Product Review: The Clarisonic

I have NEVER had “good” skin. When I was a teenager, puberty hit and acne took a hold of my face like a clingy ex-boyfriend. It took taking the pill to regulate my hormones and to clear up my skin.

From there though, my skin certainly showed the battle scars of life as a hormonal teenager. It hides pretty well these days, with a combination of foundation and a regular skin routine. But I find my skin totally sensitive to different skin care treatments and will often break out for what seems like no reason at all.

Enter the Clarisonic. Where on earth was this product when I was a teen! As a general rule I am pretty skeptical of anything that makes claims of significant changes to skin health- but I am always happy to be proven wrong! And proven wrong I was! I will warn you now, this is a pretty long read, review wise, but I feel if you are spending upwards of $139 for one of these bad boys, it warrants a full inspection.

I recently went to the Australian launch of Clarisonic and was gifted the Clarisonic Mia to try by the lovely Clarisonic and L’Oreal team. The science behind this product is nothing short of mind boggling. The thing that struck me most was the level of research and education behind this singular product. The group of engineers and bright minds behind this spent years of development creating a product that uses sonic frequency to oscillate a brush at more than 300 times per second. So fast that, only a strobe light on the brush will show how fast it moves. Dr Robb, who is one of the smarties behind the product as well as the spokesperson tested hundreds of brushes on his own face over the course of a year to find the one we use today.

How To Use It:

Charge the Clarisonic for 24 hours prior to use. Once you have done this, the battery will last weeks without another charge. One sidenote I have to add here is a little geeky, but the magnetic charger totally blew my mind!

Wet the brush, and then apply any cleanser of your choice- I always use Clinique’s Anti-Blemish Cleansing Foam. Push the On/off button and away you go! The Clarisonic has an inbuilt T-Timer which beeps at 20 seconds for the forehead, 10 seconds per cheek and 20 seconds for the nose and chin area. After this the Clarisonic automatically turns itself off.

Thats it. One minute. Boom.

The Verdict:

I have been using the Mia for around 6 weeks now, as has my fiance. The difference is truly remarkable for me. I probably use it around 4-5 times a week, which is probably more than usual, but it is about finding the right cleansing regime for your face.

The first major improvement was that I don’t have to use makeup remover and then cleanse my face two times to be totally fresh faced. One minute of those tiny brushes oscillating is enough to completely clear my skin, after a quick removal of makeup with a wipe. There is ZERO residue on a cotton swab after. For my fiance, who is totally lazy with skincare, this is brilliant. We keep it in the shower, as the Clarisonic is totally waterproof so it is perfect for the lazy guy/girl who wants clean, clear skin.

The second was application of makeup. Now, after primer, my foundation and makeup in general goes on smoother, stays on longer and in general my skin looks brighter.

The brush is gentle enough for plastic surgery patients, and has been found to greatly improve skin conditions like rosacea and acne, which means it feels gentle enough while you are using it but its oscillations are still doing all the work required.

The third is blemishes and discoloration  The occurrence of blemishes has gone way down, and when they do its usually of my own making- like a big night out. In general blemishes will clear up when using the Clarisonic on the area. I have to say that the product will work in different ways. My fiance and I have seen drastic improvements but my brother also trialed it and broke out in a serious way in the first week, which turned him off the product completely.

They do stress though that the Clarisonic is not a replacement for an exfoliant, so I do recommend using a good scrub once a week.

Price: Starting from $139.00 at Ry.com.au

Rating: 9.5/10 for me!

Check out my snap with Barbara Palvin below, feeling totally secure in my skin!