Clarisonic Product Review

A couple of months ago, I wrote a blog that talked about the things I wished people told me about pregnancy and post-pregnancy. There were many other things that I forgot to add on there, but one of the things I’ve been struggling with lately is acne-proned skin. Yay for motherhood! Not only do our whole body change, our hormones have to also join in on the fun. I was breaking out all the time! I wanted to do something different from my normal routine that could help me – enter Clarisonic.

Before I get started, I have to go with the whole “this is not sponsored” thing. So, this review is not sponsored in any way, nor am I affiliated with anything I mention in this blog.

Ok, back to our regularly scheduled program.

Before I had kids, I was lucky enough to never really experience breakouts. I had a pimple or two here and there, but it usually went away after a couple of days or so. My nightly routine consisted of mild soap and water, toner, and then lotion. If I had a break out, I would use Avon Clearskin Blackhead Eliminating Daily Astringent for spot treatment. That would be it and my face would be clear of acne.

Here I am before kids (that’s my cousin’s baby I’m holding):

Only wearing eye makeup

After Ella (my first), my skin was a little more prone to acne but it got really worse after Isaac (my second). Before, I would get some pimples right before my period, but after Isaac, I found no pattern as to when I would get acne. My forehead, near my nose and chin would be where the pimples would pop up. Classic “T-zone” I guess.

The first pic is after Ella – see chin area. The next pic is after Isaac, see forehead, cheeks, and under the nose area.

For whatever reason, the hormonal change caused my skin to either get dryer or oilier (is that even a word???). So that’s when I decided I needed to change up my routine.  I’ve heard about Clarisonic before but I didn’t really look into it until after I started having more skin problems.

What is Clarisonic?

Clarisonic is a brand that sells mostly skin cleansing tools and tools that improve your skin. Supposedly, the website claims it is the #1 dermatologist recommended skincare tool.

From what I can tell from their website, there are a couple of different bases that come with many different attachments to either cleanse, uplift, or even put on makeup.

For my purpose, I chose the Clarisonic Mia 2 with the cleanser attachments because I had to get my skin under control. The website states that “Clarisonic cleanses so thoroughly yet gently,” and to “cleanse daily to fight excess oil and acne.”

Where to Buy it?

Clarisonic has their own website, or you can get in stores like Sephora and other makeup places I’m sure.

I got mine from Sephora because they had a deal that it would come with TATCHA one-step Camelia Cleansing Oil.

I bought the Mia 2 Facial Cleaning Brush. It came with 2 brush heads – the Deep Pore Brush Head and the Radiance Cleansing Brush head. I also bought the Acne Cleansing Brush Head because that was mainly the reason I was buying it for. The hardness or softness of the bristles are the differences between the brushes. They also have one for really sensitive skin if that is your skin type.

I also bought the Clarisonic Pore and Blemish Gel Cleanser because acne. Okaaaaay?

Nightly Routine

Ok, so if I wore make up during the day, I started off using the TATCHA one-step Camelia Cleansing Oil. Then I used a makeup wipe to wipe off all the make up. The cleansing oil really helped because it broke down all the makeup so I didn’t have to rub my face too hard to get the make up off. (Oh just in case you wanted to know, I use the Neutrogena Make Up Wipes).

Then I would use the Mia 2 with any of the cleansing brush heads (damp) with the Pore and Blemish Gel Cleanser.

After that, I would use a toner (Neutrogena for me), then lather my face up with lotion. I used Cetaphil because I have sensitive skin.

Results

How did it feel?

The first time I used the Mia 2, I did feel like my face was cleaner. How did I know? Before the Mia 2, I always applied the toner with cotton on my face and there would always be residue on the cotton after I wiped my face. After the Mia 2, I found that the cotton didn’t have that residue anymore. My face just also felt very refreshed afterwards. I mean I wasn’t mad at it.

This was after the first wash so of course, no changes.

Did you feel any changes in your skin after a while?

I did notice that my skin felt tighter and dryer. Because I have eczema, I realized that I definitely have to lather on lotion after I cleaned it with Mia 2 because otherwise, my skin would be so dry.

Did you see any changes?

After the first two months, I noticed that I wasn’t breaking out as much as before. I did still break out a little when it was nearing my period but I’ll take that over breaking out all year long.

However, by the third month, I realized I started breaking out again. I read on the site that you are supposed to switch brush heads every 3 months. But me being a cheapo tried to find hacks on the internet so I didn’t have to. I read that boiling the brush heads helped make them last longer. So I did.

I also decided to just use the  brush head with the softest bristles (the radiance cleansing brush). I know I have sensitive skin so I wanted to see if that made the difference. Sure enough, my pimples started to go away again. Here are some of the side by side comparison if you’re interested.

March (when I started), April,  May, and then now:

HA! I did not mean for my shirts to match when I took these photos.. but oh well. So as you can see, in May, my skin cleared up a bit.. but the last pic shows me right before my time of the month so I did have a bit of a breakout on my forehead. The rest of the face, I was ok with though!

Would I recommend this product?

To be honest, I don’t know if it’s Clarisonic that helped decrease the occurrence of my breakouts or if it was because of the actual change in cleansing my skin (adding the gel cleanser and the cleansing oil in my routine) that did the job.

What I can say is that the Clarisonic Mia 2 definitely does the job in cleaning my face. I never see residue on the cotton anymore after applying the toner. So it does make me feel better knowing that my face is clean before I go to bed.

The fact that it did dry out my skin more was a problem that could be solved by just putting more lotion on my face afterwards and I was ok with that.

I think I would recommend this product if you feel like your nightly routine isn’t enough to clean your face.

I would not recommend this if you have overly dry skin though, as it could irritate your skin more. There are other cleansers out there that are even more gentle than the Clarisonic, so I would go for those if you have really really sensitive skin. But I haven’t tried them. I’ve just heard from friends who have sensitive skin.

Overall, I did like the Clarisonic. I am going to continue to use it daily unless I’m trying out other skincare products. Next on my list, the 10 step Korean Beauty regimen! Ha.. stay tuned for that one! =)

Thanks for reading and hope you have a great rest of the day!

(all gifs are from giphy.com)