.

Flexible masks also fold, which matters more than it sounds: a device that packs into a drawer gets used more often than one that needs a shelf.

The emitters are bright. A mask should have moulded opaque eye shields or include goggles, and you should keep your eyes closed regardless. Red and near-infrared light is not ultraviolet and does not tan or burn, but staring into bright emitters is uncomfortable and pointless.

A fixed session with an automatic cut-off removes the main variable people get wrong, which is running the device for arbitrary lengths of time. Ten minutes that ends on its own is a repeatable dose. Fifteen minutes that you time yourself is not.

Australian Consumer Law guarantees apply to devices like these. Goods must be of acceptable quality, match their description and be fit for any purpose the seller described. Those guarantees cannot be excluded, and a seller advertising a mask as final sale does not remove them.

Separate from your legal rights, look for a trial period that covers a device you have actually opened and used. A returns policy that only accepts unopened boxes is not a trial.