I fully admit that I’m a little late at jumping on the at home light skin care treatment band wagon. Plenty of studies have found that at home LED lights do in fact work. I love the idea of being able to fight aging or acne without a chemical. But, I’m also a time pressed (and lazy) person. It’s simply faster to slather on a cream or lotion and be done with it.
Tanda Zap is my first real experience with light therapy and I have to say that so far I’m impressed. The Tanda Zap is a bit different than other at home LED therapies. First, it is a targeted spot treatment. Second, it isn’t only light. It also incorporates heat and sonic vibration. I guess to shake the pimple out of your skin?
The hand held device is about the size of a C battery, but longer. Why is this my point of reference? Because every baby item in my house runs on C batteries. We should all buy stock in Duracell. Anyways, it is pretty small and lightweight. At one end there are little plastic bumps, and this is where the light comes out of. When I turn it on there is a very light vibration, though it isn’t very obvious. The end lights up blue, and after about a minute it is faintly warm. The entire treatment lasts about 2 minutes and should be performed about 2-3 times a day on affected areas.
I was going to do a little info on how the blue light works. But then I found that over at Future Derm you can read Nicki’s little summary as she’s already done a more scientific sounding overview than I would have done. The bottom line is the blue light affect P. Acnes, the bacteria responsible for acne, and after a little while the bacteria basically self implodes. The light should work for pretty much any type of acne except for cystic, which is not recommended as it may be extra painful.
The light bulb works for about 10,000 uses, but once it is used up you’ll need a new Tanda Zap. Considering it only costs $50, I think this is less expensive per use than any of the over the counter acne spot treatments.
So, after all of that, does this little gizmo actually work??? I think it does. Now that I only have sporadic outbreaks, I’ve been in the market for a spot treatment that works and doesn’t dry out the surrounding skin. The Tanda Zap is my answer. I’ve had a few blemishes over the last several weeks, and they have all resolved in less than 12 hours after being exposed to the Tanda Zap once or twice. Seriously. For realz. The pimple is completely gone, and all I did was hold this little blue light over it for a few minutes.
I’m telling all of my friends to get one.
I’m a doctor, a mommy and a bit of a beauty addict. If you let me, I can take 2 hours to get ready in the morning. Really. I'm on a quest for faster beauty that works!
I wonder if this light would have any adverse effect on broken blood vessels under the skin?
I don't think it would. The light is in the visible blue range of the spectrum (not what they use to laser away blood vessels) and the heat isn't very prominent.
Not sure… let us know! 🙂
I put a lot of trust in your opinions and recommendations. I just feel this sounded like a commercial for the product…. I hope I am wrong…
How long have you tested it for you to draw this conclusion? I have searched the web but the overall reviews are not so favorable.
Sounds like a commercial? I'm not sure I was that favorable. Legally I have to tell you if something is a sponsored post (which I have never had on this site) or if I got a sample that I reviewed. I got a sample. I'm actually known for having a straight forward policy about disclosures (I'm used as an example in a few books about social media for this and I was featured on Forbes.com, strangely enough). So, it's not a commercial. The sample they gave me retails for $49, though it like cost the company about $5 to make it and maybe $5 in shipping? Lying about my feelings for a product that cost $10 for the company truthfully wouldn't make sense or be worth it. So, this is just my experience with the product.
I've had it for about 3 weeks, though my body is somewhat hormone crazy right now (breast feeding, period, still ramping down from being pregnant), so I've been having a few blemish issues. I've used this on all of them with good results. I haven't read anyone else's reviews on it (I purposefully avoid people's reviews of products until I've written about something myself so I don't become baised.) so I can't tell you how I compare to other reviews. For me this was an unusual amount of blemishes, so I felt ok posting about it.
I do want to point out that my blemishes (those of a 33 year old with just some hormonal fluctuations) are probably easier to treat than those with severe, persistent acne.
Hi! Your blog is very cool, I am a nre follower!
Would you like to be my follower too?
http://nuvoledibellezza.blogspot.com/
not sure about that, let i check that.
I definitely have high hopes for this. I have a mini zeno and it really works well.
PS- I don't think it sounds like a commercial at all! Your reviews are always honest and you seem to do a fair amount of negative/neutral or comparison reviews where a lot of blogs just avoid saying anything negative. Bravo for that.
That thing looks pretty promising. Light treatments at a dr.'s office are very expensive.
I hope it works better than the zeno. I bought one of those and it did absolutely nothing for me.
I've been using a prescription cream called duac for about 5 years now and it works great. I would be nice to find something that is OTC that works well for me too 🙂
I was getting all excited until you said it's not suggested for cystic, that's the only type I have a major problem with. Back to the drawing board, I guess ^.^
I'm so glad you mentioned you used this while nursing. My aunt got me one while I was pregnant but I knew not to use it then. I'm still breaking out a lot (thanks hormones) and was hoping this might help. I was hesitant to use it though since said hormones can make your skin do weird things.
Can you use this device during pregnancy?
All light therapy is recommended to avoid in pregnancy. We don’t have evidence either way really.
Thank you very much! 🫶🏼