Inexpensive Facial Exfoliating Brush

I hear that the Clarisonic Cleansing Brushes are fantastic.

I also hear they start out at $149 and can cost as much as $225.

I have never been able to bring myself to spend that much money or waste a gift request on a facial cleansing brush.  Perhaps it’s because I’m married and am not all that concerned with having movie star skin.  Or maybe it’s because I work from home and have plenty of time to photoshop myself before anyone sees me.  Whatever.

Fortunately, I’ve found a very cheap knock off that keeps my skin clean and exfoliated.

Conair Facial Sauna System

I asked for the Conair Facial Sauna System for Christmas last year because I wanted to face steamer.  Yes, you can hold your face over a bowl of hot water for free, I know. But I wanted it.

Ironically, I very rarely use the steamer (which supposedly can also steam your sinuses with the smaller attachment), but I use the free exfoliating brush that came with it every day.

OK, fine, almost every day.  Often.

The brush does exactly what you’d think it does.  It spins the bristles around in a circle and gently exfoliates your skin.  I use it with a daily cleanser or with Bioelements Pure Scrub.  Occasionally I’ll use the padded sponge attachment to apply lotion, because I read that massaging the face helps skin look firmer.

And the best part?

It costs less than $20 on Amazon. It’s also available at Target.

Cleansers for oily AND dry skin?

I love it when people ask me questions.

It makes me feel smart and better than you.  I mean, helpful.  It makes me feel helpful.

My point is – someone asked me a question.

Elizabeth asked:

“do you know of any good facial cleansers that control oily and dry spots? As in, both at the same time? My forehead is both. I have no idea how this is scientifically possible, but my old cleansers aren’t working anymore. Help!”

Allow me to pretend to be an expert in skin care.

My immediate answer is your skin is probably not actually both oily and dry.

Truly oily skin is very, very rare.  And while cosmetic companies have been talking about “combination” skin for pretty much EVER, that is also pretty rare.

And yet, you’re breaking out AND having parts of your skin flake off, right?

Been there.

In fact, I actually had black heads and zits once right not top of skin that was dry and flaking off.  I googled and googled and then finally broke down and scheduled an emergency facial.

And then I rolled around for a few minutes in the idea that I was someone that scheduled emergency facials.  I started imagining myself using terms like “the help” and “my Jimmy Choos” and “that lovely woman who does my toes.”

But back to my schizophrenic face.

As it turns out, what was actually going on was that my face was really, really, really dry.  The blackheads and zits and oiliness were a result of my skin trying to work overtime to make up for the fact that I was stripping away the moisture in my skin by trying to fight the zits.

At least, that’s what the very expensive esthetician told me.

I didn’t believe her, of course.  Because it doesn’t make sense that dry skin would have blackheads and oil slicks.  And also – maybe I made my skin more dry by trying to fight the acne, but I had to do that because the acne was there in the first place, right?

My very expensive esthetician told me to shut up and do what I was told.

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