I do love my Clarisonic brush. Half the fun is keeping up with brush heads and when I take a bath I do enjoy dipping the brush head into water and see all my skin come off the head. And hopefully that’s the last time I say head (Edit: it’s definitely not).
When Clarisonic launch the Mia Smart system they also launched a series of new brush heads to exfoliate the face, a foundation/makeup brush head, and another to sonicare the eye area. I went out and purchased the exfoliating brush head because I exfoliate my face on a regular basis and like the idea of a brush head that will last 3 months instead of cotton pads that last a single application.
The Product
If you haven’t seen the exfoliating brush it is a stiff silicone brush head with a semi-solid outer ring and flexible silicone brush heads at the center. The individual bristles are triangular shaped to scrape off the dead skin. It’s $39 per brush head and each brush head should last around 3 months. A study conducted by Clarisonic of 49 women who used the exfoliating brush head for 4 weeks, 3x per week had the following results: 100% saw improvement in their skin and 98% said it made their skin smoother and brighter. The brush head is compatible with Mia Smart, Mia Prima, Smart Profile Uplift (the device I have), Mia Fit, Alpha Mia, Mia 1-3, Pro and Plus. So every brush device Clarisonic has made. So far so good.
The Review
I deeply dislike this brush head. I’m putting that out first just so we’re clear if the next paragraphs of rant isn’t clear enough.
In the instructions, you’re not suppose to apply pressure outside making contact with the skin. If you do that the textured outer ring will never touch your face. You’e also suppose to use the brush head with soap creating a lubrication so you’re not really getting that much of an exfoliation to be honest. Although silicone does pull on the face, adding soap creates a highly lubricated environment since silcone itself isn’t highly textured, hence the outer ring of bumps and the triangular shaped brush bristles.
- It hurts. The brush heads are made of a stiffer silicone that actually hurts if I used too much pressure, and by too much I mean not much. It does get the face looking flushed like I’d just scrubbed it increasing blood flow to the surface. But nothing really came off, I’m not missing a layer of my face. It’s just red.
- It doesn’t do anything. My forehead is one of my biggest exfoliation problem areas and my cheeks. It does feel like sandpaper if I haven’t exfoliated in a few days. SO if something performs poorly there, its not going to get my seal of approval. My forehead is curved opposite the curvature of the brush so there isn’t even that much of the brush head that comes into contact with the skin, which makes me want to push harder. That’s a bad idea, the forehead isn’t exactly curve to the shape of the brush head. I basically just smashed the brush head into my forehead, or that’s what it felt like. A little more does contact the cheeks but that’s also a more pliable area for the brush head to push area and the cheek with curve around the head a little easier. After I’d use it the full cleansing cycle my face still felt gritty and rough due to skin buildup. It didn’t do anything.
- My nose is raw. Around nose the curvature fit a bit better but the brush head bristles again were so stiff it just ended up irritating that delicate area of skin around the bottom of the nose instead of giving an even exfoliation. I call that the kleenex zone because it’s the first area to show off that you have a cold. AND I still had bumps and skin that needed to be exfoliated around my nose and mouth. I even used it on a day my skin was flaking which should mean easy job for the brush head. WRONG. I still had skin flakes. I ended up using an exfoliation pad to remove them.
TLDR
- Brush bristles are way too thick and too stiff to give an effective exfoliation
- the outer ring is pointless as your face will never touch it as the bristles are too long
- The silicone needs to be less rigid in general
- Primary outcome of this brush head was skin irritation, minimal exfoliation
I still love my Clarisonic system, and continue to use it on a regular basis. But I’ve already thrown away this brush head. It’s expensive compared to the rest of heads. The acne cleansing brush head (green) or Deep Pore (dk blue) do a more efficient job of removing dead skin than the exfoliator brush head and my skin is much happier because of it. At $29 per brush head my wallet likes me more too.
NOT Approved. Spend less on a different brush head.
-XOXO-
Andrea
