I just want to start by thanking everyone who has contacted me through this site, through my social media and even through YouTube to find out how I’m doing with the rosacea light therapy prototype.  It’s been fantastic meeting you and talking to you!

I’ve been meaning to update you for a while, but I wanted to receive some updates of my own before I got down to writing.

Here’s what I know about the rosacea light therapy prototypes

To start, if you have no idea what I’m talking about, please click to read my original post about having been approached by Smarter Lights (formerly Light Therapy Options) in to help them to test out two prototypes they were developing to help ease rosacea symptoms. That post is here: “I’m Testing a New Red and Amber Light Therapy for Rosacea Prototype!“.

There were two prototype lights for me to test.  To understand why there were two, it’s important to know that both prototypes combined red and amber LED light – both of which are colours I’d independently tried on my skin, starting at the beginning of last summer.

You also need to know that red light is more intense than amber light.  So with red, you get more bang for your bulb.

What does that mean?  Why, thank you for asking! It means that combining red and amber into a single bulb takes some careful balancing in order to best help rosacea symptoms.

So, Prototype 1 had nearly the same number of red and amber LEDs within the bulb.  Since red is more intense, this means that even though there are almost the same number of LEDs of each colour in the bulb (slightly more amber than red), it produces a more intense red light than amber light. When I shone it on a wall, it looked red, although slightly yellower than the all-red bulb I’ve previously used (confused, yet?).

That’s why they also created Prototype 2.  That one was made with more amber LEDs than red LEDs so the result would be the same intensity of red and amber light. When I shone that one on a wall, it looked orange.

Here’s how the rosacea light therapy prototypes worked for me

What I expected to experience was that the prototypes would give me a similar experience to using the separate red light therapy and amber light therapy lights I’d previously been using.  In case you want to look at the products I’ve been using, here are the links:

• The Pure Red LED Light Therapy Set
• The Pure Amber LED Light Therapy Set

These aren’t the only light therapy products out there, they’re just the ones I’ve used and have been blogging about.

After using the prototypes for a few weeks, it turned out, my skin liked the prototypes more than I’d predicted.  Here’s what I experienced:

• Prototype 1 (the one with more red oomph but with amber backing it up) – On my skin, this worked exactly the same way as using the red and amber lights separately.  It has been slowly reducing the redness on my face, while preventing flare-ups and healing dryness (even my lips aren’t dry and I’m living through a Canadian winter right now!), stopping the burning and itching altogether, giving a more comfortable feeling overall, and it healed up all the little pimply bumps.  Essentially, that’s exactly what I experienced when I used the two lights separately; so this was a real time-saver for me.
• Prototype 2 (the one with the same red and amber oomph) – I found that this one was clearing up the redness at a similar pace (maybe just slightly faster, but I’m not entirely sure), but it wasn’t keeping the non-visible rosacea symptoms under control as effectively.  I ended up with a bit of itchiness, though no burning. I didn’t find my skin was dry, but it just wasn’t quite as comfortable as it was with Prototype 1.

Here’s the video I made about it:

What did Light Therapy Options do with its prototype test results?

Turns out the company liked Prototype 1, too!  So it’s been turned into a product that anyone can buy, once it’s released.  It’s going to be called the Dual Care rosacea light and it will become available in February.

How cool is that?

I’m not sure what the exact release date will be, but as soon as I know anything, I’ll be sure to share it on this blog and over my social media accounts, so you can have a look at it or try it out if you think it would help you, too.  I still don’t know what the price will be and, as far as I can tell, it doesn’t have a webpage, yet.  I’ll do what I can to keep you in the loop, though.

When I talked to the (super-nice) owner of Smarter Lights (formerly Light Therapy Options), she mentioned that there were already quite a few people on a waiting list for the Dual Care product.  If you want to be one of them, that company can be contacted through email, by phone (toll-free in the U.S.), fax, or even via snail mail.  Click here for their contact info. Just scroll to nearly the bottom of the page and it’s all listed there on the right side, under “Contact Us”).

What am I up to next in natural rosacea treatments?

At the moment, I’m doing some research into non-skincare personal products that can still have an impact on flare-ups and rosacea symptoms.  For instance, hair care, laundry detergents, fabric softener and other things many of us use regularly and that may be making our symptoms worse without our even knowing it.

If you have tried a product like that and have found that it is compatible or that it isn’t rosacea-friendly at all, please feel welcome to share it in the comments of this blog.  I’d love to hear about what you’ve tried and I might even try your suggestions for myself for that next blog post (or avoid it, in the case of products that cause flare-ups).

I guess that’s it for now.  See you again, soon!