There are a lot of reviews from different bloggers and vloggers about the Clarisonic Mia 2 on the Internet, and almost all of them are glowing. I wanted to share my own experience with the Clarisonic to show a different viewpoint. This is definitely something I would have wanted to read whilst I was using it. I don't want to be too horrible about the product, as I do think it's good, and I'm still really envious of people's skin when it works for them, but it really didn't work for me.
First of all, I'll tell you about my skin type. My skin is very dry. Dry to the point where I get scaly legs if I don't moisturise, I get eczema on my arms, and in winter, my face sometimes burns when I try and put moisturiser on, and even when I do use it, it doesn't seem to have much of an effect.
Up until I was around 21, I hardly ever got spots. I didn't own foundation until I was 18 (and that was just for nights out and parties), and only used concealer on my dark circles. When I hit 21, for some reason, I ended up getting spots, especially around my chin and jawline. A few people in my family had bad skin, and I thought that I was finally getting it too. I started wearing foundation and concealer every day to try and cover it. At age 23/24, I was really really down about my skin, and have barely any photos of my face from these years because I hated it so much.
After seeing all the hype around the Clarisonic, my parents bought me one for Christmas, along with Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish. I'd heard that this product worked really well with the Clarisonic, and had natural ingredients that wouldn't irritate my skin. I decided to use the Clarisonic once a day, on a night.
Around two or three days after I began using it, I noticed that the spots around my jawline were starting to disappear, but the horrible purging stage had begun. Huge, angry, red and incredibly painful spots were appearing all over my face. The spots were so painful that I felt that I had bruises all over my face. The spots were so red, they couldn't cover properly, and so I felt even worse about my skin. I kept telling myself that this would only last up to two weeks, and it would be completely worth it. Even though I had a lot of painful spots, the skin that wasn't spotty felt lovely and smooth!
Three months later, and I was still in agony. I got a new painful, red, angry spot (which I started to call Clarisonic spots) almost every single day. At some points, I thought I had toothache, but it was just the spots. Close-up photos were out of the question. I knew that the purging stage shouldn't have lasted this long, but I wanted to keep trying and push through, as the glowing skin of the girls on YouTube was still on my mind. I was also scared to stop using it - a lot of people have said that they get spotty when they stopped using it, and was too scared to think of those spots. My problem spots along my jawline, though, had completely disappeared, which was the weird thing. I was also too scared to try a different product with it, as I thought that another product might irritate my face even more.
Finally, in June, after SIX months of agony (and pleas from my boyfriend and my mum), I gave up. I decided to stop using it to see what happened. I thought that the spots couldn't get much worse anyway, so why not try it? It was around this time that I started reading reviews of Cleanse and Polish on MakeupAlley, and heard about how the shea butter in the product can clog up pores horribly. (I would like to point out that I have a friend who uses Cleanse and Polish daily and loves it). I decided to give that product a rest for a little while, too, and see if that helped.
It's been almost a year since my horrific experience, and my skin is now looking almost as good as it did when I was younger. My jawline spots have mostly vanished, and now only get the odd spot here and there. I now use a combination of Superdrug B. Pure Micellar Water (which is INCREDIBLE, and only a fiver), Soap and Glory Scrub Your Nose In It (don't get me started about the new packaging), and a Liz Earle for Men scrub (I can't remember the name of it, but it's fantastic!), and my skin now feels loved again.
I still don't really know what happened. Maybe it was the Cleanse and Polish. Maybe the Clarisonic was too harsh for my skin. Maybe I wasn't using it properly. I visited the Clarisonic stand at my local Debenhams recently, and even they couldn't work out why I'd had such a bad reaction. I'm just glad that the pain and the spots have disappeared.
I hope you enjoyed reading this post, and I hope that it does help someone out there who is having a similar reaction. Please let me know if you've had a similar, or better, experience, or share your daily skincare routine with me.
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