[Skincare] The long rumoured vibrationarily facial brush, is it worth the bucks? - Review: Clarisonic Mia
Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored post. This product was purchased with my own money.
Hi lovelies! I hope you're as excited as me for this post! Okay, okay, I'm ready! Let's get started! =D
I got this set for SGD$170 from Sephora Singapore. To be honest, I was so tempted to buy it off the internet for its cheaper price and the variety of colours. Why no other colours in Singapore?! hmph!
So here it is! Still pretty in the box.
Choice of Facial brush
Between brands: OMG! You have no idea how crazy is the myriad of choices available for these facial brushes in the Asian market. And some of these "knock-offs" can go as cheap as SGD$3 each! WTF?! but I didn't buy them. I'd been skeptical about facial brushes, because I truly believe that my skin, is no sandpaper. I don't want to sensitize my face, drying it out and causing more oil secretion in the long run. In Singapore, the purchase of the replacement brush heads for the other brands is a tad more difficult. Most of the time when I order online, its a once and for all purchase. If you don't buy the replacement brush on your first purchase, you can forget about using the brush for over 6 months. Now, I read reviews of people using the clarisonic for years, and I thought its a good investment over time. Rather than spending small amounts of money for useless products.
Also, I read many reviews of the other brushes breaking down as they were unable to hold up to the claims of being water resistance and they were simply just too vulnerable to tensions (drops).
Between different Clarisonic models: The Mia is the cheapest, retailing at $170. Since all of them works with sonic care, I decided to go with the cheapest since I'm probably just going to use it on my face. The Mia 2 and onwards have a timer, ie, it beeps once every 20 seconds which indicates to you that you should move onwards to another facial 'organelle' hahaa. Mia doesn't but it stops automatically after a minute.
- 20 seconds for forehead, nose and chin
- 10 seconds each for each side of the cheek
You can change the brush head to one of a different function, the default one that comes with the first purchase is the sensitive head. They do have a softer delicate brush head and a more abrasive deep pore brush head. The only brush head that is not compatible with the mia is the body brush.
It is recommended that you replace the brush head every 3 months. The brush heads retail in Sephora for SGD$35 each. It is considered pretty expensive considering that it is just something you wash your face with. Hard to justify its price, but... *argh dilemma*
In the box
It comes with
- Clarisonic machine
- the sensitive brush head
- Magnetic plug charger
- Sample size clarisonic cleanser
- Instructional booklet
Purchase
Although purchasing the Clarisonic online is more wallet-friendly, plus you get the choice of different pastel colours. But it is better to steer safe and getting such an expensive product from an authorized local retailer. Sephora has a 1-year warranty for Mia and 2-years for Mia2 and up.65emall [online retailer] offers mia 2 at around SGD$159 with 6 months of warranty.
Usage
Prior to usage, the set has to be charged for about 24 hours (fully charged state) which can last for 20 minutes (est. 1 minute per face wash).
I apply on lathered facial foam evenly on my face first before landing this device on my face.
While I'm aware of my obsession and addiction of over-using newly purchased facial products, I tried to resist it as I've read reviews of the purging stage. It was reported that subclinical acne (small bumps without heads) and whiteheads appear. I'm wary of having pustules especially when school is starting so I'm keeping usage strictly at night.
*tip: When you first introduce a new addition to your skincare regime, stay loyal to your old time cleanser and other skincare products. One at a time, baby!
The Mia switches off automatically after a minute, so I usually turn it on again for 10-20 seconds or so for my neck. My neck has 2 deep lines caused by my studying posture. I'm only 19, and I have deep neck lines! *Act bimbo* my head is always tilted down whilst studying, and I usually neglect my neck during cleansing and moisturizing.
My Experience
My first usage was WOW. I mean, my face never felt so clean before. Like if I stare up close at my nose in the mirror immediately after the wash, my nose is clearly less oily. Normally, after deep cleansing with rich lathered soap, my nose is still oily AFTER wash. To be honest, Im extremely impressed that this brush can wash my face so thoroughly in just a minute. The exfoliation was gentle, with no peelings. However, I must declare my unhealthy addiction for this as it can sensitize the skin. Very often, I'd turn it on again and go over areas like my chin and nose. And as a result, these areas remain red and even my moisturiser would sting after facewash.
Purging: I was cautious, but I guess it couldn't be avoided. (As mentioned earlier, I had kept clarisonic usages at night.) Purging is said to be caused by the drawing of the underlying toxins deep in the skin layers to the surface skin, causing breakouts. I had a few larger cystic pimples on my jawline around the 3-4 days of my first week. After they subsided, I thought that the purging had concluded, but to my disbelief. Small little pustules appeared on my temples and forehead by the end of the 2nd week. My 2nd week was worse, but I was under a tremendous level of stress (and other factors eg new sunscreen) and there were cystic pimples on my left cheekbones and some pustules between my brows. This period differs among individuals but I guess mine lasted for about 3 weeks.
Update: After about 2 months of usage, I'm here to give the verdict. My pores had became cleaner and when I'm just lazy to remove my sunscreen every night with makeup remover, this takes most junk away. Even though I mentioned that I'm going to increase its usage to twice a day (fear of purging), I guess I'm sticking with once every night. It's gentle exfoliation allowed the pores on my cheeks and nose to shrink, blackheads were significantly reduced. Not really worthy for its price but I guess it does its job ie to wash your face. I can achieve the same results with acid peels (keeping in mind that I use this device everyday).
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