Let’s talk shop about face cleansing brushes: They first came onto the scene back in 2004 when Clarisonic introduced their sonic cleansing device, Mia. After steadily gaining immense popularity over the next couple of years, the market for them exploded with everyone from drugstores to luxury brands carrying them.
When used correctly, a face cleansing brush can give you a deeper clean and physically exfoliate dead skin cells, which is particularly helpful if you have overly oily or dry skin. “The problem is that people tend to use and care for them improperly, creating more skin problems than solutions,” says Joanne deLeon, senior skin therapist at Heyday L.A.
To get the most from your cleansing brush, deLeon recommends choosing softer bristles and using it once a day if your skin can tolerate it, and no more than two to three times a week if your skin is on the sensitive side. You should also clean and rinse the brush with an antibacterial soap before every use and—this is the most important part—scale back on using any other form of mechanical exfoliation (i.e., a scrub) or chemical exfoliation (i.e., a glycolic acid) to avoid disrupting your skin barrier, which can cause more breakouts and irritation.
Now that we’ve got the basics down, let’s move onto shopping. We’ve culled together 10 face cleansing brushes to cater to every skin type and budget.
