Mia 2

I have had acne since I entered 7th grade.  I was lucky and avoided the cystic acne some of my peers had or I saw on the faces of my students when I was teaching.  However, my acne never really went away.  I am now 40 and finding myself battling not just the start of wrinkles and age spots, but the ever present large pores and the monthly splattering of pimples along my jaw line.

I have tried almost every product that is out there in the past 25+ years.  Over the counter, Rx topical treatments, antibiotics, birth control pills, Proactive - they have all been in my possession at some point. And some of them worked.  Kind of.  But even if the pimples were gone and the pores free of debris, my face was beet red and irritated.

At some point in college, I discovered that if I used Dove soap and Oil of Olay every day, my skin called a truce.  The redness went away, it wasn't as oily as it had been, and the pimples stayed at a minimum.

I had been contemplating for months buying the Mia 2 clarisonic facial cleaner.  I first became aware of it through the comments section at a web site I love to hate, Jezebel.  There is a weekly post done over there in which a staff member raves about a product that they love.  The rules are, they can't have been given the product to test, and can't be paid to review it.  The Mia 2 wasn't even the product being discussed, it was actually mentioned by a commenter and then a number of other commenters chimed in with their odes to the Mia.

I did some research and found that in almost every case, purchasers gave the Mia 2 five out of five stars.  Almost every review was positive, citing improvement in softness, fewer and less severe acne breakouts, and smaller pores.  So I took the plunge.

I have been using it now for two full weeks.  My face absolutely is softer.  But as for appearance .... Remember me saying I have never had cystic acne?  That is no longer true.  I have three very deep, very red, very sore pimples brewing beneath the surface.  And that is why there is going to be absolutely no pictures accompanying this post!  To be fair to the Mia 2, almost every reviewer stated that their skin got worse before it got better.  The claim is that all the gunk has to be drawn out.  I'm not sure if I 100% believe that theory.  But at least I know I am not experiencing anything much different than the others who eventually fell in love with the Mia 2.

I am hoping to be able to move the Mia 2 into my Products I Love tab.  For right now, the jury is out.