Review: Shark CryoGlow

Youth is wasted on the young, as the saying goes, and certainly my collagen reserves were wasted on me in my twenties. With no skin care routine in sight and a (now-alien) belief that sunscreen was merely optional, I just assumed that plump, glowy, fine-line-free skin would always stick around. Spoiler alert: It didn’t, and now I’m trying everything to put things right.

Red light therapy is one of the most discussed skin care hacks right now, in what is becoming an increasingly scientific, research-led space. It’s not new, exactly—I was reading about its benefits five or more years ago, but it has crept slowly out of doctors' offices and into at-home devices. The Shark CryoGlow is one of the more recent launches in this space.

Photograph: Verity Burns

As a US Food and Drug Administration–cleared mask, it has been developed with dermatologists and comes with its fair share of bold claims from clinical trials. It uses Shark’s iQLED technology, which combines red, blue, and deep infrared light into two modes focused on blemish clearing and fine-line reduction. The quoted stats are certainly impressive—under daily use, Shark says, the mask has been clinically tested to improve acne, redness, and skin smoothness in four weeks, while wrinkles and skin luminosity were improved in eight weeks.

The CryoGlow also has a little extra party trick up its sleeve, in the form of the under-eye cooling pads, which have three levels of chill to help tackle tired and puffy eyes.

I decided to put all these claims to the test by stopping all active skin care and strapping the mask to my face every day for over eight weeks. While I planned to document the changes myself, I also thought it might be helpful to dig a little deeper into the condition of my skin, so I could better assess the changes (if any) that the CryoGlow delivered in the timeframe.

Photograph: Verity Burns

I spoke to Sally Wheeler, who owns an aesthetics business and is a lead aesthetics nurse for the British Association of Medical Aesthetic Nurses. She recommended I try a device called the Observ 520x, an in-clinic skin-analyzing device that takes photos to assess skin health, both on the surface and below. I would do this before and after my review period of at least eight weeks to see how my results compare.

My main skin concerns I was keen to tackle with the mask were fine lines, skin dullness, and puffy eyes, but as it turns out, the impact of the mask went deeper than that.

Skin Deep

There are two main modes on the Shark CryoGlow—Better Aging (six minutes; red and infrared LED) and Blemish Repair (eight minutes; blue, red, and infrared). You can use either of these with or without the under-eye cooling on, plus there is also just a mode for the under-eye pads if you need a boost. The Skin Sustain mode, which also uses all three lights, is a shorter, four-minute program that Shark encourages you to use after completing one of the longer programs for at least eight weeks.

Not all masks feature blue-light LEDs. That might be because the research is a little less in-depth on its efficacy, but it is out there and shows that the light works best on attacking the bacteria behind conditions like acne and rosacea. Its inclusion here makes this a great mask for those with multiple or changing skin concerns, though it will only help once a breakout has occurred, rather than prevent it.

What we do know from research is that there are wavelengths of light that the masks should hit to be most effective. This is generally accepted to be 415 nm for blue light, 633 nm for visible red light, and 830 nm in infrared. The Shark CryoGlow comes close to a perfect score, hitting the mark on blue and infrared but falling just a touch short with red LED, where it comes in at 630 nm (but anywhere between 630 and 660 nm is considered good).

Irradiance (how powerful the mask is) is measured at 128 mW/cm², which is actually pretty high. Higher irradiance doesn't necessarily mean better, but it does mean that it can be as effective with shorter treatment periods. The slight downside is that the mask can warm up a little during use though, but not so much that it ever felt concerning.

Photograph: Shark

I decided to use Better Aging for my eight-week review, though I did opted for a few sessions of Blemish Repair on occasion (thank you, hormones!). Shark recommends only using one mode per day, as multiple sessions can increase the chances of dry skin or hyperpigmentation.

The CryoGlow comes with a useful connected handset, which enables you to choose, pause, and keep track of your sessions, turn on and adjust the under-eye pad cooling level, and see how much time you have left on your session. It also gives an indication of battery life. Having previously used CurrentBody’s LED mask that doesn't have this feature, I found it really useful—particularly for keeping track of where my session was at.

Where the CryoGlow falls down against the CurrentBody mask, and other flexible masks like it, is its weight and the fact it is a solid construction. While I have used LED masks lying down, I found the CryoGlow to sit a bit too heavy for that. Instead, I used it while doing other tasks and walking around the house (much to my children’s amusement). At least it was productive.

Then, when I had to go away for work for almost a whole week during testing, I had to pack it in my hand luggage. (As LED masks have a battery, make sure you never pack it in your checked luggage.) It was quite awkwardly shaped for my backpack and took up a lot of space. It was amusing watching it go through the baggage scanner, though.

As someone with perpetually puffy eyes, the under-eye cooling was of particular interest to me—though it has to be said that those pads really are cold. I found the least-cold, level 1 more than cold enough, though there are two higher settings if you’re feeling tougher. The fans are quite loud when using the cooling pads though, and having cooling switched on does have a pretty big impact on battery life (it charges via USB-C into the handset). Having the cooling pads there also means the under-eye area isn’t able to benefit from the LED light therapy either, which is something to consider for anyone with aging concerns around their eyes.

It’s worth noting that if you were hoping to use the under-eye cooling mode on its own as a bit of an eye reviver before work or a night out, just make sure you give your skin some time to bounce back from the outline of the pads, and also the forehead support pad, before you’re out the door. They leave a bit of an imprint on your skin, but it fades after five or so minutes.

Using the mask was a pleasant experience, and establishing a routine with the mask was pretty easy—probably because I didn’t have to carve out any time from my day to accommodate it. I found evening time after I removed my makeup (you need to use the mask with cleansed skin) the best for me, but did throw in a few morning sessions instead when my eyes felt particularly puffy.

There are masks that are recommended to be used less frequently for longer, but doing it daily for less time actually felt easier to remember and incorporate. You will need to use it consistently to see an improvement, so it’s important it’s something you think you can stick to before you invest.

Mask On, Mask Off

But did it actually make a difference? Anecdotally, I definitely felt my skin looked brighter, people who didn’t know I was using a mask asked me what I’d done to or been using on my skin, and the static fine lines that are creeping in on my forehead looked improved, to my eyes. I also had a flare-up of some perioral dermatitis that can be really hard to shift but which cleared up pretty quickly following a switch to the Blemish program for a week.

However, what the Observ 520x picked was even more interesting from an overall skin health perspective. In what may be the worst pictures that I ever put of myself on the internet (all in the name of science), I think there has been an improvement in how dark my pigmentation/sun damage is below the surface—particularly on my cheeks—and an improvement to the amount of inflammation on my forehead and chin and under my eyes. While these things may not be so clear to the naked eye, I think my skin also looks smoother, plumper, and brighter when comparing the “daylight” pictures side by side, and fine lines my forehead look less deep.

Before: Regular light

After: Regular light

Before: Pigmentation

After: Pigmentation

Before: Inflammation

After: Inflammation

Before: True UV

After: True UV

Unfortunately, no matter how good a mask it is, it can’t stop breakouts from happening, and I did have an unfortunately timed rosacea flare-up the day before my second scan, which is the reason for the increased redness on my nose. But the mask did help to clear this up in the coming days and has done with further instances, too. I hadn’t used blue LED before this mask, and I really believe it’s been helpful for my skin when these breakouts occur.

As someone who is always trying new things for her skin, and with a tendency to flit between them without being consistent, seeing these results has definitely made me feel confident in LED therapy as an at-home skin care treatment, which makes me more likely to stick with it. The fact that the Shark CryoGlow has clearly been delivering it effectively too means it should be one for your short list.