Battle of the (face) Brushes

Gutentag! Are you all having a good weekend? I’m up north, may do a cheeky CCO trip…..trying to convince myself not to but it’s so tempting! Lately I’ve found some goodies!

Obviously everyone has heard about the love the Clarisonic gets and the improvement most people see in their skin. Now being a poor student I can’t afford one (sadface) and although I am considering asking my Gran to pick up the Olay alternative on her US trip I also saw a few manual brushes being featured on blogs, the two main ones being from The Body Shop and Boots Botanics range.

I got The Body Shop one first for £3 about a month ago. It is tiny so I thought it’d be easy to get into all the nooks and crannies on my face.

It comes in a cute little holder which although handy, also ensures that this takes an eon to dry! Seriously, if I use it at night I have to wipe the still damp bristles on a flannel and wipe the pot out for it to dry in a day. I went away for the weekend and forgot to take this and when I got back it was still wet, even if I just lean it in the pot and not fully put it in!

When I first saw reviews of this it said that the bristles were really soft. I didn’t check them out in store as the brush was in the pot and wrapped in plastic, there were some open but stupidly I didn’t think to test. The bristles on mine are hard, I mean really abrasive. I don’t feel comfortable using this every day on my face, it feels like it’s stripping my skin raw and even with a very light hand as in barely touching my skin, it still feels uncomfortable if I go over the same areas. I have since seen a few reviews saying that the softness of the brushes varies wildly and I seem to have got one of the hardcore ones.

It does make my skin feel clean and visibly removes my makeup but feels too much for every day use. So I use this LIGHTLY for a deeper clean every 3 days or so, alternating with this…..

This was around the £6 mark from Boots and as you can see for double the price you get a handle and a much larger brush head. The bristles on this are so soft! Kind of so soft that you feel like you have to do a bit of a scrub to get everything off but at the same time it doesn’t feel abrasive. I use this twice a day, more intensively at night obviously, and my skin feels ok for it, not like I’m overdoing it. I also find the handle easier to grip and the bristles dry much more quickly, I assume because they are not covered.

Quick comparison picture…

I feel that the rotation I am using now is enough for my skin to handle without overdoing it. I can feel when I need to do a more intensive clean as I get some flakes around my nose which kind of build up (tmi?) so when I feel that I crack out the Body Shop one.

If I was solely using the Botanics one I wouldn’t be able to give up the face scrub as it just isn’t abrasive enough to clean all the crap off my face, I still feel like there is a little bit of build up every few days which is how often I would use a face scrub. I am going to carry on using the Body Shop one every few days and see if I can get away without using face scrub anymore, especially since I’ve just ran out of my Soap & Glory Greatest Scrub of All,

I also haven’t noticed a massive change in my skin appearance-wise, it feels softer to me and creams etc are easier to apply and sink in quicker but I don’t see a massive change in my pore size etc though maybe that will come with time.

In total, go for the Botanics one. I know there is a chance you could get a soft Body Shop one and it is half the price but I personally would rather the Botanics one and use a face scrub when needed, it is easier to hold and you know next time you need it the bristles will be dry. There is a bit of a hay smell but nothing too strong, just mouth breathe when your cleaning your face!

What do you think? Have you tried either of these? Or a different one? Or the Clarisonic even, is it worth the pricetag?