Woods Lamp a Cool Tool for Your Skin

Want to know how to deal with dark spots on your skin?

Clear up bothersome breakouts?

Or achieve that lit-from-within glow?

While a good facial can do wonders.

A woods lamp will help you see what’s beneath the surface of your skin.

Here at the Naked Chemist, we are all about problem-solving skincare.

Join us as we explore this innovative tool and its potential to help you diagnose your skin conditions.

What is a Woods Lamp

A woods lamp is a tool that utilises illumination, emitting long-wave ultraviolet light to detect fluorescence in your skin or hair.

The wood’s lamp colour chart, also known as fluorescent spectroscopy, reveals changes in colour or fluorescence that correspond with specific skin conditions.

If your skin is free from underlying conditions, it will not exhibit fluorescence or glow under normal lighting conditions.

Yellow spots may appear if your skin tends to be oily, while dehydrated skin may display purple spots.

A woods lamp can also be used for an eye exam, helping to determine if you have a corneal abrasion or a scratch on the surface of your eye.

What to Expect From Your Treatment

The procedure is straightforward. Your skin care specialist will darken the room and position the wood’s lamp base around 4 to 5 inches from your face.

They will then observe any changes in fluorescence.

No special preparations are needed beforehand. However, certain skincare products can cause the skin to change colour under the wood lamp.

Therefore, we recommend keeping your skin clean and avoiding the application of any products or perfume before the treatment.

Wood’s Lamp Exam Diagnose?

The woods lamp colours can provide valuable insights into your skin’s condition, as this study found.

Normal skin appears blue under the wood’s lamp, indicating good skin condition.

Dehydrated skin exhibits a light purple hue, signifying a lack of moisture.

Sensitive and thin skin appears purple, indicating fragility.

Wound infections are vivid green under the wood’s lamp.

Oily skin or comedones show up as yellow spots on the skin.

Thick skin or a buildup of dead skin cells manifests as white spots on the skin.

Acne appears orange/red due to cutibacteria in the hair follicles.

Porphyria, a genetic disorder that causes rashes and blistering, presents as a red/pink discolouration.

Hyperpigmentation appears in th form of melanin in areas with clearly defined borders under the wood light.

Fungal infections, such as pityriasis versicolor, emit a yellow/orange glow, typically seen on the chest or back.

Vitiligo, which causes loss of skin colour, manifests as blue-white or yellow-green discolouration in affected areas where melanin production is compromised.

Will the Wood’s Lamp Harm My Skin?

The examination is painless and safe, and the light emitted by the lamp won’t damage your skin.

Wood lamp examination is concise and unlikely to cause any damage, even if you have photosensitive skin.

To conclude. The naked truth

As skincare specialists, we can gather more information about your skin when performing a wood’s lamp test.

Skin conditions that the naked eye can’t see are often more visible, which helps to provide an accurate diagnosis.

Ultimately, this enables you to understand your skin and any conditions for effective treatment.

The next time you book a facial, consider checking whether the salon offers a wood lamp facial analysis to ensure you get the best results from your treatment.

Are you keen to examine your skin more closely? The article “How the Sun Sees You” is worth reading. It examines people’s hyperpigmentation using this light.