I'll let you into my deep, dark, beauty related secret.... until recently I was a serial face-wipe addict.
I've always been lucky and had reasonably good skin, even in my teenage years I rarely got spots.le  I like to credit this to not overwashing my face but in all honesty I think it was sheer luck and a half decent diet that helped this.

I've been terrible to my skin over the years, often putting it through nights of falling into bed either with a quick once over with a face wipe or not at all (sleeping in makeup is bad!!!) Until recently I thought that this was perfectly acceptable, however I've changed up my skincare regime a little and I've been a bit shocked with the results.

After taking my makeup off with a facewipe and thinking that my skin looked reasonably clean I decided to get a cotton pad and some misceller water. To say I was disgusted is an understatement, the amount of dirt/old makeup which came off really made me shake things up a bit and realise that although the wipes make my face look cleaner, they actually were just wiping the makeup around my face and not giving me the deep clean I needed.


Enter the Clarisonic Aria (£155 Debenhams), my skin's new best friend! Clarisonics are sort of like a big electric toothbrush for the face. It has an oscillating brush head which is used for 1-2 minutes a day to give the face a really thorough cleanse.


Aria comes with a refreshing gel cleanser, however you can use any type of cleansing face wash with this. My favourite is Clarins Gentle Foaming Cleanser (£19.00).
After removing eye makeup (its too harsh to use around the eye area) wet your face and apply cleanser either directly to the brush head or to your face. The Aria has 3 speed settings, for the first week or so I used the lowest then moved up a level once my skin got used to it. The Clarisonic is very easy to use, almost foolproof. Press the middle button to switch on and  use the arrows to move down programmes. You can also set the time to one or two minutes. The Aria beeps when its time to move to a different area of your face, starting with forehead moving to the nose/chin and finally the cheeks.


After using the Clarisonic your face does get a little red, as with any exfoliating product this is to be expected. My skin feels super soft after using and then tightens slightly after a few hours.
A word of warning though, if you have several big nights out coming up its best to wait until after to use this. As the Clarisonic is likely to be completely different to any of your skincare routines and gives a really deep clean, its very possible you will go through the "purge stage".
I suffer from blocked pores around my nose and chin area and after the first week of using I found I was getting a bit of a breakout. This has mostly died down now and my pores look considerably reduced. I've been using this at least once a day, sometimes twice and can see a real difference in my skin condition.

The Clarisonic Aria comes in three colours, (black, white and pink) and comes with a really handy usb charger which makes it easy to take on holiday. It is completely waterproof and is great to use in the shower. The brush heads each last around 3 months and replacement heads are around £20 depending on the type of brush.
I can't recommend the Clarisonic Aria enough, I love the way my skin feels and I'll definitely be keeping it as part of my skin cleansing regime.

Clarisonic Aria is available online via Debenhams or pop into the Debenhams Store in Glasgow's Argyll Street, The Clarisonic section is located in the Beauty Hall close to the Fragrances.