Clarisonic Skin Care Brush - Week 5 (with a brief care guide)

If you've read up about or own a Clarisonic, you know already that the brush head is supposed to be discarded every 90-120 days. But with a brush head going for $25 each, that can get really expensive.

Also, if you read my previous post last week on the Clarisonic, you remember I was freaking out with the new breakouts on my forehead. Two days after I wrote the post, I felt that my Clarisonic seemed to be oscillating slower than usual...and it wasn't lathering my face wash very well. My face still felt waxy from moisturizer residue after I had cleansed it for the full minute.

So what the heck was going on? I was already pretty mad that I had broken out. I bought the Clarisonic with the intention of NOT having to deal with breakouts, especially during finals period (when everyone's personal hygiene routines get a little lazy, though I'd stuck to my face regimen). And now not only was I breaking out, but also the Clarisonic was malfunctioning? What bs!

Well, I speculated that perhaps the Clarisonic brush head was just dirty. After all, I'd been putting it twice daily on my face to slough off all the heavy moisturizer and SPF and makeup I wear. I even used it on my neck and decollete a couple times. Maybe the brush head was just clogged with all that gunk? After all, the only cleaning I'd done for the brush head was rinsing it with steaming hot water after I wash my face.

So, I filled a bowl with liquid detergent and water, and I left my brush head in there for 12-15 hours. When I got back home (after working on my papers in the campus center), I took it out of the bowl and rinsed it off with steaming hot water. I was ready to wash my face. And guess what? This trick COMPLETELY worked. As soon as I put the Clarisonic to my face, I could feel it oscillating ten times better than it had that morning. It felt just like how it had first felt on my face when I used it for the first time...a little scratchy, but still gentle. The next day when I woke up, my skin also looked a lot more glowy, and my blemishes had reduced in size.

It's been three days since I've been using my newly cleaned, Clarisonic brush head...and my blemishes are truly continuing to decrease in size. My comedones have disappeared! YAY!

So if you guys own a Clarisonic...I'm telling you to soak your brush heads in laundry detergent water once a week! From my own experiences, liquid detergent water works best to cleanse anything because it is gentle, but it still effectively and automatically lifts away debris, stains, and oils as the object soaks so you don't even have to scrub or massage the bristles. I'm not sure if this will help extend the life of the brush head past 90-120 days, but it will definitely maximize your Clarisonic experience. I'm honestly amazed that the folks at Sonicare/Clarisonic haven't addressed brush head cleansing, or come out with some brush cleanser to sucker people's wallets.

If you're unsure of how much liquid detergent to use...I suppose a good analogy is two tablespoons per 2 cups of water. You should put the detergent into your bowl first, and then pour really hot water on top of it to create foam and bubbles. If you drop the brush head in that mixture right after you wash your face in the morning, go to work or school, and then take it out at night right before you wash your face and go to sleep, that should be plenty of time for it to soak.

I wish I had the foresight to clean my brush head like this earlier, because now I'm wondering whether any of my skin care products absorbed into my skin under all that product still on my face...
So now that my Clarisonic issue is somewhat resolved, I'm going to try to figure out what exactly is causing me to break out.. it's funny how the products I'm using right now work for everyone else, but somehow not me. I'm pretty certain it was the MAC Prep + Prime SPF 50 now. I stopped using it for 2 days and now my skin is almost back to the way it was before. Maybe I just didn't wash it off properly at night? I'll give it one more shot and use better cleansers...and we'll see how that works out in my next review.