Does light therapy stimulate skin pigmentation?Updated 4 months ago

A good paper to look at is 'Low-level laser (light) therapy (LLLT) in skin: stimulating, healing, restoring' -Dr. Hamblin. Below are excerpts:

Section 8: "LLLT for Producing Depigmentation

Most studies carried out for vitiligo show the stimulatory effects of LLLT on pigmentation; however in a previously mentioned study, while testing effects of blue and red laser for acne treatment, an interesting and unexpected result was found for the first time.49 Combining both blue (415 +−5 nm, irradiance 40 mW/cm2, 48 J/cm2 ) and red (633 +- 6 nm, 80 mW/cm2, 96 J/cm2 ) light produced an overall decrease in the melanin level. Instrumental measurement results showed that melanin level increased by 6.7 (the median of differences between the melanin level before and after one treatment session) after blue light irradiation without a statistical significance (P > .1), whereas it decreased by 15.5 with statistical significance (P < .005) after red light irradiation. This finding may have some relationship with the laser’s brightening effect of the skin tone, which 14 out of 24 patients spontaneously reported after the treatment period. However as of today, no other studies investigated or reported similar decrease in melanin levels following red light irradiation. Considering that different parameters are used for vitiligo and acne treatment, different effects of red light on the same tissue might be due to the biphasic effects of LLLT.18,19"

Section 12: "Conclusion

LLLT appears to have a wide range of applications of use in dermatology, especially in indications where stimulation of healing, reduction of inflammation, reduction of cell death and skin rejuvenation are required. The application of LLLT to disorders of pigmentation may work both ways by producing both repigmentation of vitiligo, and depigmentation of hyperpigmented lesions depending on the dosimetric parameters. The introduction of LED array-based devices has simplified the application to large areas of skin. There is no agreement as yet on several important parameters particularly whether red, NIR, or a combination of both wavelengths is optimal for any particular application. There is a credibility gap that needs to be overcome before LLLT is routinely applied in every dermatologist’s office."

The bulbs we provide with our handmade offerings give no blue light to the user. There is a small amount present in the emission, but it's mitigated by the red tinting of the bulb. See the wavelength of emission below.