LED Face Masks Are Now A Luxury Travel “Must-Have.” But Do They Work?

With wellness tourism anticipated to reach $1.3 trillion in 2025, the travel beauty niche is also evolving. Luxury travelers care want to keep up with their multi-step skincare regimens on holiday and the hospitality industry is following suit. Exclusive hotels have long partnered their spas with luxury skincare brands—like the Dior Spa at Le Cheval Blanc in Paris, France, or the new 18,000 square foot Guerlain spa at Belmond’s Cap Juluca in Anguilla—to bring guests unforgettable experiences.

But this is only the beginning. Skincare’s cult appeal is so engrained in the luxury travel zeitgeist that hotels now host celebrity skin whisperers for tenures at their properties. In May 2024, Britain’s beloved celebrity facialist, Adeela Crown, performed facials at the La Prairie Spa at the Waldorf Astoria in Beverly Hills. Shortly after, celebrity facialist Ivan Pol, his red carpet-favorite “The Beauty Sandwich” treatment, announced a residency at the Mandarin Oriental Residences.

The rise of skincare is also being felt outside of the spa. When Aman Resorts’ beauty line launched a collaborative sheet mask and eye patch with the cosmeceutical line 111Skin—featuring the brand’s proprietary form of the antioxidant, N-Acetyl-Cysteine—it merited a top-shelf spot in any beauty aficionado’s home collection.

Now, beauty tech has entered the conversation. In Summer 2024, Auberge Collection’s Grace Hotel in Santorini, Greece, began offering guests of the property’s ultra-luxury Infinity Suites and Villa complimentary access to red light face masks by the U.K. brand Light Salon. Skin experts, from estheticians, to dermatologists and plastic surgeons, embrace LED therapy as a skincare modality for post-procedure healing and general anti-aging. Yet its debut as a luxury hotel amenity signals a new era of skincare’s preeminence—and a sexy “re-branding” of a top beauty tech device.

Below, learn more about luxury travel’s newest amenity and what LED therapy face masks actually do for the skin.

Beauty Tech For Luxury Travel

An island vacation is the perfect backdrop to turn moments of stillness into a full-blown practice—and this is precisely what Auberge Collection was banking on when they chose to bring in masks by The Light Salon. Guests of the Villa and Infinity Suites—whose other features include a private entry, private dining area and even a private pool—can now make these peaceful moments functional for their skin in ten-minute sessions wearing the Light Salon Boost LED Mask, $495, and the Boost Body Patch, $475.

“LED therapy was chosen due to its multifaceted benefits which align seamlessly with Auberge Resorts Collection’s goal of providing a comprehensive wellness experience,” says a spokesperson for the Grace Hotel in an e-mail to Forbes.com. “The reception [by guests] has been overwhelmingly positive. They particularly enjoy the convenience and luxury of using these products at their own leisure and within the comfort of their private spaces.”

While guests also have complimentary access to the brand’s Hydrogel Face Masks, $60 for 5, the incorporation of the beauty tech device all but confirms its mainstream appeal. Countless celebrities, beauty editors and influencers have at-home LED therapy devices, and many have even been pictured traveling with them. Yet seeing it offered among the property’s Varoulko Santorini restaurant, which is overseen by the Michelin star chef Lefteris Lazarou, or the 363 Bar by Baba Au Rum, which earned a spot on the World’s Best 50 Bars, certainly seems like an esteemed uplevel for a beauty trend.

LED Therapy for Skin

“With the growing popularity of LED light therapy, particularly in the U.K., it made sense to partner with Light Salon for the ultimate in-room amenity,” the property spokesperson continues. The global LED light face mask market was recently reported to be $238.1 million and expected to grow, with other LED devices available such as beds, panels, face masks, brushes and even toothbrushes.

In skincare, it’s true that there are certain clinically-substantiated wavelengths which are associated with different skin outcomes, including healing and anti-aging effects. As a general rule of thumb, near-infrared light is considered deeply-penetrating and anti-inflammatory, red is associated with collagen and elastin production, while blue is used for breakouts, just to name a few. Grace Hotel opted to go with the pliable masks by The Light Salon featuring a combination of regenerative red and infrared lights at 633nm and 830nm respectively, with a number of clinical studies to support these chosen wavelengths.

Does LED Therapy Actually Work?

In a word, yes. When it comes to skin rejuvenation, peer-reviewed journals confirm that certain wavelengths of low-level red and infrared wavelengths of LED light increase collagen, elastin and hyaluronic acid in the skin, while substantiating LED’s uses in the skin from treating acne, to wound healing, rejuvenation and more. But be forewarned that just because the modality is proven to be effective does not mean that all of the devices for sale use the clinically-proven wavelengths at significant strengths.

“Red LED light therapy has long been used in medicine for multiple indications, such as for hair growth, activation of photodynamic therapies, reducing inflammation and much more recently, for use as an anti-aging therapy,” says geneticist Thomas Hitchcock, PhD and co-founder of skincare’s Crown Laboratories. “It is known that the specific wavelength of red or near-infrared light can act on certain photosensitive molecules in the cell, leading to effects like more efficient cell-respiration or increased blood flow.”

What this means is that while the light is on, the skin cell’s functioning becomes more efficient. Among other things, optimized cellular respiration means that the cell creates more ATP (the “fuel” for cells to perform their functions) and thus can undergo functions including repair and renewal with extra vigor.

Expert-Recommended Best Practices

That being said, Dr. Hitchcock warns that not all devices on the market adhere to the clinically-indicated wavelengths, or necessarily have research to substantiate their purported functions. Not all devices are created equally, which is why it is important to do you research before investing in a device of your own.

There is also one skin condition, melasma, that experts do not recommend red light masks for. Board-certified dermatologist Shereene Idriss posted on Instagram warning against using red LED if you suffer from melasma should it “trigger and stimulate the melanocytes” that lead to the unwanted pigmentation. Instead, she recommends a “high quality green LED” device for tackling the hormone, heat and inflammation-moderated condition.

Recent debate actually arose regarding the efficacy of LED versus low level laser therapy. A study by Genemarkers and The Imperial College London, which was funded by LYMA, the makers of an at-home low level laser therapy device, found that low level laser therapy outperformed LED when it came to gene expression at the depth of skin called the dermis. While this does not negate the studies indicating LED therapy’s effects on skin regeneration, it could indicate a disparity in efficacy and a direction for future research by third-parties.

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