Of all the blackhead removal tools and treatments we’ve used, the Skin Glow Electric Cleanser is hands-down the most effective. Even if we had to go through some lows to reach the highs.
It’s not particularly sophisticated and there is no way we’d pay the £49.99 RRP but at £20 the performance outweighs the price. We don’t suffer particularly badly from blackheads but there was a noticeable difference even in our skin.
If you have very oily skin and find you get a lot of blackheads then this is a wise investment.
| Skin Glow | £19.99 |
Blackheads may not look quite as gross as big white pussy pimples, and in many instances they’re pretty inconspicuous, but if they’re left too long they can lead to bacteria and inflammation. Not to mention the fact they can mess with the finish of your makeup. And that’s where a blackhead remover comes in.
If you’ve ever tried to squeeze your blackheads out (please don’t do this!), you’ll know how ineffective it is. Similarly, there are so many blackhead treatments, from pore strips to face washes, that knowing how best to tackle the scourge can prove tricky and expensive.
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For the past two months we’ve ditched all of our other blackhead treatments to carry out an in-depth test of the Skin Glow Electric Cleanser – a blackhead remover and vacuum that regularly pops up in our Instagram adverts.
Before we dive into the Skin Glow Electric Cleanser review, it will help to explain what causes blackheads and why they’re so stubborn to remove.
Put simply, when pores become clogged with oil and dead cells – usually the result of either having oily skin or not washing and cleansing your skin properly after wearing makeup – these cells oxidise as they mix with the oxygen in the air and turn black.
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They sit within the pores, so are usually flush against the surface of your skin, whereas white heads become inflamed and swell out of the skin.
This also means they can become embedded in the skin, sitting deep in the pores, which is why squeezing just the top out doesn’t always get rid of them or make much of a difference.
To get rid of blackheads, you ideally need to use a facial steamer, or a homemade version which involves simply placing a towel over your head above a bowl of boiling water.
Once the steam has opened your pores, apply a clay mask (read our guide to the best face masks for recommendations) to extract dirt, dead skin, and oil from your face.
You can then use a blackhead remover to get rid of the most stubborn blackheads before removing all traces of cleanser and mask with a clarifying toner. Read more in our What does toner actually do? guide.
Victoria Woollaston-Webber | mamabella For months we’ve regularly been served adverts for blackhead removers that promise flawless, clear skin after just one use. The most common product that appeared across social and search engines was Skin Glow Electric Cleanser so we selected that one to test for this review.
The device, which is part of a collection of products including a jade roller, a silicone cleansing brush and an LED mirror, is sold by Skin Glow. You can buy these products individually, or as a set.
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The Skin Glow Electric Cleanser retails at £49.99 in the UK, although we got it on sale for £19.99. We should point out that we haven’t seen the Electric Cleaner rise above this £20 sale price once during our testing period. We have seen an incredibly similar-looking (almost identical) machine called the Zoë Ayla Electric Cleanser selling for $103!
Buy now from Skin Glow
Looking like a cross between an electric toothbrush and tall cleansing brush, the battery-powered Skin Glow Electric Cleanser has a button on the front, which sits just below three blue LEDs.
These three LEDs relate to the three suction strengths and you press and hold the button to turn the cleanser on. The vacuum head on the top of the device then starts sucking.
You can toggle between suction strengths by pressing the button once, and then twice, and the cleanser is switched off by holding down the button again.
Victoria Woollaston-Webber The whole device is made of quite cheap-feeling plastic, including the vacuum section. Inside this section is a small piece of foam, designed to filter out the dirt and cells from going inside the device, and you can then put one of five funnels on the vacuum to change the suction type.
The larger attachments are better suited to covering larger parts of your face, where as the narrow attachments can be used for more precise, targeted blackhead removal.
We found this was particularly useful for the strip of skin when our nostril connects to our cheek.
Using the Skin Glow Electric Cleanser is really easy. Place the relevant attachment on to the vacuum head – they just pop on and off – to suit what kind of suction you want.
We recommend you test the different levels and strengths on the back of your hand.
Once you’ve settled on the desired treatment, slowly move the blackhead remover across your face and problem areas.
The suction can be really strong so don’t leave the Skin Glow cleanser in one place for too long or you’ll look like your face is covered in love bites! Trust us… Also, do not use this on the skin around your eyes.
This skin is incredibly fragile and you should avoid pulling it even when you’re using normal cleansers, toners or moisturisers. Pulling and pinching this skin can make sagging, under eye bags and dark circles worse.
Skin Glow recommends closing your pores after use, by placing a cold towel or water on your face, followed by serums and moisturiser.
Instead of using regular, replaceable batteries, you charge the Skin Glow Electric Cleanser via microUSB and a single charge will last at least two months’ worth of use.
Buy now from Skin Glow
The Skin Glow Electric Cleanser is a vacuum, so as you’d imagine, it sucks the skin. We found that this caused a lot of redness, even on the lowest setting.
MAMABELLA TIP
If you have particularly blemish-prone skin, we highly recommend Tropic’s Blue Lagoon Blemish Prevention Serum.
It’s not cheap (at £42!) but you need the smallest amount and it’s really light on the skin.
A cheaper alternative that we don’t think works as well as Tropic’s version, but is still a great buy is Revolution’s Blemish and Pore Refining Serum.
This is a much more affordable £6.
It doesn’t hurt but it is strong and we were a little concerned our skin was going to be left looking like it was sunburned. Thankfully, this redness disappeared quickly after use and because we used it before bed, this wasn’t really an issue.
What’s more, the act of cooling down the skin with a cold towel and the application of serums and moisturisers helped clear this redness even faster.
We used the larger attachment for our cheeks and and jawline – two places where we have particularly large pores and suffer from pimples.
The mid-sized attachment was perfect for the main parts of our nose, and we used the thinner, longer attachment on the creases around our our nose.
Skin Glow recommends that you cleanse the skin normally before steaming your face to open your pores. This helps improve how well the Skin Glow Electric Cleanser performs and we can vouch for that.
We noticed very little difference when used on dry, uncleansed skin but on steamed skin, our face looked brighter and clearer immediately after use.
The day after treatment, our skin didn’t look quite as bright. In fact, we thought it made our skin looked worse but by day two our skin looked amazing.
We imagine that the skin has to breakdown before repairing again so don’t be too disheartened if this happens to you.
Once we had clear skin, the results lasted a few days. This meant we only needed to use this blackhead remover once a week at most. We also tend use it if we’ve worn a lot of makeup, to make sure our skin is fully cleansed.
Of all the blackhead removal tools and treatments we’ve used, the Skin Glow Electric Cleanser is hands-down the most effective. Even if we had to go through some lows to reach the highs.
It’s not particularly sophisticated and there is no way we’d pay the £49.99 RRP but at £20 the performance outweighs the price. We don’t suffer particularly badly from blackheads but there was a noticeable difference even in our skin.
If you have very oily skin and find you get a lot of blackheads then this is a wise investment.
Buy now from Skin Glow
Victoria is founder and editor-in-chief of mamabella, freelance journalist and Mum. She has a passion for empowering people to feel beautiful whatever their age, size, skin type and budget
