Today's post is a guest post that Jen over at Lipstick Luvvies agreed to write for me. If you are not already familiar with her blog it can be found at www.lipstickluvvies.com and is well worth a read. Many thanks to Jen for her time trialling the Lumie Clear device, and for her comprehensive report.
I had normal skin for over 5 years and sadly, never appreciated it until I came off the contraceptive pill back in September 2010. Less than a fortnight later, I began to get acne on my face, neck, chest and back and although it would have been easy to go back on the medication, I endeavoured to get my skin under control the natural way. Five months later, my resolve was weakening as I had been trying numerous acne products and all that had happened was the acne had spread and painful, cystic spots were now appearing. Fortunately for me, Grace London had read my tales of woe as I struggled for a solution to my skin problems and gave me the opportunity to try Lumie Clear.
Lumie Clear - £149
Lumie Clear is a small, portable LED light therapy device that you can use on any part of your body and is marketed as a natural treatment for acne and a replacement for creams and medications. Lumie Clear uses blue and red LEDs; these emit blue light to kill the bacteria that cause acne and red light to soothe inflammation and heal the skin. If you use it daily, as directed, you should expect to see results in 8-12 weeks time. It is a commitment but as the Lumie is an expensive outlay, I think the cost makes you more likely to stick with it.
The real question is does it work? To help answer this I have included a couple of pictures of the acne on my back and my face, around the chin area, to show you how it was before I started using the Lumie (the photos actually make my skin look better than it was). That way you get an idea of what I had to work on.
In order to give the product a thorough testing, I decided to use the Lumie on my body and stick to a straightforward skincare routine on my face, then compare the results after 3 months. For acne on the body, I never know quite what to use and obviously it can be awkward and often expensive to apply acne products to the back, so this is where the Lumie should really come into its own.
A pair of goggles comes with the Lumie and it is recommended that you wear these whenever you have the Lumie turned on and facing the eyes, although to be on the safe side I used them even when treating my back. The Lumie Clear is a small device, the portable section being slightly bigger than my hand, but the treatment area depends on the distance you have it from the skin. The minimum treatment area is 60x35mm and this is when it is held directly against the skin for 15 minutes a day. Lumie Clear is not an individual spot treatment, it works on areas of acne.
An idea of the size of the LED area of the Lumie area (compared to my hand)
You can remove the Lumie Clear from the stand it comes in and hold it directly on the skin you want to work on, but as I needed to cover a large area, my back, I left it in the stand and set it on my desk whilst I sat on a chair in front of it. This sounds straightforward enough but the drawback is that because I had a large area of acne, the Lumie Clear needed to be placed far enough away to cover it all, resulting in a longer treatment time. I had to sit like that wearing goggles for an hour every evening. The Lumie automatically turns itself off after 15 minutes, so it is fairly simple to keep track of the time. The distance and recommended treatment times are as follows:
Skin contact = 15 minutes a day
4 inches away = 30 minutes a day
8 inches away = 60 minutes a day
12 inches away = 120 minutes a day
At the beginning, using the Lumie Clear was quite a novelty and I didn't mind sitting for such a long time, but after a couple of weeks, it got pretty tedious. If I had wanted to treat my face and chest as well, I would have needed another hour's session everyday, a big time commitment. What made this even more troublesome was that the goggles left deep marks under my eyes after wearing them for so long, making my dark circles even worse! For this reason I only used the Lumie at night, when no one was around to see me afterwards. My skin does tend to mark very easily so this may not be a problem for everyone.
For those concerned that light treatment may cause a tan or skin sensitivity, I can happily report that neither of these things occurred to me whilst I trialled it for three months., my skin remained lily white! After about 6 weeks I began to see an improvement, and this continued week after week. At the end of the three month test period, I would estimate a 40% improvement in the acne on my back. Although not miraculous, the skin there feels more comfortable and the spots I do get are much smaller. The Lumie Clear worked very well at reducing the large, angry red spots that had made themselves at home on my back and neck. The discomfort of these as well as their highly visible appearance were my main issues so I am thrilled that they have improved so much. I would be lying if I said I now had clear skin, I don't. What I do have is a more even skin, especially in terms of texture, and this has been a real boost to my confidence.
Alpha-H Skincare
Now for the real test, how did the Lumie compare to a specialist skincare routine? Well, I stuck to a simple Alpha-H regime, involving 5 key products, and my face has cleared up considerably. I have gone from needing to wear foundation to just tinted moisturiser and although the area around my chin is still a problem, the rest of my face has calmed down considerably. I'd estimate a 60% improvement in the acne on my face from using skincare alone.
In short, if you have a lot of time to spare and acne in more than one area, then the Lumie Clear could be just what you are looking for. I know that my acne is directly related to hormonal problems, so because these problems remain, nothing will make the spots disappear. For others though, the Lumie Clear may give much better results. It is an expensive outlay and you have to be prepared to use it daily for it to pay off. If you only have a few spots, then there are better products out there targeting individual blemishes. For acne on the face rather than the body, I think a good skin regime is better simply because it takes so much less time. I don't mind spending on my skin anyway so switching from products for normal skin to those targeting acne didn't incur any extra expense. If you aren't into skincare though, the Lumie Clear may work out cheaper in the long run.
I had hoped to be able to provide some after shots of my skin to use as a comparison, but in the fortnight since I stopped the trial, the angry red spots have come back in abundance on my back and I'm currently suffering from a nasty hormonal breakout on my face. I felt that any photos wouldn't give a fair idea of how the Lumie Clear and the skincare had worked, so you'll just have to take my word for it. For me, it seems that since stopping the Lumie treatment, my acne has got worse again, suggesting consistent use is needed to maintain results.
Sorry this has been such a long post but when acne is something that so many suffer with and the Lumie Clear is an expensive product, I wanted to give as comprehensive review as I could. Here is a very quick summary of the pros and cons of the Lumie Clear:
Pros
Source
I had normal skin for over 5 years and sadly, never appreciated it until I came off the contraceptive pill back in September 2010. Less than a fortnight later, I began to get acne on my face, neck, chest and back and although it would have been easy to go back on the medication, I endeavoured to get my skin under control the natural way. Five months later, my resolve was weakening as I had been trying numerous acne products and all that had happened was the acne had spread and painful, cystic spots were now appearing. Fortunately for me, Grace London had read my tales of woe as I struggled for a solution to my skin problems and gave me the opportunity to try Lumie Clear.
Lumie Clear is a small, portable LED light therapy device that you can use on any part of your body and is marketed as a natural treatment for acne and a replacement for creams and medications. Lumie Clear uses blue and red LEDs; these emit blue light to kill the bacteria that cause acne and red light to soothe inflammation and heal the skin. If you use it daily, as directed, you should expect to see results in 8-12 weeks time. It is a commitment but as the Lumie is an expensive outlay, I think the cost makes you more likely to stick with it.
The real question is does it work? To help answer this I have included a couple of pictures of the acne on my back and my face, around the chin area, to show you how it was before I started using the Lumie (the photos actually make my skin look better than it was). That way you get an idea of what I had to work on.
A pair of goggles comes with the Lumie and it is recommended that you wear these whenever you have the Lumie turned on and facing the eyes, although to be on the safe side I used them even when treating my back. The Lumie Clear is a small device, the portable section being slightly bigger than my hand, but the treatment area depends on the distance you have it from the skin. The minimum treatment area is 60x35mm and this is when it is held directly against the skin for 15 minutes a day. Lumie Clear is not an individual spot treatment, it works on areas of acne.
You can remove the Lumie Clear from the stand it comes in and hold it directly on the skin you want to work on, but as I needed to cover a large area, my back, I left it in the stand and set it on my desk whilst I sat on a chair in front of it. This sounds straightforward enough but the drawback is that because I had a large area of acne, the Lumie Clear needed to be placed far enough away to cover it all, resulting in a longer treatment time. I had to sit like that wearing goggles for an hour every evening. The Lumie automatically turns itself off after 15 minutes, so it is fairly simple to keep track of the time. The distance and recommended treatment times are as follows:
Skin contact = 15 minutes a day
4 inches away = 30 minutes a day
8 inches away = 60 minutes a day
12 inches away = 120 minutes a day
At the beginning, using the Lumie Clear was quite a novelty and I didn't mind sitting for such a long time, but after a couple of weeks, it got pretty tedious. If I had wanted to treat my face and chest as well, I would have needed another hour's session everyday, a big time commitment. What made this even more troublesome was that the goggles left deep marks under my eyes after wearing them for so long, making my dark circles even worse! For this reason I only used the Lumie at night, when no one was around to see me afterwards. My skin does tend to mark very easily so this may not be a problem for everyone.
For those concerned that light treatment may cause a tan or skin sensitivity, I can happily report that neither of these things occurred to me whilst I trialled it for three months., my skin remained lily white! After about 6 weeks I began to see an improvement, and this continued week after week. At the end of the three month test period, I would estimate a 40% improvement in the acne on my back. Although not miraculous, the skin there feels more comfortable and the spots I do get are much smaller. The Lumie Clear worked very well at reducing the large, angry red spots that had made themselves at home on my back and neck. The discomfort of these as well as their highly visible appearance were my main issues so I am thrilled that they have improved so much. I would be lying if I said I now had clear skin, I don't. What I do have is a more even skin, especially in terms of texture, and this has been a real boost to my confidence.
Now for the real test, how did the Lumie compare to a specialist skincare routine? Well, I stuck to a simple Alpha-H regime, involving 5 key products, and my face has cleared up considerably. I have gone from needing to wear foundation to just tinted moisturiser and although the area around my chin is still a problem, the rest of my face has calmed down considerably. I'd estimate a 60% improvement in the acne on my face from using skincare alone.
In short, if you have a lot of time to spare and acne in more than one area, then the Lumie Clear could be just what you are looking for. I know that my acne is directly related to hormonal problems, so because these problems remain, nothing will make the spots disappear. For others though, the Lumie Clear may give much better results. It is an expensive outlay and you have to be prepared to use it daily for it to pay off. If you only have a few spots, then there are better products out there targeting individual blemishes. For acne on the face rather than the body, I think a good skin regime is better simply because it takes so much less time. I don't mind spending on my skin anyway so switching from products for normal skin to those targeting acne didn't incur any extra expense. If you aren't into skincare though, the Lumie Clear may work out cheaper in the long run.
I had hoped to be able to provide some after shots of my skin to use as a comparison, but in the fortnight since I stopped the trial, the angry red spots have come back in abundance on my back and I'm currently suffering from a nasty hormonal breakout on my face. I felt that any photos wouldn't give a fair idea of how the Lumie Clear and the skincare had worked, so you'll just have to take my word for it. For me, it seems that since stopping the Lumie treatment, my acne has got worse again, suggesting consistent use is needed to maintain results.
Sorry this has been such a long post but when acne is something that so many suffer with and the Lumie Clear is an expensive product, I wanted to give as comprehensive review as I could. Here is a very quick summary of the pros and cons of the Lumie Clear:
Pros
- Can be used anywhere on the body
- A natural treatment
- Effective in treating difficult to reach areas like the back
- Can be used alone or in conjunction with other skincare treatments
- After the initial outlay, no cost is involved (unlike skincare that quickly runs out and needs replacing)
- Expensive initial outlay
- Not a quick fix (improvement takes weeks to show)
- Requires a big time commitment (can be up to two hours a day)
- You need to wear goggles which can mark the skin temporarily