Cleanser and Clarisonic Reviews: How I Cleanse My Skin

Hey kittens, Happy Monday! So, this blog post is long overdue and a bit of a mammoth one. I’ve been meaning to write about my favourite skincare products – specifically, how I cleanse my skin – for a few weeks now as I’ve switched things up quite a lot. I used to be a cleanse, tone and moisturise every morning and night, with a heck of a lot of makeup remover wipes inbetween, but in the past few months I’ve completely stripped things back to a simple cleanser and moisturiser routine. Let me tell you why…

I’ve always been pretty lucky with my skin and never really suffered with acne. I think a lot of how your skin looks is to do with genetics, and then what you eat – I’m lucky that my Mum has great skin and I also take care not to eat too crazily. Yep, I’m a chocolate fanatic, but I also make sure to eat my fruit and veg and drink a heck of a lot of water on top. Keeping hydrated is not only important for your general health, but also helps to clear your skin and give you a healthy glow!

However, at the start of this year I had a huge breakout of cystic acne. (I say huge, but no one remarked on it other than my close friends and family who knew what my skin was like prior – I was thankfully able to conceal it quite well with makeup, but it knocked my confidence a lot). Looking back, this was due to health reasons and a condition which won’t go away, but I can manage relatively easily by trying to keep each symptom under control. One of these challenges will be learning to keep my skin symptoms under control, and after reading up on cystic acne, trying every acne/breakout/cleansing product under the sun (or what felt like it) and visiting skincare experts at stores and salons alike, I’ve finally found what works for me, now.

After trying so many products targeting at acne prone skin – you name it, I probably tried it – including much hyped products that so many beauty bloggers vowed would work for anyone (La Roche Posey’s Effacleur Duo+ and Bioderma Micellar Water, anyone?) I decided to strip it right back. Despite cleansing, toning and moisturising every morning and night (throw in some serums, eyecreams and even facial oils a few times a week) for many years and having it work quite well for me, I realised that perhaps this was too harsh a treatment for a skin. Although I am quite sure that this outbreak was due to health, using a cocktail of chemicals on the skin was certainly not making it any better, and as a last resort, I just stopped almost everything.

For three months or so, I have taken my skincare right back to cleansing and moisturising. That’s it. And it’s working.

I’ve also completely changed the way I cleanse my skin. I used to use facial wipes to remove my makeup, and then double cleanse using a cotton wool pad to wipe off the access grime. Now, I’ve jumped on the hot cloth cleanser bandwagon and I’m all over it, it seems a lot gentler way to clean the skin. With each of my below top 3 cleansers – which I’ve tried and tested to great success – I will use them exactly the same daily.

Every night, I take a small amount of the cleanser on my (clean) hands and massage them into my face, including eye area, over my full face of makeup. I will do this slowly in circular movements, before warming a flannel under the hot tap, rinsing, and placing over my face to open the pours. Then, I will slowly rub off the makeup using the damp, warm cloth before washing it all off with hot water. To finish, I’ll splash my face with cold water to close the pours.

Ren’s Rosa Centifolia Hot Cloth Cleanser* is my favourite hot cloth cleanser at the moment. It’s mild enough to not irritate my sensitive skin, but still easily decongests and removes make-up, including my stubborn waterproof eyeliner. It includes ingredients such as Rosa Damascena (from rose petals – an ingredient proven to be kind to skin) and Vitamin P (a more unusual one for me, but is apparently pretty good to be putting on your face). I’m not overly fussed what’s in it, but I am bothered about what’s not in it – REN say no to parabans, sulfates and a ton of other nasty chemicals that are often in more gel based cleansers, and for me, it’s important to know that I’m not putting anything harmful on to my skin. It’s also fairly reasonable at £16.00 for 150ml – a price I would happily pay for this gentle cleanser.

A similar hot cleanser – that I also similarly love – is No7 Beautiful Skin Hot Cloth Cleanser. This is slightly more affordable at £9.95 for 200ml, which works out at a really good value when you only need one pump of the bottle to remove a whole face of make-up. This is my go-to cleanser at the mo, for when I know I am running out and can pop into any local Boots and pick one up. With No.7 often offering out ‘£5 off skincare’ purchases which can be used alongside 3 for 2 promotions that run regularly, I stock up on this when both promotions are on. It’s a little less luxurious than the REN Hot Cloth Cleanser which has a slight citrus sent and resembles a spa treatment a little more, but the creamy consistency is very similar and it’s plain enough for my sensitive skin.

Lastly, the Neal’s Yard Remedies Wild Rose Balm* is a little different to the above two creamy cleansers, but one I love equally as much, in a different way. As the title suggests, this is balm rather than a creamy cleanser, and in true Neal’s Yard style, is totally herbal and spells divine. I reserve this cleanser for ‘special occassions’ and when I want to treat my face, as I fear that using it daily would be too rich for my skin. I like to use this maybe once a week when I’m having a pamper night, and treat my face to the gorgeous scents of the anti-oxidant rosehip oil and geranium. Although a balm, I use it exactly the same as the above two hot cloth cleansers.

In recent weeks, I have also dived into the world of the Clarisonic. I actually received the Clarisonic Aria* a couple of months ago but was too afraid to throw it into my skincare mix just as I was getting my skin back under control. It’s a fairly well known theory that when you start using a Clarisonic to cleanse the skin, your face often breaks out (in a purging stage – ew) before it gets better. However, I’ve been using this for a couple of weeks and have not really noticed this yet aside from a couple of bumps along my jawline, which I am hoping is the worst I will get. To use it, I will cleanse my face first leaving it slightly damp, pop on a bit more cleanser onto spots on my face and gently run the Clarisonic Aria over my face slowly in circular motions. The Clarisonic itself times certain zones on your face in 20 seconds and 10 seconds, the overall treatment taking only 60 seconds – it’s quick, easy and it means you won’t exfoliate your skin too much. Ideal.

Over all, using the Clarisonic has only enhanced my skincare routine – after initially being too worried to start using it, I noticed a difference in minimising my pores immediately after the first use. Although not totally getting rid of my pores, I can tell the Clarisonic Aria gives me a deep clean and gentle, regular exfoliation that I couldn’t previously get myself without having a facial. Although you can use this daily, I currently use it a couple of times a week as to not to be too harsh my skin – I may well build up to using it once a day as 60 seconds is such a do-able time it literally only adds 1 minute on to my evening routine! It is apparently meant to cleanse 6 times deeper than a normal cleanse, and I could easily believe that. At £155 it is a lot more expensive than cheaper high street dupes, but with a patented revolving head technology (and different heads targeted to different skin complaints) I would say it’s worth saving up for.

It’s also worth saying that I have started to invest in monthly facials to try and keep my skin looking ‘glowing’ and back up my skincare routine. I’m not one to get my nails done or have spray tans, so a treating myself to a facial is definitely something I feel is money well spell. I usually try and have a microdermabraisation – see my review of Skin Health Spa here – but I have also experimented with ‘natural facelifts’ here and I am just reviewing my latest experience of the Eve Lom facial at Harvey Nicols as we speak!

Finally, whilst I know this post is extraordinarily long, I just had to give a shout-out to a moisturiser that has also saved my skin over the past few weeks. A few months ago, I had an allergic reaction to some medication and as a result, suffered an acute breakout of eczema. I’m not gonna lie, aside from being extremely painful, it was pretty disgusting looking and nothing the doctors could give me helped. I literally spent over a hundred pounds on prescriptions over a month and had multiple doctors trips a week – long story short, I think it’s something I am going to have to get used to managing as well and it cleared up as a result of riding it out, rather than any medicated creams or tablets. However, there is one cream I know has helped it – this Original Astral All Over Moisturiser Cream*.

On one of my trips to boots to try and find some magical potions to clear my skin up (skin nightmare recently, I tell ya), I looked in the ‘scars’ section to see if there was anything to clear up the unsightly marks left by my eczema. On the shelf, I saw this bright blue pot, which I had actually been sent as a sample a few weeks prior. Now, I’m not gonna lie, I had kinda pushed it to the back of my sample box as it looks pretty unglamorous – being sent lovely luxurious items in pretty packaging with scrumptious scents, Astral Cream had not been a priority to try. However, seeing it alongside famous nourishing moisture products such as Palmers Cocoa Butter and Bio Oil promoted me to give it a try. That night, I went home, slathered it all over me and haven’t looked back since.

I was kindly sent two pots of this to try and have already got through one. I use it every morning and night. It was replaced my usual body moisturiser and hand creams, acting as an all-purpose product. As I first suspected, it is not glamorous in the but what I didn’t suspect was how much I’d love it, and after wondering the isles of drug-stores trying to find a moisturiser that wouldn’t aggravate my eczema but also bring my scars some relief, I had this lying at home unloved all the time. How sorry I am, Astral – I owe you one! The consistency of this is extremely thick, plain and unscented, but it’s exactly what I need right now. Having loved my first pot of this so much, I told my Mum (you know, the one with good skin) about this and she exclaimed that her mother had used this very same moisturiser daily for many years and swore by it. So, it might be an old-fashioned product, but if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

So kittens, that’s where I’m going to leave it for today. It’s a huge chunk of writing, I know, but I hope this gives some help to fellow sufferers of sensitive skin out there. If anyone has any questions, please just leave me a comment and let me know. I might not be a true beauty blogger, but I know what works for me, and it might just work for you, too…

Do you have any favourite cleansers? Recommend them to me in the comments below, I’d love to hear about them!

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