Beauty Clinic: Advice on cleansing brushes
Q. Can you recommend a facial cleansing brush please - based on performance rather than price?
A. It’s a sign of the (polluted) times that we increasingly understand just how important deep-deep-deep cleansing is for our complexions – leading to the boom in popularity of these facial gadgets.
Clarisonic is one of the leading brands, hailing from the US and highly rated by our beauty editor colleague Alice Hart-Davis (www.alicehartdavis.com) who has investigated this arena. ‘I love the Clarisonic brushes, particularly the Mia, which is smaller and more manageable than the full size one. I would start with the sensitive-skin head and use it every other day. Daily use could be too harsh.’ (Mia 2, £125, in white, pink or grey).
Like us, Alice loves the Foreo Luna, launched in the UK this year. ‘The mini version is so cute and very packable: it has been in my travelling sponge bag all summer. Very easy to use and recharge, works nicely with any cleanser, and nimble enough to get into the grungy bits around the corners of the nose and crease of the chin.’ Alice particularly loves that the silicone bristles are easy to clean and don't breed bacteria. £145 for the full size and £99 for the mini.
As Jo said on our website (see here for her review), ‘not only did it help to get skin incredibly clean but there is something about the “buzzing” action, which is incredibly effective at banishing facial tension.’ Like most women Jo carries plent of that in her jaw – and the soothing buzzing action helps melt it clean away, along with the make-up, grime and gunk.
Post-summer is a good time to start deep cleansing. As Clarisonic’s co-founder and skin guru Dr. Robb Akridge told us ‘sunscreens are sticky stuff, trapping whatever dirt is in the air. Add to this your skin’s own sweat and oil production and you become a walking flytrap. Plus, when the heat is on, pores can look larger because of sweating and make-up build-up. Your moisturiser doesn’t have any real exfoliating properties, so if you don’t prep your skin first all the mess may well just sit there. The best way to remove this sticky, pore-plugging mess is to cleanse really thoroughly.’
Finally, anyone with open pores may find that deep cleansing because it cleans them out properly leaves them looking smaller and tighter.