DO NOT BUY: The Body Shop Facial Brush

Considering the fact that I was the first blogger to sing the praises of this brush, writing this post was something I didn't think I'd be doing..

My previous post was about the old facial brush made by The Body Shop.  This post is about the new one. 

Why would I suggest not buying the new one?
It is super scratchy and very rough.  I don't have sensitve skin in the slightest but it feels very abrasive on me when I use it with a light hand.  It literally scratches my skin and leaves it feeling painful and very red.. and you know how hard it is for a brown person to go red!

The bristles on the new one splayed a lot quicker than the older one.  As you can see, the older one still has the bristles in pretty much the same direction.  The newer one didn't hold up as well.  I'm also convinced that each "hole" on the new brush has less hairs in compared to the older one.

The Body Shop have decreased the price of this brush (the old one was £5 and this one is £3).  I initially thought the decrease was because they were using less plastic but it's clear now that they must have used a harsher hair for the brush part.  I don't like the fact that it doesn't have a long handle but the short handle isn't as hard to use as I thought it would be.  If they had just made the handle shorter and kept the bristles the same as before, I'd be recommending this brush until the cows came home.

Luckily for me, I still have the older one.  I use it for removing my face masks so it has seen better days (hence the reason for buying the new one).  I'm going to try and give it some mouth to brush action to see if I can get it working properly again.

In the mean time, if you're tempted to buy the new one from The Body Shop..DON'T.  I say new one..you can't buy the long handled one from them anymore so if you're intending on buying the facial brush from The Body Shop..DON'T!!

Clarisonic on a budget..really!

This comes with no instructions, I had to Google them.  As there were no instructions, I used it in the way I saw fit, the logic being that if it works sans instructions, it works full stop.

I will admit now that I have used my own face washes and scrubs with this product.  I have also used the products which came with this.  I like using my own products more.  Once again, my logic was the same as above.  You don't want to buy this, use the products, like them and then realise you can't buy them again without buying the whole kit again.  I have Googled refills but the best I could find was an obscure site which suggested ebay.

The first time I used it, I used the facial brush and a Clinique face wash.  It definitely made my skin cleaner as Simon asked me why I looked far lighter when I came out of the bathroom.  It didn't feel much smoother until a few hours later.

Then I applied scrubs to my face and used the brush over them so that I got a good exfoliation “work out”.  This worked well for me as my skin did improve.  It made my skin feel very plumped up and smoother..almost instantly.

The attachment I've used more than the rest (for my face) is the brush.  I felt at first that the bristles were far too long and that shorter bristles could clean your skin more.  I don't know how much cleaner my skin could be but it is currently the cleanest it has ever been.  Smaller bristles would give you more control.

After the second usage, the pores on my nose were clean.  I am not sure if that was because of the brush or because of the makeup remover as that remover has cleaned my pores like that before.  Since then, I have stopped using the makeup remover and my pores remain just as clean.

I've used all the other attachments, the pumice attachment helps greatly with dry skin under your feet and the other two are great for buffing serum into your skin.  My mum swears by serum and she has been using the circular soft pad to buff it in and more than one person is convinced that she has had some kind of facial surgery.  I swear, giving her things to test is a curse.  She looks like my sister as it is and here's me handing her stuff which will make her look younger than me.  The body de-flaker is brilliant if you have really dry skin as if you use it before you shower, it removes all the dry flakes of skin and you end up using less moisturiser when you've finished in the shower.

The logistics of how to put the batteries in did baffle me.  If I had instructions, it would have been easier.  You have to twist the battery lid in a certain way to ensure that the product stays on.

Just when I finished typing this up, I saw an info-mercial for it on TV and watched it from start to finish.  The instructions they gave were a bit different to what I did.  They suggested putting the Cleanser onto the brush attachment and using that on your face and then using the soft pad and buffing in the Resurfacing Cream.  To apply the serum, you just use your fingers.  I personally think that my method of buffing it in works better as I couldn't see a difference when I applied it by hand.  In the photo above, the brush attachment is missing as it was drying out in the bathroom window.  I wouldn't even have known about the massager attachment had I not seen the info-mercial this morning. 

I’ve used the product in the way the info-mercial suggested and I didn’t like it.  The Resurfacing Cream is very fine and yet very gritty at the same time.  I applied the Cleanser to my face and removed it.  Then I dipped the round soft pad attachment into the Resurfacing Cream and moved it around my face.  It was very hard to remove it all, I washed my face for a good 10 minutes and it still felt gritty.  I applied the Serum and this made the grit feel more evident so I had to wash my face and apply my toner.  However, this method immediately made my nose feel smoother and smaller on the pore front.  The problem I had with this method was the fact that the cream kept slipping off the top of the pad so I had to keep stopping and smearing it back over the top of the sponge.

I also have a tiiiiiiiny issue with the size of the tub that the Resurfacing Cream comes in.  The tub is only halfway full.  The bottom half of the tub is solid and the cream is just in the top half..that's not a problem as such but why make the tub so big?

You know how you usually watch these info-mercials and you're thinking "Yeah..right! You're only saying it because you're getting paid?" Well I watched it and I have to say that everything the ladies said was true.  You do look younger, your pores are smaller, your skin is smoother and it feels brilliant.

So, do I like it?
Yes.  It does make you look younger and it does sort your pores out too.  The attachments work well and I have had soft feet and softer skin since I started using it.  Considering the fact that it costs you less than £30, I would recommend it..it's a multi-tasking genius.  You should however, use it with other scrubs and face washes as I find that those work better.

A brush? For your face?

I struggled for ages to come up with a natty title for this post and you can see that I failed.  I was watching Phoenix Nights when I settled on this title so it's meant to be read in the whole (the link is to Youtube so be warned if you've got your volume up) "garlic...bread?" rhyme pattern.

This badboy is one of my beauty "investment pieces".. my other investment piece being my GHD's. 

I use this ALL the time (as you can tell by the battered bristles) and I have had it since I was 14..that's 12 years come April 23rd.  

What do I use it for? Exfoliation mainly, I put my exfoliator on and then swirl this around my mush until my skin feels cleaner.  I also use it for removing masks.  I don't know if I'm the only one but I get a bit annoyed when a mask hardens on your face and you add water to remove it and it forms a paste and you have to really rub your face to get it off (the mask, not your face..)  Well, if you use this brush you can wait for the mask to harden and then (whilst the brush is dry) swirl it around your face and it will take all the masky bits off, leaving you with nice, smooth skin.

I used it after the fridge man left and my Korres mask was ready to come off, this is why there are white bits ensconced within the bristles.  I also used it over the course of the weekend, this explains the green mask bits on the handle.  I'm not a dutty cow, I do wash this brush ;)

The Body Shop have changed the design of this brush and you now only get the brush with a handle right on top of it.  However, this is where I'm happy with The Body Shop because they've made the item smaller AND reduced the price.  The new brush costs £3 whereas mine cost me £5.

Considering how much I've used it, a fiver is nothing..says the girl who as a 14 year old baulked at paying five quid for it as she only got £15 pocket money a week.

Has anyone else used this and if you have any skin investment pieces, let me know!