Clarisonic

Clarisonic Smart Profile Sonic Skin Cleansing Brush Review

Clarisonic Smart Profile Sonic Skin Cleansing Brush Review

Clarisonic Smart Profile Sonic Skin Cleansing Brush Review

If you’re in the market for a new skin cleansing brush and you like your gadgets, Clarisonic’s Smart Profile may be just the device for you. I’ve tried both the Clarisonic Mia 2 ($219 AUD) and Mia Fit ($315 AUD) before, but the Smart Profile ($349 AUD) really takes the cake in terms of convenience and features. It still has all the features that Clarisonic fans are used to, with some added bonuses that will make your routine much easier.

Regular Clarisonic Features

“Sonic” cleaning

All the Clarisonic brushes feature the “sonic” oscillating back-and-forth brush movement instead of the one-way rotation on most brushes. This is great because it reduces torque on the skin so it jiggles instead of roughly twisting, giving you a thorough but still gentle clean.

Handy magnetic USB charger

The chargers that currently come with all three Clarisonic devices are USB-enabled, so you can charge them from the wall using a USB wall adapter (included with the brush) or through your computer or laptop. It’s very convenient for travelling, when you might not have the right adapter or enough adapters around. The chargers attach magnetically to the brushes, which avoids exposed metal surfaces so you don’t need to worry about rust or electrocuting yourself, or plugging it in the wrong way. (If your bought your brush a bit earlier, it may not have the USB feature.)

Smart Profile Features

Here are the extra features the Smart Profile has:

“Smart” RFID Facial and Body Brushes

Unlike the Mia 2 and Mia Fit, the Smart Profile is designed to be used for both the face and the body, and comes with both a Smart Dynamic Facial Brush head for normal and oily facial skin, and a larger Smart Turbo Massage Body Brush Head with stiffer bristles for exfoliating and massaging the body. Both brushes contain RFID chips that tell the handle which preprogrammed timer to use. Since brush heads get worn out over time, the Smart Profile also registers how long you’ve used the brush head for. A notification light comes on after 90 minutes (3 months) of use when it’s time to get a new brush head (don’t worry – the brush head won’t stop working if you decide not to change it!). The Smart Profile also works with regular brush heads, but these nifty features won’t function.

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How Does the Clarisonic Cleansing Brush (Theoretically) Work?

How Does the Clarisonic Brush (Theoretically) Work?

How Does the Clarisonic Brush (Theoretically) Work?

I always assumed that the Clarisonic cleansing brush was an attempt to clean the skin via sonic cavitation, which is when sound waves cause tiny jets of water to smash into a surface to clean it, like a thousand tiny power hoses (that’s how sonic jewellery/glasses cleaners work). But for sonic cleaning via cavitation to work, you need a hard surface, which glasses and jewellery are, but skin is not, so I was pretty confused.

I recently stumbled upon a paper from 2006 in the Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology, where the inventors of the Clarisonic discuss how it’s designed to work. (Important note: the paper doesn’t present any data of the Clarisonic in action to show that that’s how it actually works, but it’s interesting to see the theoretical background anyway!)

The Clarisonic Brush Head

The Clarisonic brush head has two parts: an outer ring that’s fixed and doesn’t move, and an inner section that’s attached to a motor inside the handle.

From the Clarisonic patents, the inner section rotates back and forth between 8 and 26°, at a frequency of 176 Hz (i.e. it makes 176 cycles from the left to the right and back again in a second; you can also think of it as 352 “sweeps”).

How Does the Clarisonic Brush (Theoretically) Work?

How the Clarisonic Brush Head Works

Here’s the question: if you put the brush against your skin, which part of your skin gets cleaned the most? If you’re a normal sensible person who hasn’t looked at the Clarisonic website in much detail, you’d say, “the part of your skin that’s sitting under the moving inner portion.”

This is where it gets really interesting – the part of the skin that the brush is designed to deeply clean is actually the part with no bristles on it! It’s the skinny ring in between the outer and inner portions (0.05-0.125 inches, or 1.3-3.2 mm according to the patents).

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