Test Driven ::: Clarisonic Opal

Photo: Me, of my set

During the Anniversary Sale last month I picked up a special Anniversary set of the Clarisonic Opal device, something I'd wanted to try out for a while since I had watched a presentation on QVC.  I immediately charged it the very first night and gave it a whirl, with high expectations.

Admittedly, I was kind of intrigued.  It did seem a little extraneous, and overkill-ish, to apply serums and treatments with a little vibrating gizmo, but the theory is that it covers more area and helps it penetrate better than fingers alone. But the more I read about it, the more I watched on QVC, the more obsessed I was, and of course based on the presentations, I wanted the promised results, and of course, immediately.

Because the Anniversary Set was a pretty sweet deal, I figured if I liked it I was well stocked and if not I could easily return it.  This special set came with the device in a really bright pink, a charger, 4 extra replacement tips, a "travel bag" and the serum, as well as directions on replacing the tips.  When I say it came with serum, I mean it came loaded up with serum. This box held two tubes of the serum, one is a "regular sized" pump bottle of serum which is 1/2 oz and also a big daddy 1oz pump as well, so essentially three bottles worth in this package. The packaging is nice, an airless pump tube for both. 

Photos: Me, of my unit

The serum felt nice, it was more of a gel than I anticipated it being, but it also didn't seem to contain anything I was allergic to....at least not on paper.  I did ok for the first few days, until a rash formed.  I still can't figure out if it was the serum or if it was the silicone tips on the gizmo. But when I stopped both items, the rash went away.  I tried it with a few other serums and had a similar result so I leaned more towards the silicone tips, or that I still had remnants of the original serum somehow involved.  

To use, you pump a little serum (theirs or any other) into the "cup" of the silicone tip. Then you place it in the "Safe Zone" as shown in the instructions, and really, they don't joke with that, because it hurts if you get too close to your eyeball.  Once you place it in the right area, power it on and move in little circles around your eye area and it spreads the serum properly. After 30 seconds the device stops and you use your finger to smooth any remaining serum in. I mostly focused my "experiment" on one eye, so I could see if there was any real difference. And in the month I used it, I didn't notice much, besides a rash of course.  Some days I'd do the remaining serum along my forehead and laugh lines.

 Serum on the applicator.

In Progress. Blogger has decided this was too crisp and clean and compressed it more. 

After. 

Great closeup of my nose pores, thank you blogger for deciding this needed 

more compression. (I have just spent 45 minutes trying to "uncompress" 

the data in this so it looks like it does outside of blogger, but blogger is insisting on 

blurring this image. You can't really see the side by side very well 

with the blurring...yet the ones with my hands look just fantastic...

I am kind of an instant gratification kind of girl, so the lack of real and swift results plus a rash was all I needed to take this item back, especially considering the sales pitches indicating that it would provide quicker and better results than serums alone due to the better application and sonic waves.  I think if I wasn't getting a rash I would have been more inclined to give it more time than I did. But for the amount of money it costs, I just expected more out of it faster.  Considering I don't have great results and my skin doesn't really like the regular Clarisonic brush cleansing devices (aka Alien Death Ray Gun), this just might be among the high-tech gadgets I have to pass on.

Have you tried this device?  What were your thoughts?

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