Note: This post is for guys too. I know that there are some of you out there that actually like to have nice skin, contrary to popular belief, but don’t want to look like you get facials or to wear makeup 😉 This is apparently a big-seller for men, and a lot of guys buy the device and buy a second one for their wives or girlfriends!
I am a huge skeptic of devices like microdermabrasion facials at home and other devices for the skin, particularly because I loathe carrying that stuff around if I rarely use it and I only do it because I spent a fortune on it.
I also don’t get a lot of acne from my earlier years, mostly due to the fact that my diet has changed drastically — I try to eat as natural foods and as unprocessed as possible, cooking from scratch and avoiding things in a frozen box or can.
I’m thinking of never going to a restaurant again.. or at least, only going to sushi places from now on where the food is raw.
I rarely get acne now, and when I do, I know it’s because something I ate outside somewhere, had some additive in there that gave me essentially what is an allergic reaction in the form of a pimple, because my body couldn’t process it.
So when I heard about the Clarisonic At-Home Facial brushes, I was thinking:
PFFFT! $100 – $200 for a device that is nothing more than a glorified washcloth? You’ve got to be joking.
….until I bought it.
My reasons for buying it was unrelated to my face, and more that my body was starting to experience some throwbacks to eczema problems.
I was seeing a lot of layers of dead skin pile up, and using scrubs or brushes were either not doing enough for my skin, or scrubbing them red and raw (also not good for my skin).
When I heard about this Clarisonic brush that could be used on the body and on the face in the shower, I was curious.
I don’t believe in that “sonic cleansing power” stuff, but I tested it in Sephora, and I liked that there was a moving, whirring section in the middle of the brush so that I don’t have to try and move a static brush around in a circle to mimic its effects.
WHAT CLARISONIC MODELS ARE AVAILABLE
- Clarisonic Plus = $225
- Clarisonic Classic = $195
- Clarisonic Mia 2 = $149
- Clarisonic Mia = $119 <— the one I chose of obvious reasons 😉
WHAT ARE THE OTHER DIFFERENCES?
- Clarisonic Plus = 3 speeds, not as portable as it comes with a charging stand, can use the Body Brush head
- Clarisonic Classic = 2 speeds, not as portable as it comes with a charging stand, can use the Body Brush head
- Clarisonic Mia 2 = 2 speeds, portable, cannot use the Body Brush head
- Clarisonic Mia = 1 speed, portable, cannot use the Body Brush head
WHY I CHOSE THE CLARISONIC MIA (ORIGINAL)
- It was $119 and the cheapest of the bunch
- The brushes are the same as on the higher-end Classic & Plus models (I felt them up)
- The motors are the same too (sometimes smaller models are made with cheaper parts)
- The ‘Mia’ is quite portable and travel friendly (the higher-end models have a huge charging stand)
- It’s slightly smaller than the higher-end models, but only in the length of the handle, not much else
- It only has one speed, but frankly, Fast vs. Normal vs. Slow felt the same to me
- I didn’t need extras like timers, speeds and so on, if it would be $50 – $106 more expensive (ouch!)
- Any brush can be used with it except the body brush, but the ‘normal’ brush head works fine on the body
The brush is pretty compact, as pictured beside my compact digital camera case:
This is the brush on the device itself. The little black bristles and the white section in the middle, rotate. The outer bristles don’t, which keeps in the water from spraying all over your bathroom and face.
THE COSTS OF A CLARISONIC MIA (UP-FRONT & FOREVER)
It costs $119 USD to buy it, plus taxes, but it doesn’t stop there!
The brushes are around $25 each, to be replaced every 3-4 months (like my electric toothbrush), but you can buy them in twin-pack deals for $40, which works out to $20 per brush head.
Now, each brush head has to be separate. One for the face, one for the body (makes sense, actually… I’d use ‘sensitive’ on my face, ‘normal’ on my body).
They recommend using the facial brush twice a day and replace it every 4 months. I plan on using it once daily at night, and replacing it every 8 months, then.
They recommend using the body brush every day and replacing it every 2 months (twice as long to cover your body). I plan on using it every other day (or less as not to irritate my skin), and replacing it every 6 months.
I am not a fan of being obsessively clean.
So $20 per brush head, because I like deals and if I can stock up when they go on sale or discount or something, I will.
- For the face: Replace every 8 months= ~$30/year
- For the body: Replace every 6 months = ~$40/year
I am looking for a final upkeep cost of about a maximum cost of $70/year in brush heads, if my assumptions above are correct.
I’ll have to try it for a year and keep track of my expenses in my budget.
WHAT COMES IN A CLARISONIC MIA BOX
- The Mia
- Charger
- Small bottle of some face polish stuff (you can use any cleanser you have, however)
I think the higher end ones look sexier because they come with different face polishes in larger sizes, but all that frou-frou for extra money is not my cup of tea. Couldn’t care less, I don’t bother with the products given, I only want the brush.
I haven’t even used this face polish thing..
DID THE CLARISONIC MIA COME IN ANY OTHER COLOURS?
Yes. In these ones below:
The classic/standard pastels looked ugly, so I just chose plain ol’ white.
It looked the most normal.
CAUTION: Do not buy the black or grey ones in the store, if you ever come across them.
I know for a fact that they use different dyes in the plastics for the colour black (and very dark grey), which compromises the plastic and makes it more brittle/vulnerable.
Stick to any colour but the very darkest like black or grey.
They also had patterns (leopard at the time), but it was another $10 extra on top of the $119. I think the other darker colours (above) are ‘limited editions’, and must cost more money.
I was NOT (and still am not) willing to pay $10 more for another colour or pattern. Who is really going to see it? 😛
USING IT
Waiting 24 hours for it to fully charge was agony, but absolutely necessary to make sure the battery doesn’t get ruined (ALWAYS fully charge your electronics properly before using it).
On the very first day of using it, I felt immediate results. My skin was softer, the layer of dead skin was sloughed off and by the end of the week, I was hooked.
One minute sounds like a long time to be rubbing stuff on your face, but frankly, it isn’t. It goes by so quick, sometimes you think: wait, I needed another 30 seconds!
I just lightly swipe it across my forehead, down the sides, onto my cheeks, on my nose, ending at my chin. By the end of that, depending on how slow or fast I go, I am pretty much done.
Then I just rinse my face, pat dry with a towel and apply my moisturizer.
To clean the brush, I run it under water, hold the handle tight and flick it dry.
One thing I will say is that you must use the brush twice a day.
I stopped for a day or so (only used it at night for 2 nights), and my skin was really unhappy. I broke out a little, and it was like my skin got used to using the brush in cleaning it, that if I stopped, my skin got angry.
Now, I just use it twice a day and my skin has never looked or felt better. I’m amazed and I’m not convinced a washcloth and rubbing it in circles on my face would have done the same thing in the same amount of time.
I could definitely use a washcloth, but I’d take 3 minutes longer to try and mimic the inner rotating brush.
ALL of my moisturizers, serums and lotions absorb a lot better now.
The minute I put on two drops of my argan oil on my face, it disappears almost instantly. That has NEVER happened before, I usually have time to rub it all over my face from one place and spread it around, but now, I have to dab oil on every part of my face before rubbing it in.
As for the body, you can do the test I did. I put the Normal brush head (Body Brush won’t fit, it’s too larger for the Mia), and you scrub one arm. Then you wash both arms and apply lotion to both.
Immediately, I could see the arm that was brushed, absorbed everything immediately. Even BF felt a difference when I tested him (he’s a super skeptic) and told me immediately which arm wasn’t absorbing the lotion as well.
MY QUICK PROS & CONS
PROS
- It actually works and my skin feels much better with all those dead cells sloughed off
- It is only 1 minute to wash my face really effectively
- My products work better — my lotions absorb better rather than sitting on my face like a layer
CONS
- Replacing the brush I really hate removing and replacing the brush because it’s unwieldy. You have to snap it on and twist, and the twisting part is hard because there seems to be nothing to grip on the brush to get it on the brush body itself.
2. The charger falls off easily because it isn’t snapped on or a cup of any kind. It’s two little connectors that you have to place carefully on the device, and make sure you don’t touch or move it accidentally.
3. Obviously, PRICE. Ick to the pricetag, but I am not willing to compromise on quality to be cheap, because I heard lots of reviews that the other imitation brushes DO NOT WORK as well as the Clarisonic and people waste $30 – $50 more by trying to be too cheap.
RECOMMENDATION
BUY. IT. (Preferably on sale if you can score that some how)
The hype is to be believed.
I spent the money, choked on spending it, and am still not loving the price tag, but now I am not going to spas to get my face scrubbed, exfoliated and cleaned.
I’m going to use this brush twice a day, forever.
Just a girl trying to find a balance between being a Shopaholic and a Saver.
I cleared $60,000 in 18 months earning $65,000 gross/year.
Now I am self-employed, and you can read more about 
I have the Clarisonic Plus with 3 speeds. The brush heads come apart! The very middle pops out and you can put it back on device to reach in the nose crook areas and under eyes. Just take it back off and pop back into the outer ring, you will hear a pop they are connected again. Yes have both off device. Voila! Save your $ and don’t buy special sizes for nose, etc! Best way to clean & get rid of cellulite is to just use brush dry going down stroke on leg/gluts. area. Again yes use “dry” for body at first to sand yourself
If you put the cap on the brush head and then twist it comes off much easier xx
okay, i know i’ve read a million times that the body brush head doesn’t fit on anything but the clarisonic pro & plus, but is this proven? i haven’t seen a demonstration on it, i know they say it doesn’t fit any others but if you look at the back of it it looks exactly the same as the face brushes, which are meant for all clarisonics, so if the attach unit part of both heads are the exactly same then it can most definitely fit on to the end of any clarisonic & theres a review here: http://answers.sephora.com/answers/8723/product/P257300/questions.htm on sephora’s website where a woman says she tried it on her clarisonic mia without any problems. just figured i’d clue you in, save money & cover a lot more ground in the same amount of time. (:
we manufacture mia1 and mia 2 with a competitive price.
if you are interested in please email me through 15019477984@163.com
Thanks for the solid review.
I’m one of the guys you mentioned who will openly admit to being obsessed with his skin.
Sadly, I didn’t fully appreciate how destructive the sun is for skin until after years of outdoor sports, landscaping, tree planting and construction.
I’m an ORPW (as defined by Dr. Leslie Baumann’s Skin Typing questionnaire, her book is peerless in readability and informativeness) so I have wrinkles now and enlarged pores which are rough to the touch and make my forehead and cheeks look aged (I’m 32).
I use Jamieson 30000 iu vitamin e cream as my night moisturizer. My skin looks healthy but rough. I’ve been thinking about micro laser peel with Dr Joanna Day in Vancouver , but she’s expensive , and I want to try to get my skin smooth on my own first.
The Mia looks very promising. Since my wrinkles are shallow , I’ll try Renova or Avage (retinoids) for them and the Mia for my enlarged pores.
Thanks for the fun review. You got a nice style.
P.S : And , for any fellow seekers of personal physical attractiveness , my advice, AVOID the sun . It screwed my skin over and if it wasn’t the source of all life, I’d dump a star sized bucket of water on it.
I own one, but stopped using it when I switched to using all-natural skincare solutions. (Washing face with oatmeal, homemade scrubs of olive oil/honey/sugar, and such.) I wouldn’t recommend this if you’re trying to cure a break-out alone, it didn’t help. As FB already knows, what really helped was eating mostly veggies and nothing processed (I tried a particular diet that worked quickly: http://bit.ly/reZJeS)
I’m going to give this devise a fair try again and see what happens. I wonder how well it would work with oatmeal and other odd natural things. 😉 By the way, using the natural stuff works amazingly well for my oily skin.
And one think that may prove this brush’s effectiveness: my boyfriend @ the time was an avid bike rider and could never get the stubborn grease from the chain off his leg. He tried scrub brushes and pumice stones, didn’t work. I let him use the sonicare and it came off instantly!
Wow! Double-duty 🙂
i have the mia clarisonic too. love it!!!! i only use it every other day.
My face gets angry (as I mentioned) if I don’t use it consistently..
we manufacture mia1 and mia 2 with a competitive price.
if you are interested in please email me through 15019477984@163.com
Just my 2 cents —- I haven’t read all of the comments posted, but would like to say to all still on the fence about this product … THIS IS A MUST BUY. I purchased my C + last year from QVC when it was on sale and came with a lot of extras and I JUST LOVE, LOVE IT. Truly worth the price regardless of what model/price range you can afford. You can feel the difference within a day or two and your facial products absorbs very quickly and a little product goes a long way (I find that I need less liquid foundation). I’m a person of color (light in tone) and I’ve noticed that my skin looks lighter and younger. Also, I’ve always been a person who suffered from acne (from teens years and now in my 40s) and since using this product I’ve suffered less break outs and my skin feels less oily at the end of the day. I found that the sensitive brush was a little to “soft” for me so unless you have very,very sensitive skin, I would probably skip this. Whatever model/price point you decide to purchase, it’ll be money well spent.
I absolutely agree.
This is something I can’t believe I didn’t even hear about before. It has done wonders for my face, and I’ve never had such smooth, fairly-bump-free skin (I still have a few that are slowly working its way out, but they aren’t pimples at all).
It’s funny I’ve heard about this and watched videos from beauty gurus on YouTube but only now that you’ve given it to the go ahead will I seriously consider it. I think partially because you’re a finance blogger and seem to still be up on the trends, etc. Thanks for the great review, I’ll be purchasing one for my birthday 🙂
What a nice compliment!
I am actually very paranoid/suspicious of products that cost a lot of money and may not do what they say they will do.
I hate wasting money, basically. 🙂 I hope you love it!
I LOVE mine! Once you try it, you’ll never want to be without one. I’m 45 and have rosacea and was worried that it would be like those cheap spinny-type brushes, which aggravates my skin. No worries, as you hardly feel it working, but it does, and beautifully. Afterwards, it’s like your skin can finally breathe again. I’ve always taken good care of my skin, but this is the icing on the cake.
Hint—when changing the brush heads, it’s easier if you first put on the clear cover. It gives you more to hold onto when turning the head to remove it.
The only thing I’d suggest is wetting the brush before using it on your face. (for future readers/buyers who don’t have one)
I find that a dry brush really causes problems…
Thanks for the review. A friend had actually mentioned it over Christmas when I told her my acne was coming back a bit but I wasn’t totally convinced that it works. Now I need to get it and give it a try. I have had acne all my life and still do. I was really hoping that by late twenties/early thirties, my face would clear up. Not the case. These past two weeks was just miserable for me (so bad that I didn’t even want to go out). This is also partly my fault for not taking better care of my face, only when acne starts to appear. The acne seems to be healing in the last day or two.
Do you still use face wash and scrub then or does the brush replaces it?
I wet my face, then use Korres White Tea Fluid Cleansing gel spread all over my face, then I use the brush to scrub my face.
Rinse, and pat dry, then apply moisturizer. 🙂
A lot of people said on forums that they got acne in the beginning of using it (skin clearing/cleaning out? or getting used to being cleaned and therefore felt irritated?)… so that might be something to consider.
Personally, I didn’t experience any of that acne in the beginning of it. The only acne I get, I know it’s from what I eat (too much fats, oils etc).. and if I avoid fats/oils in heavy quantities (all in moderation), my skin is 100% clear
I’ve been using an Earth Theraputics travel face brush for years; if that’s good for my skin, I wonder how much better it will be using the Clarisonic..?
If you like what you’re using, don’t switch 🙂 If you don’t feel there’s a problem with what you have, don’t waste your money then
I also have a Pro. LOVE.
It was like $20 more on Amazon and it can use the body head, which I do use from time to time on elbows and knees. My battery started lasting a lot less, like a month, and then I figured out why. My husband started using it after he shaved to get all the hair!!!
Wow! Only $20 more? Here in Canada it’s a pretty big price jump…
I’m planning on buying one of these this year. I was waiting for the Mia 2 cause it has the deep cleansing brush for it, which I need at times for my skin. (:P large pores) But you can also get really good prices for the Mia and the brushes on QVC.com on their Beauty page under high-tech. 😀 Glad you like it too!
I decided no on the Mia 2 just because I felt like I didn’t need the different speeds.
Are you sure you can’t put the deep cleansing brush on the Mia? I was reading somewhere that the only difference between the Mia and Mia 2, is just the speed setting.
Otherwise, they both can’t handle the body brush (larger), only the Mia Pro can, but they do the exact same things.
Hi there – yes, you can use the deep cleansing brush on the Mia, that’s what I use.
I am so curious about these! My skin is usually oily and I’ve always had blackheads on my nose with large pores on the rest of my face. I’ve heard that these help with that, but there is just something about spending over $100 on a whirring brush for my face! I wish one of these would just drop into my lap because there’s no way I can afford this. Thank you for your review, though, because I like to hear about real people’s reactions to it!
I think that you could also try and get it when Sephora has sales (not sure if you’re a VIB member), but sometimes I get 10% or 20% off coupons which could really help the price tag be lowered.
I too, was a skeptic.. am now a believer. I’d gladly buy it again, knowing what it’s done for me.
I agree with Amanda, you sold me also. I’ve been thinking about buying it, and now I am.
Try and get it on sale! Or with GCs…
I think you pretty much just sold me. I’ve been hoarding Amazon gift certificates and contemplated using them on a Clarisonic- like you, I have issues with picky eczema (although I throw acne into the mix) but I also have issues throwing down $100+ on a brush. That said, I’ve heard nothing but good things about the Mia. So I may just be ordering it this weekend 😀
I am a huge skeptic when it comes to these products, but everyone had raved about it for so long, I bit the bullet.
Enjoy it! 🙂
I have a Clarisonic pro and I love, love, LOVE it! It has pretty much all of the features as the Clarisonic plus, but it’s cheaper ($175 on amazon.com). I have combination, acne prone skin and it has made a huge difference in how my skin looks and feels. I’ve had mine since March 2010, so this is definitely a seasoned review. Although it’s doesn’t have the travel charger, it’s still great for travel because the battery lasts a long time (so far I’ve done up to 2 week trips, using once a day, with no charger). I used to think that the multiple speeds were useless until I started using Retin-A, which made my skin dryer and more sensitive. I went from using the highest speed to using the second lowest speed. It’s gentler but just as effective on my more sensitive skin. Overall I love my Clarisonic and it’s worth every penny that I paid for it!
My thing was that my skin is sensitive and only needs a low speed, not a supercharged one or a too-slow one.