I swapped my expensive cleanser for this $69 facial brush — and my skin hasn't looked this clear in years

There's a particular kind of skincare fatigue that sets in after a while. You've found your cleanser, you know your routine, and the last thing you want is some gadget arriving to disrupt it.

New devices come with new promises, and those promises don't always survive contact with your actual face. So when the GESKE Sonic Thermo Facial Brush landed on my bathroom shelf, my expectations were measured. A six-in-one cleansing device with an AI app sounds like it's doing too much. As it turns out, it's doing almost exactly the right amount.

GESKE is a relatively new name in the beauty tech space, but it arrived with considerable ambition, launching a range of 250 SmartAppGuided skincare devices straight out of the gate.

The Sonic Thermo is the kind of device that makes you think the ambition might be warranted. It doesn't try to replace your skincare routine. It just makes it work better — and largely delivers on that promise.

Dreame Glory: Cheat sheet

• What is it? A 6-in-1 sonic facial brush with pore-opening warming technology and an AI companion app.
• Who is it for? Anyone who wants to level up their cleansing routine without stretching to Foreo prices.
• What does it do well? The warming step makes a genuine difference; the sonic cleanse is thorough; the app guidance is actually worth using.
• What are its weaknesses? Proprietary charging cable, no storage base, and the app's personalisation could be more transparent.

Dreame Glory: Specs

GESKE Sonic Thermo 6 in 1: Price & availability

The GESKE Sonic Thermo Facial Brush retails at $69 in the U.S. and £54 in the U.K., and is available through GESKE's website, Amazon, and select retailers. It comes in 11 colorways, including the black and gold version I've been testing, so finding one that suits your bathroom shelf shouldn't be a problem.

If you've been eyeing the Foreo Luna 3 but wincing at the price, the GESKE makes a strong case for itself. You're getting warming technology, sonic cleansing, and app-guided routines at a fraction of what Foreo asks.

It's worth noting that the device ships with everything you need to get started straight out of the box.

GESKE Sonic Thermo 6 in 1: Design

Pick up the GESKE Sonic Thermo and the first thing you notice is how considered it feels. It's light, compact, and shaped to sit naturally in the palm — which sounds like a low bar until you've fumbled with a bulkier brush over a sink at 7am.

The silicone body stays put even with wet hands, and the aluminium alloy panel on the top surface adds a material quality you don't necessarily expect at this price point. It feels looked after, rather than knocked out.

The dual-sided design reflects how the device is actually meant to be used. The flat, gold-toned warming surface goes first, prepping skin before the cleanse begins, and the brush side follows. It's a logical sequence that becomes second nature quickly, and the flexible head makes short work of the trickier areas around the nose and jaw that most brushes either miss or require contortion to reach.

Two things are missing that would have made this feel more complete. There's no universal charger in the box — just a two-point cable that joins the pile of specialist leads you're definitely going to lose at some point.

A standing base would also have been a welcome addition; something you're reaching for twice a day deserves a proper home on the shelf rather than lying flat on a wet surface. Neither is a dealbreaker, but both are noticeable enough to mention.

GESKE Sonic Thermo 6 in 1: Performance

The warming technology is where the GESKE earns its place on the shelf. Most cleansing brushes get straight to work the moment you switch them on — the GESKE makes you slow down first.

The heated surface, used before the sonic cleanse begins, creates a gentle, sustained warmth that opens pores and changes how effective everything that follows is. Makeup, sunscreen, the kind of buildup that clings on regardless of how thoroughly you think you've cleansed — it all comes away.

It's not a dramatic sensation, more like a warm exhale for your skin, but the results over time are visible enough that skipping the step starts to feel like cutting corners.

The sonic cleanse that follows is thorough without being punishing. Over 7,500 pulsations per minute sounds intense, but the silicone bristles are soft enough for daily use, and the adjustable intensity levels mean you're in control — dialling up for a deeper cleanse when you need it, pulling back on days when your skin wants something gentler.

The app, which I'll admit I expected to ignore after the first week, turned out to be the quiet highlight. It opens with a full face scan, measuring oiliness, impurities, fine lines, and dark circles, and builds a morning and evening routine around what it finds. Every session gets logged and tallied into a weekly overview.

Whether the recommendations are genuinely personalised to your scan or follow a more universal template isn't made clear, and some transparency there would be welcome. But the structure it creates is useful either way, and the habit it helps you build is the real payoff.

After a few consistent weeks, the results were tangible — cleaner pores, smoother texture, and foundation that held through the day in a way it simply hadn't before.

GESKE Sonic Thermo 6 in 1: The Verdict

👍 Thumbs up

The warm-first approach actually works. Preparing skin before cleansing isn't a new idea, but having a device that builds it into the process, rather than relying on you to remember, makes a tangible difference in results.

The app goes beyond the gimmick threshold. Guided sessions, instructional videos, and session tracking combine into something that helps you maintain a routine rather than abandon it after a week.

Exceptional value. You're getting warming technology, sonic cleansing, and app-guided personalisation at a price that makes the comparison to premium alternatives a very short conversation.

👎 Thumbs down

The charging cable is bothersome. When everything else in your bathroom runs off USB-C, having to hunt down a specific two-point lead (and remember where you put it) adds friction you don't want to a routine you're trying to make effortless.

There's also nowhere obvious to put it between uses. A device you're reaching for morning and night deserves a proper spot on the shelf, and without a standing base it ends up lying flat, which isn't ideal on a surface that's rarely dry. It's a small omission, but a practical one, and the kind of thing you do notice after using it.

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