Best facial cleansing brushes and tools 2022

Find your regular cleanser just isn’t cutting it? For a deeper clean, try reaching for a cleansing brush. They help to remove everything from make-up to grease to excess oil, leaving you with cleaner, clearer and brighter skin.

With prices starting at under £20 and ranging up to £200, the GHI wanted to find out which tools were worth spending money on. We asked a panel of testers to try the top brands for one month, here are their winners at a glance:

• Best facial cleansing tool:
• Best for battery power:
• Best for brightening:
• Best 3-in-1 facial cleansing tool:
• Best for make-up removal:
• Best for a deep cleanse:
• Best smart cleansing device:
• Best budget buy:
• Best cleansing brush set: Liberex Egg Vibrating Facial Cleansing Brush
• Best for mature skin:

What are cleansing brushes?

Cleansing brushes aren’t a replacement for your trusted cleanser. Instead, they work alongside your skincare products to help optimise results.

To use: simply apply your cleanser as normal, wet the cleansing brush head and massage across your face – voilà!

They help to remove make-up and dirt more efficiently, and with more oomph than your regular washcloth, they provide a much deeper cleanse. Also adept at removing dead skin, cleansing brushes are excellent for anyone seeking a clearer complexion, as they can help to keep blemishes at bay.

What’s more, the circular motions used can also promote lymphatic drainage, stimulating the surface of your skin to help give it a little detox.

Do cleansing brushes remove blackheads?

Cleansing brushes feature bristles that gently exfoliate skin, helping to remove dead skin, dirt and excess sebum, which contribute to blackheads forming. This deeper clean helps prevent pores from clogging, so you should see less pesky black dots.

It’s also important to keep your gadget in tip-top shape by removing the head attachment at least once a week to give the bristles a clean. Even better, replace your brush head every three months or so.

How we test cleansing brushes

We put a range of cleansing tools and brushes to our panel of 195 beauty testers, who trialled each one for four weeks. Before we gave the tools to testers we also removed any branding to avoid bias.

Testers rated their tool’s performance, ease of use and overall effect on the skin. While in the Good Housekeeping Institute lab, we assessed each tool’s make-up removal skills on an artificial skin replica.