I’ve never understood the suggestion that skin should be free of any products before doing RLT, because I have always been under the impression that hydrated skin absorbs more light. It’s the same reason people put hydrating oils on when tanning in the sun — their skin scatters less UV than it would if it were dry and dull, thus absorbing more radiation, resulting in a deeper, darker tan (or sunburn) in a shorter amount of time. At least, that’s what I’ve always believed the science to be.

I just did a search and found this study, which concludes with the following:

“The results agree with the hypothesis that there is less light scattering at the skin surface and more light penetration into the deeper skin layers when the skin is moisturized.”

Now, I know antioxidants like vitamin C do not pair well and should be avoided with any kind of light therapy, however, it seems to me that a limited-ingredient hydrating serum (i.e. hyaluronic acid) would be actively beneficial for RLT sessions, not detrimental.

However, everything I read seems to echo the same “clean face” “no products” jargon. My face gets very dry very quickly after washing. It just feels wrong to let it dry up even more under a warm light for 15 minutes before I can put any products on.

Am I missing something?