I buy the devices I test unless the article says otherwise. Some links and discount codes on this site are paid links: if you buy through one, I earn a commission. It never changes a score or a verdict.
I wore the CurrentBody Series 2 LED Mask for 50 sessions across 12 weeks, then the FOREO FAQ Swiss 202 across 4 weeks. CurrentBody presses roughly 110 light points (dual-led) against your face and sells for $470, while the FOREO fires 50 LEDs sideways into a transparent silicone sheet and sells for $799…
So here are both scores, the real LED count for each mask, and the one number this whole comparison turns on.
CurrentBody Series 2 vs FOREO FAQ Swiss 202
| CurrentBody Series 2 | FOREO FAQ Swiss 202 | |
|---|---|---|
| Price on the US site | $469.99 | $799 |
| Irradiance published by the brand | 30 mW/cm² | not shared by FOREO |
| Dose per session | 18 J/cm² over 10 minutes | not shared by FOREO |
| LEDs advertised | 236 dual-core LEDs | 600 light points, but no LED |
| Light points at your skin | About 110 light points | 0. All 50 LEDs sit in the frame |
| Wavelengths | 633 nm, 830 nm, 1072 nm | 8, and FOREO admits 5 of them have no intended medical effect |
| Session | 10 minutes, 3 to 5 times a week | Up to 15 minutes |
| FDA 510(k) file | K250966, applicant Shenzhen Kaiyan Medical Equipment | K240378, applicant Foreo, Inc. |
| Clinical study on this model | 35 subjects, 56 days, laboratory named | Mask plus serum, 30 subjects, 28 days, no laboratory named |
| Warranty | 2 years | 2 years |
| What my test came to | 50 sessions, 12 weeks | 20 sessions, 4 weeks |
| Score | 72/100, Emilie Approved | 36/100, Shelved |
In terms of characteristics to compare, CurrentBody shares the irradiance (light output) of the LED mask, the number of LED, and a study run on the model. FOREO communicates on “600 light points” which are just holes in the silicone, which do not emit any light.
What I tested: the CurrentBody Series 2 and the FOREO FAQ Swiss 202
The CurrentBody ran on alternate evenings between April 1 and July 1. That is about 50 sessions, 10 minutes each.
The FOREO came after, all through August, five evenings a week on red only. I cut that one short at week 4, half the window I normally give a mask, because my skin was losing ground.
Nobody sent me either mask. I paid $470 for the CurrentBody Skin LED Light Therapy Face Mask: Series 2 in its red light version, and $799 for the FAQ Swiss 202.
Both masks go through the same grid of seven criteria, weighted identically. My testing method page spells out what each criterion is worth.
Results: CurrentBody 3/5 · FOREO 1.5/5
What changed on my face following my test, including my before-and-after photos. I also evaluate the “before-and-after” examples provided by the brand being tested, as well as the results of any studies that may have been conducted on the mask.
Read my results guideCurrentBody: my own before & after
12 weeks and 50 sessions produced nothing on my skin: not a smoother texture, not a softer line. CurrentBody’s own page says results show at 4 weeks and their study runs to 8 weeks. Although I did not get positive results, I did not get negative ones either, and this is a good sign considering I am using one of the best LED masks in my usual routine (600 LEDs, 50 mW/cm²…).
CurrentBody’s before & after
CurrentBody publishes before & after but they are from customers… So I do not value those much, because a good Before & After needs to be done in clear conditions, best during a study with dermatologists.
The seller picked those frames and the seller lit them. A rating widget running on a brand’s own store is not evidence gathered under any protocol, so I have some concerns about that. The whole 12 week test is laid out in my CurrentBody Series 2 review.
FOREO: my own before & after
I do have two photographs here, because I was surprised by how badly it went. Three weeks in, the evenness I had at the start was gone, and my nose pores were photographing bigger under the same lamp. That is why I stopped at week 4 rather than week 8.
That is not the FAQ 202 damaging my skin. I had swapped out a dense mask for this one, so those 4 weeks are mostly slow gains unwinding. You can see more about my results on my FOREO FAQ Swiss 202 LED mask review.
FOREO’s study, and the before & after
FOREO’s clinical page claims wrinkles down 32%, acne down 48% and sebum down 18% in 2 weeks, on the strength of a study they describe in a single sentence: a 3rd party clinical study over 28 days with FAQ LED Mask and FAQ Red Light Serum, involving 30 female subjects aged 20 to 45.
The serum is inside the protocol, so every one of those three figures belongs to the pair and not to the mask, and I found no registration, no laboratory name, no control group and no information on the tool used to measure these numbers…
Regarding the before & after, the model’s skin for FOREO has a few marks but no sign of aging, and the two frames are shot from far enough away that no texture is readable… A before and after that means anything is macro, instrumented and ideally run by a laboratory.
Irradiance: CurrentBody 3.5/5 · FOREO 1/5
How much light reaches the skin, in mW/cm²? I evaluate this value, as well as how the information is presented, the conditions under which it was measured, and the total dose received in a single session. If the brand does not communicate it, I give it a severe rating.
Read my irradiance guideIrradiance counts how much light power reaches your skin, in mW/cm². Run that against the length of a session and out comes the dose, in J/cm², and the dose is what the red light literature actually reports. It is a key metric to compare LED masks!
- CurrentBody Series 2 30
- FOREO FAQ Swiss 202 not disclosed
CurrentBody: 30 mW/cm², and 18 J/cm² a session
CurrentBody LED mask is 30 mW/cm², printed on the spec sheet, so a 10 minute cycle works out at 18 J/cm². 30 isn’t much, so I need 5 sessions a week to maintain a sufficient dose on my skin.
The other gap is that CurrentBody does not specify if the 30mW/cm² is measured at the surface of a LED or at the skin level, since a distance of 2 centimeters from the skin results in a significant loss of light output. Nevertheless, I prefer LED masks that offer a higher irradiance, such as 50 mW/cm² at the skin surface.
FOREO: no irradiance published anywhere
Not on the product page, not in the manual, not on the clinical results page, not in the FDA record. So I cannot clearly compare this criterion of irradiance, but you will see in the next one that the light output for FOREO is very low because of its design itself…
Coverage: CurrentBody 3.5/5 · FOREO 1/5
How many points of light does the mask actually feature, how evenly are they distributed, and which areas remain uncovered? Note that I am counting “bulbs” and not LEDs, because the number of LEDs often includes two, three or more diodes per bulb, which inflates the apparent coverage area.
Read my coverage guideCurrentBody: 236 LEDs for 110 light spots
The 236 LEDs split across three wavelengths:
- 110 red at 633 nm,
- 110 near-infrared at 830 nm,
- and 16 deep near-infrared at 1072 nm.
Red and near-infrared occupy the same wells of the mold, one stacked on the other, so what reaches my face is 110 spots and not 236. Every brand communicates on the number of LEDs, but be careful and directly count the light spots, which is important to assess the coverage of your skin under the light.
Light lands on my jaw and under my chin thanks to the 3D mold, where several masks I’ve worn stop at the cheekbones. But 110 light spots is still low, leading to serious gaps on the face.
FOREO: 600 light points, but 50 LEDs?
FOREO’s number is misleading because I counted 50 actual LEDs, all of them inside the gold headband, aimed at the rim of the sheet rather than at a face. Light enters the silicone at the perimeter and crosses it.
Neither mask puts direct light on the bridge of my nose, my upper lip, or the strip of skin next to my eyes, but the FOREO also stops above my jaw, and its open gold frame takes out the eye contour on top of that.
So with the FOREO LED mask, you do not have LEDs pointing at the face skin, but through holes which “redirect” the light on the skin. Yes, this is terribly weak, and you can see the low density of it compared to CurrentBody’s led mask below.
Proof: CurrentBody 4.5/5 · FOREO 3/5
What the brand clearly displays and what I check in the FDA file: wavelengths (in nm), emitted dose, FDA clearance number, product study, safety tests, warranty.
Read my proof guide| Audit point | CurrentBody Series 2 | FOREO FAQ Swiss 202 |
|---|---|---|
| Wavelengths given in nm | ✓ 633, 830, 1072 | ✓ 850, 650, 600, 580, 520, 485, 465, 440 |
| Dose per session calculable in J/cm² | ✓ 18 J/cm² over 10 minutes | ✗ no irradiance to calculate from |
| FDA clearance number cited and verifiable | ✓ K250966, though the number is nowhere on their site | ✓ K240378, though the number is nowhere on their site |
| Clinical study run on this exact model | ✓ on the Series 2, not the Series 1 | ✗ run with a serum, on a mask with no model number |
| Study documented: size, duration, laboratory | ✓ 35 subjects, 56 days, laboratory named, measurement points listed | ✗ 30 subjects, 28 days, no laboratory, no control group |
| Photobiological safety declared | ✓ IEC 62471 listed in the FDA summary of K250966 | ✓ EU declaration of conformity, in the manual |
| Warranty and support documented | ✓ 2 years, returns policy published | ✓ 2 years limited, full public manual |
CurrentBody: a FDA file that belongs to the factory
CurrentBody ran their clinical study on this exact mask, and there is enough of it on the page to check: a cohort of 35, a window of 56 days, a named laboratory, and the points on the face where they measured.
What bothers me is the applicant line on K250966. It reads Shenzhen Kaiyan Medical Equipment Co., Ltd., so the company on the hook with the regulator is the plant, not the brand you bought from. Contract manufacturing is how most of these LED masks get built, but I prefer when it is associated with the brand itself in terms of security.
FOREO: the better FDA file of the two
This is the one place FOREO wins. K240378 covers the FAQ 201 and the FAQ 202, it was decided on April 19, 2024, and the applicant on the file is Foreo, Inc. The brand holds its own Class II clearance, which is better paperwork than CurrentBody’s. Cleared is still not approved, and the two are separate procedures.
But under the color chart, you can read on FOREO’s website: Green, Orange, Purple, Cyan, Yellow light are not intended to have a medical effect. So the actual work falls to three wavelengths, red at 650 nm, blue at 465 nm and near-infrared at 850 nm, while the other 5 modes exist for marketing purposes. I never recommend paying for a color count on an LED mask, and here the brand has written that disclaimer itself.
Comfort: CurrentBody 4/5 · FOREO 3/5
Fit, weight, heat, eye comfort and minor inconveniences: straps, timer, battery. A mask that becomes a chore to wear several evenings a week scores poorly in these areas, as using it should be a pleasant experience!
Read my comfort guideCurrentBody: 10 minutes, and it ends by itself
Soft silicone, no heat building up, and a 3D mold that sits down onto my cheeks and jaw rather than arching over them. Hard-shell masks dig into my cheekbones, flat ones hang away from my chin, and this one avoids both. The session is easy to do: straps on, controller clipped, 10 minutes, and the mask shuts itself off.
I recommend the eye inserts, for comfort but also to avoid any damage to the eyes. Once they are clipped into the mold I can read my phone for the whole 10 minutes, eyes open, and walk away with no afterimage.
However, a molded ridge crosses the bridge of the nose. I noticed it every single time, never to the point of pain, though something that mild and that constant does add up over three months.
FOREO: no timer on the device
FOREO is the lightest LED mask I tested, at 0.4 lb. The forehead battery never bothered me, and I could keep my eyes open and read for 10 minutes with no shields at all, which is a real advantage. It stayed put, and across 20 sessions nothing came of it: no heat, no sweating, no pressure marks, no tired eyes. But it is also useless considering the light output is too low…
And I still used it for a few weeks, so I’ve been able to quickly see how the silicone sheet gets dirty, and unless you clean it after every session it stops being pleasant against the skin. FOREO sells a spray for exactly this…
Also, the FAQ 202 LED mask has no timer because there is no remote. I need to turn on the LED mask through the button on the forehead, or by using the FAQ Swiss app. So I ran a phone timer for all 20 sessions because opening an app to recover a basic countdown makes a home device less convenient than I expect it to be.
Overall the CurrentBody is the nicer of the two to wear.
Value: CurrentBody 3.5/5 · FOREO 1/5
The price I paid, when viewed in the context of the results achieved and compared to other masks I have tested, both within this price range and at different price points.
Read my value guideCurrentBody: $469.99
At $469.99 the CurrentBody is not cheap, and what I am still short of at that price is light on the places I wanted it, which is the whole job of a full-face mask. That is why its Value stops at 3.5, as the irradiance is also one of the lowest on the market (30mW/cm²).
If the CurrentBody is still the one for you, my code EMILIE15 takes 10% off on CurrentBody’s US shop, and the conditions are on my CurrentBody discount code page. It’s a paid link, so I earn a commission when the code is used.
FOREO: $799
The FOREO costs $329 more but is worse than CurrentBody. Fewer LEDs, none of them facing your skin, no power figure, no clear clinical study… I’d rather pay for a denser LED mask like the Nooance Elite X600, with higher light output power and direct coverage. In my ranking of the best LED masks the two sit at opposite ends: the Series 2 on the podium, the FOREO second to last.
Safety & support: CurrentBody 4/5 · FOREO 3/5
Eye protection, build quality, warranty, returns, responsiveness of customer support, and the mask’s ability to remain functional over time.
Read my safety & support guideCurrentBody support
Their manual is more thorough than most: every contraindication listed, a sensitivity test on the inner arm 24 hours ahead, required before the mask ever reaches a face, and a 14 day refund standing behind it should the skin react.
I did the patch test and it gave me nothing, and the shell stayed cool through all 50 sessions. On the support side: 2 years of standard cover against manufacturing faults, and a returns policy that is actually published.
FOREO support
FOREO’s manual rules out running a session on top of Vitamin A, Retinol / Retinoids, AHAs, Benzoyl Peroxide and Vitamin C, which is a common restriction with red light therapy. There is a 2 year limited warranty and an EU declaration of conformity, and my own unit got through its 20 sessions with nothing failing: no overheating, no dead diode, no reaction on my skin.
Neither FOREO nor CurrentBody prints an IEC 62471 risk group, the classification that tells you whether a light source is safe to look at, and for how many minutes. Both declare the testing, FOREO through its EU declaration of conformity and CurrentBody in the FDA summary of K250966, and nobody selling LED masks prints the group itself, so I count that as a hole in the market rather than a fault of either brand.
Who shouldn’t buy the CurrentBody or the FOREO
Skip both if you recognize yourself
- What you want treated is the nose, the upper lip or the skin beside the eyes. Both masks are cut open there, so you would be paying for light that never lands where you need it.
- A denser mask you are happy with is already sitting in your bathroom. Many LED masks have more than 120 points of light.
- You have skin issues, or you take a medication that causes photosensitivity. Consult your medical doctor if you have a specific condition.
Am I still using the CurrentBody or the FOREO?
Updated November 2026. I have a better LED mask than the two compared here, but the CurrentBody Series 2 is still a good first LED mask. The FOREO went back in its case at week 4 and I returned to my usual mask the same evening.
CurrentBody vs FOREO: your questions
CurrentBody Series 2 or FOREO FAQ 202: which LED mask is better?
The CurrentBody, by a wide margin: 72/100 against 36/100 on my grid. Neither one changed my skin in a way I could photograph, so the gap comes from everything you can check before you buy. CurrentBody publishes an irradiance, a calculable dose and a study run on the model in the box, and it costs $329.01 less.
Does the FOREO FAQ 202 really have 600 LEDs?
No. FOREO advertises 600 LED light points, which are just holes molded through the silicone sheet. I counted 50 actual LEDs, fixed in the headband and firing at the rim of the sheet, and nothing else in the mask emits any light.
How much light does each mask deliver?
CurrentBody publishes 30 mW/cm², which over a 10 minute session works out at 18 J/cm². That’s arithmetic on their claim, not a reading of mine. FOREO publishes no irradiance anywhere, so the same calculation can’t be run at all.
Are both LED masks FDA approved?
Neither, and the two words aren’t interchangeable. Both are FDA cleared, which is a 510(k) decision granted because a comparable device was already on sale. CurrentBody’s file is K250966 and the applicant is Shenzhen Kaiyan Medical Equipment, the plant that builds it. FOREO’s is K240378, decided April 19, 2024, and the applicant is Foreo, Inc. itself.
Did I run the two LED masks at the same time?
No, and it matters. The CurrentBody ran from April 1 to July 1, every other day, about 50 sessions. The FOREO ran through August, 5 evenings a week, 20 sessions, and I stopped it 4 weeks early. Both replaced the denser mask I normally wear, so both started from the same handicap.
Test log
- Exact models
- CurrentBody Skin LED Light Therapy Face Mask: Series 2, red light version, MK-90H · FOREO FAQ Swiss 202, not the 202 plus
- How I got them
- Both bought with my own money, $469.99 and $799, on each brand’s US site.
- Test windows
- CurrentBody April 1 to July 1, 2026, 12 weeks · FOREO through August 2026, 4 weeks
- Sessions
- CurrentBody: alternate days, 10 minutes, about 50 in all · FOREO: five evenings a week, 10 minutes on red, 20 in all. 70 sessions overall
About Emilie
I have tested LED masks since 2023. I buy the devices, use them for weeks, and read the spec sheets nobody reads, because this market runs on numbers most brands never publish. Not a dermatologist, and I say so whenever a question needs one.