I’m a member of the COMMITTEE, so every couple of months, the beauty wizards at VIOLET GREY send me a big bag of products to test and give honest feedback on. If something’s good, if something’s not good—I let them know exactly what my expert opinion is. In the latest batch, they included the Dr. Dennis Gross DRx SpectraLite FaceWare Pro face mask, and I completely freaked out. I was like, This. Is. Amazing.

The mask is FDA-cleared for use three minutes at a time, but I doubled down. I did six minutes every night before bed for the last eight weeks, alongside my regular skin care routine, and have seen way less congestion along my chin and jawline, which is where I usually break out. There are three different settings: Blue light for acne, red light to build collagen, and a combination setting that tackles both issues at the same time. I usually do the blue and red together, but if I feel like it’s that time of the month or I’ve been working out more, I’ll do an extra three minutes of just blue to kick any breakouts to the curb. I’ve noticed that my eyes look better, too. The exhaustion-induced crepiness around my orbital area is definitely not as noticeable.

LEDs are a part of the professional facials I give, because they finish off a treatment on a cellular level—you’re working from the inside out, stimulating the body to make collagen. I’ve been recommending this mask to clients as a way to keep up with what I do for them in the treatment room. I’ve tested a few other LED masks on the market and the reason I like this one is it’s extremely lightweight, which makes it very comfortable to have on your face. It has a strap, so you can wear it while you’re doing pretty much anything else. Plus, there are a lot more LED bulbs—162 to be exact—than any other mask I’ve tried at home.

The brand says to use the mask on clean skin, but I believe LEDs help any topical product penetrate skin better, so I like to wash my face and apply a serum or two and my moisturizer before popping it on. I’ve also tried it after wiping down with a glycolic acid peel and even with a little Retin-A.

Regardless of your current regime, this is the perfect addition for anyone looking to maintain a healthy, youthful glow. After the age of 24, our collagen starts decreasing little by little each year, so we need something to help revitalize our skin cells. This is a non-invasive way to do that—with technology that’s proven to work. I’m obsessed!

CONTRIBUTOR STATS:
Name: Vanessa Hernadez
Job Description: Celebrity esthetician
Where to Find Her: Los Angeles
Instagram: @vhskin