Living in a drier climate during the past months has been hard on my skin.  It is drier, flares up more easily and seems unwilling to find a balance.  It’s maddening.

Recently, I switched to a gentle cleanser to give my skin a break.  My skin relaxed a bit, but it didn’t feel clean.  I turned to my trusty Clarisonic, but using it more than once-per-week yielded serious dryness.  So when I cruised through Sephora to pick up a nail polish, and spotted the Foreo LUNA Mini ($139), I thought, “Well, it’s worth a try.”

The LUNA gently pulses to remove dead skin cells and release makeup and oil from the pores.  It is covered in silicone “touch points” of varying size and firmness.  The thicker points are used on oily areas like the t-zone, while the finer points are for the cheeks and forehead.  You can adjust the speed of the pulses to your liking.

It is not as powerful as the Clarisonic, and is more of a cleansing-aid than an exfoliating brush.  Even with the gentle cleanser, my skin feels very clean after using it, but not as scrubbed as with the Clarisonic.

The secondary benefit of using the LUNA is that it opens the pores and stimulates the skin, improving the absorption of serum.  My skin also seems softer and smoother after using it.

Another benefit of the LUNA is that–unlike the Clarisonic, which must be charged after a handful of uses–the battery lasts for 300 uses.  This is a great feature for frequent travelers who don’t want to tote a charger, and for forgetful people, like myself, who turn on their Clarisonic, to have it die mid-cycle.

I don’t see the LUNA as a replacement for the Clarisonic, which offers a much deeper clean and stronger exfoliation than the LUNA.  I see it instead as a product gentle enough to be used regularly even on dry skin.  I suspect that I will use the LUNA nearly every night, and the Clarisonic on Sundays.