Techy Tuesday: Clarisonic Facial Brush

You may never realize it to look at me, but I do spend a great deal of time, money and effort on my skin.  I've suffered from severe acne since I was 11 - even battling painful cystic acne throughout my 20s and early 30s.   I've tried every lotion and potion I could find.  I've been on prescription medications and creams.  I've even been through 2 cycles of Accutane.   NOTHING (I repeat, NOTHING) has made as big a difference for my skin than using my Clarisonic brush.  Hubby bought it for me for Christmas a couple of years ago (unfortunately he accidently bought the pink one because he liked the idea of the money going to Breast Cancer.  I couldn't bring myself to return the charity one for a nice white one so it is one of the few pink things I own)

Since that day, I have used the brush once a day - twice was too much for my sensitive skin.  It took a bit of experimenting to find a cleanser that I liked to use with it, but I finally settled on Philosophy's Purity Made Simple (this will change when I run out of my current bottle since Philosophy was recently purchased by Coty - a company that unabashedly tests on animals).  Together, this has given me the power to take control of my skin and my acne. 

It didn't take long after starting to use the brush to see results.  Within a couple of days, my skin was smoother.  Within a week, it was noticeably clearer.   Whenever I have the misfortune of having a cyst appear - the brush takes care of it in a couple of days - instead of my having to deal with the pain and pressure of it for a week or three.  Best of all - I now go a month or two without even GETTING a cyst.

The technology doesn't come cheap. Sephora sells the brush for around $200 US.   I thought it was expensive at the time, but within a couple of months, I considered it paid for because of how much better it worked than anything else I'd tried.

I understand the brush works on the principle of exfoliation.  I'd tried other exfoliation methods before and, honestly, none of them are as effective as this little brush.  It was developed by the same team that developed the Sonicare Toothbrush and it gently scrubs the hell out of your skin.   I like that it beeps every 30 seconds to remind me to move to another area of my face.  I like that the brushes come in different levels of softness so I can choose the one that works best for my skin (I love the sensitive brush).  I also love that it makes me want to take better care of my skin. 

I used to be the type of girl who changed her products every time she ran out.   Everything seemed to work the same as the last product.  I've had my Clarisonic for 2.5 years now and my routine has stayed the same (well, I had to adjust a few of my other potions when I was preggo, but I digress).   Nowadays, the only time I get a big breakout is if I change something or get a facial.   The rest of the time,my skin is soft and pretty much clear.  When you've spent 20+ years dealing with really bad skin - it doesn't take much to make you call your skin clear.  As far as I'm concerned, this brush is magic :)