Garnier Pure Active Exfo-Brusher Wash

My skin is a bit rubbish, not going to lie to you - without a bit of foundation it always looks a bit sad and dreary. So I've always been one that wanted to use really exfoliating face washes, and the ones in tubes have always been a bit of a disappointment; start out good but for some weird reason after a little while my skin stops responding to the exfoliating properties, and it returns to looking a bit dull and miserable - so I have to start over, and find something else that can make a change to my annoying skin!

Garnier Exfo-Brusher Wash

Spotted in the face wash, or Garnier section - a face wash that uses a 180 bristle applicator to help unclog impurities from pores; and using the flexible bristles it will reduce the amount of surface sebum on your skin. There are two types, a bright bluey/green bottle, and this one the white bottle with the red label, so make sure you don't get them mixed up.

Most Importantly.... Does it Work?

I'm on bottle number three so I'm going to say yes!

When I first got it I was completely useless and had no idea what on earth I was doing - it doesn't have any explicit details on the label until you open it at the back, and hey presto you have instructions. Once you've done it a couple of times you're unlikely to forget how to do it, I think I must have been having a dim moment, because it's not the hardest of things to work out - then again the instructions are very simple and even if you were dumber than the proverbial you'd understand what they were trying to get you to do.

So really it is quite simple wet the bristles an your face, turn the head, squeeze some face wash out, lock the head again, rub in circular motions on your face, and then wash the head and your face and done... Simple really!

Make sure you put effort into scrubbing it into your face though because it doesn't really foam up all that well, you really have to scrub hard to get anything like that out of it. I tend to just rub it in and let it do its job - which let's face it three bottles later it must do else I'd have given up on it by now. So don't expect to have a lot of proof on your face that you've got face wash on, or worry about it falling off your face. That's something that normally drives me mad, especially with foaming face washes, but with this one it seems to work quite nicely a quick squeeze out onto the head and pop it on your face you won't run out unless you've got a massive face. Which I'm guessing not many people have!

The flexible bristles aren't too harsh on your skin either and that was my initial concern with them actually, as much as I like to brush my face silly with this face wash, it doesn't make your face red or damaged to what I can feel. So they are soft enough to be effective - as after patting dry I always make sure I put moisturiser on afterwards, and would like to think if I'd broken my skin in a major way it might sting with the application of moisturiser. The bristles last really well too, my average bottle of this lasts a month, and by the time it's replaced it still has all the bristles intact and no split in the pad they sit on, so they are really well made - to stand the test of being battered twice a day. I like my skin to feel smooth before I put any make up on so I've found that using it before I apply and after I've taken my make up off before I go to bed, and even on twice a day it lasts a month - so it's also really good value.

I'm a massive fan of this face wash now, it does wonders to make my skin look good, it takes off all the dead skin that makes it look dull and miserable and leaves a nice fresh layer underneath. Without making your face red and angry looking, I have a problematic nose area that seems to get very stubborn and flaky but since using this regularly I've not had that problem - it means my make-up applies a lot smoother now than it ever used to, and in combination with a skin perfecting cream it gives my skin a nice look to it. As for spots, well my skin wasn't too prone to them now being in my twenties anyway, but I do get the occasional black head on my nose area that annoys me - so really this face wash has warded off any large spots that might occur every now and again, and kept my blackheads at bay, even making my pores look a lot smaller after using it. I have to say even in my twenties I've had a bit of a problem with an oily forehead since I was a teenager, this is quite good at keeping it to a minimum really, it's not perfect as I still apply a bit of face powder during the day but it's good enough that I'm not always checking in the mirror to see if I have a shiny forehead! It doesn't smell that bad either, smells like soap really - nothing majorly offensive about it, and nothing that would make you not want to use it, just an average chemically smelling face wash.

Price and Availability

This is available in numerous places, Asda, Tesco and all your usual shops to buy face wash products from, and in a lot of places it is on offer at the moment. I got my latest bottle for £5 from Asda it is the same in Tesco (or was when I went into my local one about 2 hours ago) and only £5.33 in Boots if you want to use your advantage card, and it's also £5 on Amazon if you are using up vouchers.