When someone talks about blue light, an image of a twinkling blue light might come to mind. However, in the skin care and personal care world, blue light is anything but sparkly-looking magic. Blue light or high energy visible light (HEVL) falls in the 400-500nm range, which causes skin damage including pigmentation, inflammation, weakening of the epidermal barrier and aging effects among other problems.

Long-term exposure to blue light, causes cells to produces reactive oxygen species—free radicals—which are responsible for premature skin aging and skin photo-aging.

In the long run, this damage induces similar physiological responses in the skin to UV exposure; leading to cytotoxicity in human cells, which translate to the typical signs of premature skin aging such as loss of elasticity, dryness and fine lines.

What’s the Damage?

Whether from sunlight or from artificial blue light off of electronic devices (tablets, smart phones, computers,… , blue light is all around us all the time. According to Mintel, U.S. millennials check their phones 157 times a day in comparison to adults who only check their phones 30 times a day. This exposes users to blue HEVL that affects sleep and reduces skin’s antioxidant levels.

Spending time in front of artificial blue light is increasing to the point where most countries are exposed for four hours per day on average.

While UV damage from the sun is well documented, until now less attention has been paid to the fact that blue light comes ‘right after’ UVA light in terms of wavelength and energy and may also evoke adverse effects. 

Recent studies show that blue light penetrated deep into the skin and therefore has the ability to damage all skin layers.

Damage Prevention

Blue light damage can be avoided by preventing the damage from reaching and penetrating the skin surface.

Some laboratories have developed specific filters to block blue light and these filters can be easily incorporated in ‘conventional’ sunscreen. Thus, the use of sunscreen with specific blue light filters seems to be the best protection against blue light damage.

How to protect the skin both outdoors and indoors:

1. Block the blue light on the skin’s surface
2. Counteract oxidative stress
3. Stimulate skin’s own defense with highly innovative actives

We believe daily protection against blue light is a great way to proactively fend off against its negative impact on the skin. By utilizing/introducing products into your daily personal care regimen that include ingredients that shield the skin from this wavelength, you may be able to minimize the signs of blue light damage and help prevent them.

The Blue Light Trend

While the personal care industry is slowly beginning to pick up on the topic of blue light damage, this issue has actually always been present from sunlight.

Only about a decade ago, the first smartphones have been introduced—and the future of the world lays in digitalization. Therefore, we clearly expect a constant increase of the artificial blue light damage.