Collagen tanning: what the lamps do, and what they do not

Collagen tanning is ten minutes standing in a booth that runs two kinds of lamp at once: UVA and UVB tubes, which give you a tan, and red collagen lamps, which give you a dose of red light. The name is a marketing shorthand and it deserves a plain explanation. The tan comes from the UV and carries every consideration a normal sunbed does. The red lamps are photobiomodulation, the same category as Red Light Therapy, and the skin evidence lives there. No lamp of any kind puts collagen into your skin. This article separates the two, states the UV rules without softening them, and tells you who should skip it.

Two lamps, two different jobs

Think of the booth as two products sharing a cabinet.

• The UV lamps emit ultraviolet, mostly UVA with some UVB. UV triggers pigment cells in the skin to produce melanin, which is what darkens. This is the only part of the session that changes your colour.
• The collagen lamps emit visible red light, roughly in the 600 to 700 nanometre range. They contain no UV. They do not tan you. They deliver the kind of light used in the skin trials we describe in our red light articles.

The tan comes from UV, and UV comes with rules

The UV half is not harmless, and every reputable body says so. Cancer Research UK puts it bluntly: there is no such thing as safe UV tanning, and a tan from a sunbed does not protect you from burning later. The World Health Organization classifies UV-emitting tanning devices as carcinogenic to humans and has published guidance encouraging governments to restrict them. The Dutch food and consumer safety authority, the NVWA, sets the rules that apply to every tanning device in the Netherlands, including ours. So here are the considerations, stated plainly.

1. Skin type. If you have very fair skin that burns and never tans, red hair, many moles or freckles, or a personal or family history of skin cancer, do not use UV. The NVWA rules require us to refuse you, and we will.
2. Cumulative exposure. UV damage adds up over a lifetime. Every session counts, on top of every hour in the sun. Fewer sessions is always better than more. If you are using it, keep it occasional.
3. No tanning under 18. This is Dutch law and it is not negotiable. We check.
4. Eye protection. Closed eyelids do not block UV. You wear the goggles we provide for the full ten minutes.
5. Medication and skin products. Some antibiotics, acne medicines and other drugs make skin far more sensitive to UV. Some perfumes and creams do too. If you take anything, check with your pharmacist first and come with clean skin.

Before your first session you complete a short intake covering skin type, medication and history, as the NVWA requires.

The red lamps: a red light dose

The collagen lamps are the part with an evidence base, and the evidence is the same as for Red Light Therapy. The best-known trial, Wunsch and Matuschka in 2014, gave 136 volunteers red and near-infrared light twice a week for fifteen weeks and found measurably smoother skin and higher collagen density on ultrasound compared with an untreated group. That is some evidence, and it applies to regular sessions over months, not to a single visit. It is also worth being precise: those trials used dedicated panels at set distances. A tanning booth delivers a red light dose, but it is a different device with a different geometry, and nobody has run the same trial inside one. If red light for skin is your main goal, the ten minute Red Light Therapy session or the Omnilux Contour mask gives you that dose without any UV attached.

No lamp puts collagen into your skin

Collagen is a protein your body builds itself. Light cannot carry it and light cannot inject it. What the red light trials suggest is that a regular dose can nudge the cells that make collagen to make a little more over time. That is a real and interesting finding. It is not the same as adding collagen, and any brochure that says or implies otherwise is overselling. The name is the industry's name for the booth. We would rather explain it than pretend it means more than it does.

Practical: ten minutes, and who should skip it

The session is ten minutes standing, both lamp types on, goggles on. It costs 1 credit or €9.

Skip it entirely if you are under 18, pregnant, have skin type one, have had skin cancer or have a close relative who has, take photosensitising medication, have a sunburn, or have had a lot of sun recently. Skip the UV but not the red light if you simply want the skin benefit: book Red Light Therapy instead.

How it fits into a week at Freezlab

Collagen Tanning is an occasional extra, not a weekly habit. Most members who use it do so a few times before a holiday or an event, and use Red Light Therapy as their regular skin session. Read the full rules on the Collagen Tanning page, complete the intake on your first visit, and book a session. If you are on the Trial Membership, one credit is an easy way to see whether it is for you.

Freezlab does not diagnose, treat or cure medical conditions. If you are unsure whether a therapy suits you, talk to your doctor.