The Clarisonic Plus Saved My Skin!

Hi everyone! This is a non-swatch post, so if you're not interested, it won't hurt my feelings if you skip it. It is beauty related though. I know this is primarily a nail polish blog but I do dabble in skincare and cosmetics in general as well so I may post reviews of things I really, really like from time to time.

I've wanted a Clarisonic for a long time. A really, really long time. At least two years or so. It seemed like such a cool, efficient way to clean the skin. The only downside is that they're so expensive, so.. I didn't get one. In early September I logged onto MakeupAlley and sighed as I saw people fawning over an awesome QVC deal for a Clarisonic Plus along with 3 full-size Bliss products. What a steal! So fantastic! Still couldn't afford it. However, at the same time I was pining for my Clarisonic, my very kind and generous mom saw the same deal on the TV and thought of how I had wanted one, and how her own skin could use some help.. So she ordered two. I was absolutely over the moon when she told me she'd gotten me one! I couldn't wait for it to arrive. Since then, I've been using it twice a day with my normal cleansing routine and I feel like I can review it well after a month of use.

Here's a picture of the Clarisonic Plus itself. It only has two buttons. The large power button is used to turn it on and off, to pause it, and to change cleaning time duration. The small button with arrows on it is for changing the speed of the brush head. Mine came with the deep pore cleansing brush (shown), the sensitive face brush, and the body brush. Yes, you can use this all over! It's fully waterproof so you can take it in the shower and use it to exfoliate those rough parts like elbows and knees. It has its own charging cradle as well; the cool thing is that it seems to work off of inductive charging, meaning that the electricity is sent from the cradle to the handle with no plugs, cables, or connectors between the two. Very cool. It uses sonic technology to clean your skin, so it's not just a plain brush scrubbing at your face.

So, why did I want a Clarisonic so bad? Normal washing, no matter what I used, was never enough to fully calm my skin. I tend to get bad hormonal acne and my nose is full of blackheads. I also have large pores and I knew washcloths and cleanser alone couldn't be enough to get everything out. I'd heard lots of positive stories from others with acne-prone skin who used the Clarisonic so I was terribly excited to try it. 

Did it work? Yes! It has very noticeably reduced the congestion in my nose's pores, made my skin super soft, and controlled my acne pretty well. For something that I use for a total of two minutes a day, once in the morning and once at night, that's a pretty good outcome. My skincare routine is currently as follows: in the morning, I wash with the Clarisonic Plus and Philosophy Purity Made Simple, then apply Aveeno Positively Radiant SPF 30 moisturizer. At night, I wash with the Clarisonic Plus and Philosophy Purity Made Simple again and apply REN Frankincense Revitalising Night Cream. I've been using the Philosophy, Aveeno, and REN products since the beginning of the year but it was the addition of the Clarisonic that finally made me happy with my skin.

In summary, I'm extremely happy with my Clarisonic Plus. It has helped me conquer my skin problems and I'd strongly recommend it to anyone looking to amp up their skincare routine.

 If you want to buy one, you can get it by itself or packaged with skincare goodies like this bundle from Sephora: http://sephora.com/browse/product.jhtml;jsessionid=AEFPYNMTONMKICV0KSGBPIQ?id=P294408&categoryId=B70 It's definitely not cheap but I consider it a good investment if you want to try and get your skin in better shape. If you plan on buying one soon, wait for the Sephora Friends & Family sale. It runs from 10/20-11/2 and you can get 20% off online. You will need to sign up for their Beauty Insider program but that's a free membership. There is also a smaller, one speed version called the Mia that is cheaper if you want to try out a Clarisonic for less: http://www.sephora.com/browse/product.jhtml;jsessionid=SMLDSIOPAY41QCV0KSIAIGQ?id=P245414&categoryId=RPYMAL&navAction=jump However, my review applies only to the Plus. I can't tell you anything about the Mia from experience.  I'm writing this review for the reason I swatch and post about polish: to give you my honest opinion. That's why I waited a month to see how my skin reacted. I hope that by posting this, I can help someone out.