REVIEW: Skin Inc. Optimizer Voyage Tri-Light & Skincare
Skin Inc. is a brand focused on giving the customer the ability to customize their skincare, and create bespoke products specifically for your own skin concerns. I remember first trying Skin Inc. serums several years ago since they have those colorful beads in them, and also hearing rave reviews about their Pure Serum Mist. When they gave me the opportunity to try my own customizable serum I was interested to see what would be recommended for my "cocktail," and when they asked if I wanted to try their Tri-Light I was so ready to experiment. I haven't used any personal skincare light tools before, although have had some light treatments at facials in the past. Its been a month of using the Tri-Light in my night routines, and I wanted to round up how I used it, what I thought of it, and the effects on my skin. I'm going to focus more on the light than my customizable serum since that's something I'll be featuring and chatting about in my skincare routines via IG, but drop questions below if you have them!
Optimizer Voyage Tri-Light
What it is: an LED light and low frequency treatment. The light comes with 3 color options depending on what you want to target, giving you the ability to customize the treatment based on what your skin needs. In Skin Inc.'s words:
The device uses 3MHZ low frequency stimulation that help to gently regenerate skin cells to increase their metabolism and encourage blood and lymphatic circulation. It also helps enhance penetration of topical application of products and active ingredients to up to 90%. The device also uses LED chromotherapy that activates light receptors in skin cells and stimulates them to improve skin quality. The wavelength for our Red light is 625mm, Yellow light is 590mm and Blue light 460mm.
So from my understanding, each light has a different wavelength, and each color of light when at a certain wavelength can stimulate the skin in different ways. The yellow LED is for brightening and fading scars or marks, the blue LED is for calming and soothing the skin or inflammation, and the red LED is for reducing lines and contouring the face.
How to use it: The light is recommended to use at max. 10 minute intervals, but you can flip between lights as you move around your face, or use one light the whole time. The device will turn off after 10 minutes if you use one light the whole time, but if you swap between lights you'll have to track the time yourself (seems like something that could be easily fixed on their end, maybe just include a visual timer on the device?). The Tri-Light is also recommended to be used with water-based products since they have smaller molecules and will absorb easier into the skin, and they also recommend staying away from emulsions, creams or oil-based serums as it might cause congestion. Luckily for me, they sent along their Pure Deepsea Hydrating Mask & my Daily Dose serum which are both water-based, so that's what I used. If you have any other water-based gel type moisturizers you'd be totally fine using that instead. Random note, this does use 3 AAA batteries, but I so wish it was a rechargeable device.
After I've gone through my whole nighttime routine, I would apply the Pure Deepsea Hydrating Mask as my final step, and then go in with the Tri-Light in gentle, circular motions. The texture of the mask helps the light to move around easily, and the movement gets smoother as the product warms up on your face. It kind of feels like I'm doing an ultrasound on my face, goo and all. There's no sensation other than warmth that comes from the light, and you can hear a very faint humming. I used it every other night and tried to do 10 minutes every use for the sake of testing, although I can get a little antsy standing at the sink for that long. You don't need to do it for 10 minutes, but it's easy to pop on a Youtube channel or watch some IG stories while you massage your face. I found myself gravitating most towards the blue light since I deal with quite a bit of redness, although I would flip between lights occasionally to pin point certain areas and also to break up the monotony. I referred to the face map they provide on the back of the box that maps how you could focus the lights, pinpointing the red light around places like your smile lines and jaw, yellow around the cheek area, and blue on the forehead and chin.
Thoughts: After a month of use, I really enjoy the Tri-light and the ritual of it as a cap to my night routine. I notice less redness the next mornings after using the blue light, and most noticeable was my skin looking more even-toned and brighter. But, are these things I can achieve with a wash-off mask or a chemical exfoliator? Yes, of course. And those treatments are likely cheaper than the $265 price tag of the Tri-light, which is admittedly very pricey*. BUT, I do see this device as more of a long-term skincare investment versus trying to gain overnight shocking results. This provides continued stimulation of the skin while also helping your other skincare products penetrate deeper, and for someone who no longer has bouncy 20 year old skin, I can appreciate products that go deeper in treatment as my skin needs more boosting than it used to. Nowadays I think there is this need for immediate results when it comes to skincare- I want to see smaller pores and erase my fine lines and zero scarring right now! But some skincare to me is like taking a multi-vitamin, do you feel immediately amazing after taking it? Do you even notice a difference after 5 years of taking it? Probably not, but it's helping to keep you healthy and that's a positive. Ok let's get back on track. I'm thinking of having my Mom try it out for a little while and seeing if she notices a difference after continuous use of the red light for lifting and toning. Since it is such a customizable treatment, I think it'd be interesting to see if someone else has different results, especially someone that isn't as intense about their daily skincare regimen as I am.
* Looking at the prices of other comparable LED light tools, lots tend to live in the $150-$250 range or wayyyyy above that, and then there's Neutrogena with their affordable options as well.
A note on the Pure Deepsea Hydrating mask: I'm conflicted. The texture is cooling, it works well in helping the device glide easily, but it would pill pretty badly after I was done using the device and would then try to pat in the remaining product. I would go in with some rosewater mist to try and alleviate the pilling but it would still happen, so I would have to wait for the mask to air dry, and there'd be a slight tackiness left behind. The pilling was less apparent if you used a thicker layer of mask, but in doing that I'm practically half way through the tub already. The mask does deeply hydrate and soothe, giving me plumped up skin the next day, but I'm going to test using the device with other water-gel products I own and see how it performs. I can see where the friction of the device and ten minutes of massaging could cause that reaction, but for $75 and a recommendation to use the two together, I would hope it would hold up. Now, when I use the product on it's own without the device, it worked perfectly fine, no pilling. So, a bit of a divided opinion, but I wanted to share! It can also be used as a 15-min treatment or for the undereyes, but I've yet to try those two methods.
Skin Inc. My Daily Dose Custom Serum Blended Cocktail
Before you get your custom serum, you have to start with taking a pretty thorough quiz that asks you questions about your skin. I was pleasantly surprised at how in depth the quiz gets, and at the end it recommended these three:
Chlorella Serum: a revitalizing serum that brightens, reduces the appearance of pigmentation and reduces dullness.
Vitamin A Serum: helps to improve skin tone & claims to reduce the appearance of dark eye circles. I don't normally pull my serums up to my eyes, so I'm not sure about that last claim.
French Pine Bark Serum: an antioxidant serum for anti-aging, repair & protection from environmental stress
In general, my skin can get quite dull (due to its dryness), I have issues with tone & texture, and I'm pretty sure somewhere in the quiz I noted that I'd like to treat fine lines, so the choices seemed pretty spot-on. When you receive the package, the three serums are in separate bottles, and you get one empty bottle that you can pop them all into. The serum is quite viscous and has the beads in them that pop/dissolve once you pat it into your skin. The point of the beads btw is to keep the active ingredients protected from oxidation until they hit your skin. The serum is meant to last 6 months after opening (according to the period after opening time frame noted on the box), which makes sense to me since I'm flying through my bottle. I like the concept of creating a formula that's just for your skin, and apparently you can do more than 3 serums if you want. This is something I'll have to use for longer to report on actual effects it's having, but as of now it's hydrating and brightening (as I expect from most of my serums). Stay posted here or on my IG for updates!
If you made it to the end, I appreciate you. This was lengthier than I like to get, but let me know if you have questions about the device or any of the products! As with all of my reviews, this could work differently on different skin, and some are sensitive to light treatment while others need more intense means. Have you tried light therapy? Did you enjoy the results?
*all gifted, but opinions are my own