Who is Emilie, the French reviewer testing American LED masks?

In short. Tested by Emilie is a review site run by one person, a French beauty creator named Emilie. Each mask is bought with her own money, worn for two to three months, and scored on a public grid of seven criteria, with before and after pictures to share her results. Emilie has reviewed beauty products on camera since 2020 and LED masks since 2023, more than thirty of them so far.

A creator who got tired of taking brands at their word

Emilie didn't set out to become the person who reads FDA paperwork for fun. For years she filmed the kind of beauty reviews people watch on a Sunday evening: a cream, a serum, a little gadget, what it felt like, whether it was worth the money. Then, around 2023, the shelves changed. LED masks went from a curiosity to something every brand seemed to sell, each one costing several hundred dollars and each one promising firmer, calmer, clearer skin in a few weeks.

She noticed something about those promises. Nobody around her could tell her whether any of them were true. The brands had glossy before and after galleries, the influencers had glowing unboxings, and none of it answered the only question she had, which was what happens if an ordinary person wears this thing, every evening, for two months. So she decided to find out herself, one mask at a time, and to write down what she saw.

More than thirty masks later, that is still the whole idea behind Tested by Emilie. She is someone with combination skin, a good camera, and the patience to keep going long after most reviewers would have posted and moved on.

What two months with a mask really looks like

The romantic version of LED mask testing is a woman in a glowing red visor, looking serene. The real version, as Emilie describes it, is ten minutes on the couch several evenings a week with your eyes closed, a strap that may or may not start digging in around minute eight, and the small daily negotiation of whether you can be bothered tonight.

That is precisely what she is watching for. The first weeks tell her how a mask fits, how hot it runs, how much light leaks around the eyes. By week five she says the real question has usually answered itself: is she still reaching for the mask, or quietly walking past it on the shelf? A device that only survives a week of enthusiasm has told you something important, whatever the product page says.

The photos look the same: same camera, same lamp, same distance, and no makeup. She keeps that up for at least eight weeks. If her skin has visibly changed by then, she keeps going to twelve, long enough for the skin to renew itself fully before she calls anything a result. If nothing has moved, she says so and stops.

The number at the end, and why she doesn't get to argue with it

Every review closes with a score out of 100 which comes from seven criteria she published in advance.

Plenty of masks are sold without the figures that would let you compare them: how much light they actually deliver, at what wavelength, under which clearance. When a brand leaves those blanks, Emilie fills them with a lower mark rather than a shrug. She has argued that a company keeping its most important number to itself rarely turns out to be sitting on a flattering one.

Above 65, a mask earns her Emilie Approved label. Below it, she calls it Shelved, and she means that literally. Each review also ends with a dated note on whether she is still using the device months later, which is often the most revealing line on the page, because plenty of good scores go on to gather dust.

Where to find Tested by Emilie

Emilie's written reviews live on Tested by Emilie, where every mask she has tested is scored on the same grid. If you want to understand what the numbers mean before you read one, her page on how she tests explains each criterion and the weight it carries.

She also films her tests and that is where you see the part a text can't show: how a mask sits on a face, how the light falls, whether the thing flickers or heats up. Her YouTube channel, Les Avis d'Emilie, has followed her from ordinary skincare into home devices since 2020, and most of the masks reviewed on the site have been handled on camera there.

On Instagram she is @emiliie.ig, where you get the quick version of what is on her face that week, and on TikTok she posts as @emili_e.