Tria Skin Perfecting Blue Light

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you will know that I suffer from bad skin. I have been taking daily antibiotics for the best part of the year, with a slight improvement, but nothing too significant. I found that once my skin reached a certain level from the antibiotics, it stayed as a constant, and I needed something to give it that extra push. That's where the Tria came in.

The Tria Skin Perfecting Blue Light is a sleek, handheld device which emits a gentle non-UV light to eliminate spots and acne from deep within the skin which has been hailed as the "most effective deep cleansing system".

I'd never heard of blue light therapy before being introduced to the Tria, but with a bit of research I discovered dermatologists have used blue light in their clinics since 2002, but is very pricey. The Tria is 10 times more powerful than any other at home skin treatment, delivering a professional strength power previously only used by skin professionals.

It works by the blue light striking the acne bacteria cells living in the pores, killing them without affecting the surrounding tissue. This results in less clogged pores and spots.

The Tria is powered by a cartridge which gives you enough blue light for 2 months of use. You pop it into the base of the device, and away you go. Once the top of the Tria makes contact with your skin the blue light is automatially emitted. It also makes a noise a little like a fan, but it's not too loud.

Treatment time is 6 minutes a day - 3 in the morning, and 3 at night. You use the Tria on clean skin, working on your most congested areas. The digital display counts down your 3 minutes, with a beep at 1 and half minutes to let you know you're half way through. I use the first half of the treatment on my worst areas - if I have a big spot for instance, and then the remaining half on my other bad (but not quite as bad) areas. The device automatically switches off when the 3 minutes is up. The digital display also tells you how many treatments you have left within your cartridge, how much battery life is left, and when you need to replace your cartridge.

I find that the device tells me I need to replace the cartridge once in a while, when I don't need to - this is normally if I've traveled and taken it in a washbag - the cartridge has popped itself out, so if you have a Tria and you find you're being asked to change your cartridge, pop it back in just to check that you really do!

The battery tends to last me for around 4 days. It is charged by plugging the device into the wall - it takes up very little space and charges up quickly. It's not an eyesore so it really doesn't bother me it being out while it does charge.

I started using the Tria about 6 weeks ago, on cleansed skin, morning and night. After a week of using the device, my skin seemed to be worse. I worried that the Tria wasn't working for me, but I continued to use it, thinking of the 94% of users that say the frequency of breakouts was less after two weeks. I'm glad I kept at it, because once I got through my 'purge', my skin began to be a lot better.

I was still getting spots, those big, sore, hormonal chin boiley spots, which would normally take for ever (I'm talking 3 weeks a spot!) to die down. Although it hurt to hold the Tria onto them, as they are just so sensitive, they responded well to the treatment and within a few days they began to shrink. I love the Tria for this fact alone! It seems to dry spots without drying the rest of my skin.

I have continued to use the Tria and have been very pleased with the results. My skin feels smoother without feeling dry or tight and my breakout frequency is a massive amount less. My skin isn't perfect - I do still get spots, but it's the best it's it's been in a long long time. At least 10 years! I wouldn't normally dream of leaving the house without foundation on, but on holiday recently I went foundation free, which is a big thing for me!

It is an expensive product, at £229, which includes one cartridge, but if you spend a lot of money on lotions and potions to try to help your spots, you'd do well to give this a go. It comes with a 30 day money back guarantee so if you find it doesn't work for you, you can return it for a full refund. Don't expect instant results - stick with it and make sure you use it regularly, perhaps taking photos of your skin before treatment so you have something to refer back to to see how you're getting on.

Tria Skin Perfecting Blue Light is available at Harrods, Amazon and triabeauty.co.uk