Really, a $200 High-tech Massage?! The Clarisonic Skin Care System Brush Review

I swear, for the longest time, I did not under­stand the hype about the Clarisonic Skin Care System Brush. After try­ing it out myself, I could begin to under­stand why it might be the per­fect skin care device for cer­tain peo­ple, not just a laugh for some. (I’m not inclined to be the lat­ter) Here is my review on the Clarisonic Skin Care System Brush, and my thoughts on its mon­e­tary value and effects.

Dreamed up by the same inven­tor behind the inno­v­a­tive and very suc­cess­ful Sonicare tooth­brush, the Clarisonic Skin Care System Brush seems to be designed to receive pos­i­tive reviews and amaze­ment from all cor­ners of the inter­net. And to some extent, it has — the sys­tem is sup­posed to use the same “sonic tech­nol­ogy” as the Sonicare tooth­brush to bounce dirt out of your pores. The Clarisonic Skin System Brush’s brtis­tles spin 300 times a sec­ond — so it’s exactly like using a elec­tric tooth­brush on your face. For those of you who are too lazy to exfo­li­ate or use face scrubs, the Clarisonice Skin System Brush would seem to be the per­fect solu­tion for you.

If you are will­ing to pay a hefty $200 for the device, that is. When MyShimmer.com put down that cash for a Clarisonic Skin System Brush to review, we expected 5 stars in price, 5 stars in results. Here are our conclusions:

Price — the device, the brushes, the bat­tery, the hand­set
Unless you visit the Caesar Palace for spa treat­ment every week­end, and you would put down $200 for that dream inter­pre­ta­tion ther­a­pist any­ways, $200 for a glo­ri­fied face scrub/ elec­tric tooth­brush needs to carry the con­no­ta­tion of an “invest­ment”. And that, in turn, car­ries the con­no­ta­tion that the Clarisonic Skin Care System Brush will last long. I don’t know whether it really will last long, but the brushes cer­tainly don’t. The brush of the Clarisonic Skin Care System Brush needs to be changed out every 3 months, and at $25 a pop, your “invest­ment” on the Clarisonic Skin Care Brush cer­tainly doesn’t stop at the $200 brush itself.

About the bat­tery — it seems like the recharg­ing bat­tery of the Clarisonic Skin Care System Brush has a life expectancy of 3–4 years, BUT when that time is up, you need to buy a new Clarisonic Skin Care System Brush hand­set for an extra $100 in order to change out the bat­tery.

Our Verdict — $200 + $100/year + $100 in 5 years = you do the math!

Results — Great job so far, but not the best for sen­si­tive skin

You have to admit that the Clarisonic Skin Care Brush is an effec­tive device. Basically it works as a super face-scrubs, and on me it worked per­fectly in exofli­at­ing areas like my chin and the sides of my nose I tend to omit. Little grungy bits on my nose are gone and my skin does have a nice glow to it after using the Clarisonic Skin Care Brush. The effects last quite a while as well, so I actu­ally got to skip using face scrubs and replace it with gen­tle face soap for a cou­ple of days after using the brush.

However, my der­ma­tol­o­gist friend Jake warns me of the poten­tial harm the Clarisonic Skin Care System Brush could do to the skin. While the brush does a great job thor­oughly cleas­ing the pores and the sur­face of your skin, over-doing is could cause the skin to over­re­act, and pro­duce too much oil. That will, iron­i­cally, cause break­outs on your skin instead of pre­vent­ing them.

Our Verdict: Great effects, per­fect for peo­ple who aren’t used to length skin care and exfo­li­a­tion rou­tines. However, down­sides of the device is very, very much down­played in any press coverage

Our Review Bottomline: is it worth it?
At $200 (+ a whole series of related mis­cel­la­neous expenses), the Clarisonic Skin Care System Brush was NOT worth my money. Yes it does the job, and while you would expect it to a extra­or­di­nar­ily stel­lar job, it does the same job as pretty much any good $10 face scrubs you could find in a drug­store. Unless you are REALLY lazy, REALLY adverse to scrub­bing your face daily and occa­sion­ally using a $10 exfo­li­a­tion mask, the Clarisonic Skin Care System Brush will not be worth your money. On top of that, if you have sen­si­tive skin and has had reac­tions to strong face washs and scrubs before, the Clarisonic Skin Care System Brush could harm your skin instead of pro­tect­ing it. Well, your choice.

Check out what our friends are say­ing about the Clarisonic Skin Care System: