My Clarisonic Experience

I'm not sure there isn't a beauty blogger that hasn't mentioned the Clarisonic in some capacity. This by no means is an extremely unique post, but I think it may be helpful to many. 
I've seen glowing reviews of the Clarisonic and I've heard horror stories. The topic seems to be pretty polarizing - either you love it or you hate it. I wanted to chronicle my use of the Clarisonic to share it with you all and give you an honest, day-by-day update of what this new product is doing for my beauty routine. A little background information - I would say I have combination skin in that if I don't wear makeup, my face will start to look and feel a bit oily throughout the day and I only get hormonal breakouts. I do not have acne-prone skin. I do, however, have incredibly dry skin. My face, lips, hands, body, everything. I also do not have particularly sensitive skin. Some products do irritate me on occasion, but it's not something I have to be cognizant of constantly.
My main purpose for purchasing a Clarisonic was that I wanted to take my skincare routine a bit more seriously, and I was hoping it could help with my dryness, allowing products to soak into my skin better. I also was planning on using it on my arms where I have struggled with keratosis pilaris for quite a long time.
Day 1: I bought the Clarisonic and I absolutely could not wait to try it out. (I know you're supposed to charge it for at least 24 hours prior, but I couldn't wait!) I washed my face first, and then used the Clarisonic with a bit of cleanser. Amazing. My skin is incredibly soft, it glows, and it seems to have helped some of my dry patches. Love at first use, quite possibly. 
Day 2: I did not sleep with makeup on, and when I woke up, I decided to use the Clarisonic again. It does say for it to be used twice per day, in case you are unfamiliar. Again, my face felt squeaky clean. A little while after, my mom asked me what I had used on my face because I looked a bit sunburned. I had a bit of pinkness on my cheeks and chin, which isn't unusual for me when I exfoliate. Later that night, I wanted to test Clarisonic's ability to remove makeup, so I put some of my Neutrogena Deep Clean cleanser on the brush and went to town. It worked spectacularly. I applied my nighttime moisturizer and hit the sack. 
Day 3: The honeymoon phase is over. I woke up with red blotches covering my entire face and tiny bumps everywhere. And let me tell you, they itched like nothing else. I felt like I needed to scratch the skin off my face it was so uncomfortable. I went very light on the makeup that day, but ended up washing it off in a bathroom at work because I couldn't stand to have anything on my face. I obviously forewent using the Clarisonic today or any harsh products on my face. I even put an ice pack on my face later that night to try and counteract the inflammation and itching. 

All of my inflamed, bumpy skin. OW!

*This is when I started to Google other experiences with the Clarisonic. Some people said it's just too harsh for their face and that they had to buy the delicate brush head. Some say their skin got a bit worse for a few weeks and then it turned out to be amazing. Others say your skin goes through a "purging" phase as all the impurities are being brought to the surface, and some say that the purging phase is a crock of BS. It was really hard to tell what exactly caused this issue. I'm using a new soap, a new tool for cleansing, and it's also worth mentioning that I've been on a strict diet for a while and went off for a few days, which can cause a skin freak out. No one seemed to have said they were having the same issues I was having, which inspired me to write this. The worst part is figuring out whether I stick with it or not. Do I find a way to make it work so I don't waste my money, or is this just not for me? Is this temporary and will my skin look amazing after this initial freak out? It's hard to say. I typically don't have *bad* skin, so having a totally red and blotchy pizza face is not exactly my cup of tea and I found it very, very difficult to deal with. I'm not so sure going through this phase, depending on how long it lasts, is worth continuing use of the tool to get to whatever is down the road.
Day 4: The itching has subsided and the inflammation has gone down a bit, but I am still left with bumps a-plenty all over my face. But these aren't itchy irritated bumps like they were yesterday - they're tiny, tiny little pimples. Everywhere. In places I never, ever break out. What the hell, skin? My Google researching told me that a lot of people had this problem. They used the Clarisonic, they broke out, and then it cleared up more amazingly than ever before. So I had this breakout, coupled with irritation the day before. Who knows what else is going to happen. I washed my face with a gentle cleanser in the morning. I forewent wearing makeup most of the day again and let my skin do its thing. I started noticing more dryness than is typical throughout the day. I unfortunately had to put makeup on later before going out to dinner, and I decided to give the Clarisonic a whirl since I had taken a break. I used the cleanser that it came with, and the experience was very gentle, no irritation or anything. To remove my makeup before bed, I used a gentle cleanser again. All was well, minus the fact that I still had bumps all over my entire face. I put my nighttime moisturizer on... and it BURNED. I mean, it was horrific. I had to run to the sink to splash my face with water and it calmed down. I instead turned to my daytime moisturizer, Clinique Dramatically Different, which felt very soothing. 
Day 5: Still little pimples everywhere, still some redness, but HOLY CRAP. My skin is SO dry. Just touching it you can tell that it feels like a layer of dead skin is just going to peel off of my face at any moment. This is no joke. It's so tight and the dry layer feels so thick that the feeling resembles wearing a face mask long after it's time to wash it off. I'm not washing any more often than I normally would, and this dryness is out of control. It's also everywhere. My chin is by far the worst, where I also have the most breakouts currently, but it's on my cheeks, nose, and forehead. Even my lips are feeling more dry than normal, and I haven't touched them with the Clarisonic. While all of these dry patches have bumps in them, the skin feels incredibly hard. The liquid foundation is clinging to every little dry skin particle and it looks so, so strange. I've decided not to wear anything on my face but some powder until this subsides. I washed my makeup off when I got home, and again I used the Clarisonic with its cleanser gently. Again, no irritation, nothing strange. Still extremely, extremely dry skin. I layered on the moisturizer for sure. 

Makeup clinging to all my dry skin!

Day 6: I woke up feeling much less dry today. My face is not nearly as red, and while I still have a lot of little red spots on my face and some new pimples have emerged, my skin is looking better. I washed my face with my normal cleanser and put on some moisturizer. I am still far more dry than usual, but I don't feel like I'm wearing a mask anymore. I used the Clarisonic again in the evening, and while I was still left pretty dry, again, no irritation.
Day 7: I woke up and my skin is showing much improvement. No new pimples, most of the red spots are gone, and my skin doesn't look like it's peeling off in sheets so much. I was able to apply a substantial amount of makeup today - tinted moisturizer, concealer, setting powder - without drawing attention to dry flakes. I stopped by ULTA to pick up a few things and found a travel size bottle of Philosophy Purity. Since everyone has suggested this as the best cleanser to use with Clarisonic, I figured I'd give it a try. See, I thought I could use any cleanser with my Clarisonic because it was the brush that really mattered. Boy, was I WRONG. I used it as soon as I got home and it made a world of difference. My skin felt soft for the first time since I began using the Clarisonic. I'm starting to think it was the cleanser I was putting deep down into my pores that was tearing up my skin and causing it to basically shed. I was able to put on a full face of makeup before going out and my skin looked pretty darn good. 
Day 8: It's been a full week since I purchased my Clarisonic. I used it this morning with Purity cleanser and my skin feels very clean and not so dry. I still have a few pimples left from the initial breakout, but they're clearing up nicely. Here's hoping I'm on the upswing and my little pink Clarisonic and I can become friends for a very long time.