Pore Strips

Sooooo awhile ago, I tweeted about finding these awesome pore strips. Unfortunately.. I didn't take a picture of the ACTUAL strip so I had to let some gunk build up. And of course (I literally JUST realized) that I forgot to take a pic of my face BEFORE I got the gunk out.. so this'll be a HALF review :P

I used 2 different brands:

Clari-T Clarifying Tea Tree Pore Cleansing Strips (from Earth Therapeutics)

CVS Deep Cleaning Pore Strips (combo pack... with nose + face)

I guess this is actually mostly just to gross ya'll out.. hahahaa. Seriously. Today was a GOOD day for a pore strip! If you're easily grossed out, scroll really really fast to the bottom of the entry. I tried to leave enough blank space as to where you didn't HAVE to look at the pics if you didn't WANT to.

IF YOU HAVE A WEAK STOMACH, DO NOT LOOK ANY FURTHER!!

I'm warning you!!

Two different looks at the right side of the nose / cheek area. Yuuuuuck. All different sizes and shapes of plugs. Yuck yuck yuck. If you really REALLY REALLY want to, I imagine you can enlarge these images as well.

Oh, and please ignore the "yellow stain".. I think I just didn't remove my makeup thoroughly enough (but more on that later). You can also see a patch or so missing... the glue ended up sticking to my face, hahaha. Especially around the "nose crack" area (nose and face). Again, more on that later.

Left side of the nose / cheek area... not nearly as bad as the right side.. I have no idea why. Still a good amount of gunk though!

Upper lip... does anyone else get clogged there? So annoying! This actually got a pretty good amount of stuff out, I was rather pleased.

Yuck, chin area. See that funny little spot -- 4 holes -- looks like a weird button? I had an almost-done scab there (clear, ready to flake off).. and forgot about it until after I stuck the thing on -- d'oh!

Application: Decided my face felt a bit oily so I removed my makeup with the usual makeup wipes, Costco/Kirkland brand (love them!). Didn't wash my face further, just splashed on some water to my nose, applied strip. Cut one of the face strips from the CVS kit into 4 pieces, splashed water, and applied one piece on my upper lip and one piece on my chin.

Waited... I forgot how long, I was preoccupied by taming my eyebrow mane :P hawhaw.

Removal: It was also SUPER painful ripping these strips off today! Usually I have some mild pain but in the more sensitive areas like my cheeks -- close to my nose -- I actually teared up. I think I had some dry skin around my lip/chin.. and my cheeks were just super sensitive today. So, both hurt. But on any other occasion that I've used them, it was just some mild pain -- nothing I couldn't handle. Removed the lip first, then chin, the nose.. but they all dried at the same time, even though I applied the CVS ones later.

MATERIAL

I like the Earth Therapeutics one better than the CVS brand... CVS looks like its made of more coarse material. But that's just cosmetic.. they both feel the same (rubbing the outer surface). I haven't tried to overapply water... so I don't know how well they work when you "soak" them. So, if you're into looks, ET wins. In general though, I think they're about even.

INGREDIENTS

ET: Polyquaternium-11, deionized water, pvp, isopropyl alcohol, silica, butylene glycol, tea tree oil, witch hazel extract, titanium dioxide, silicon oil, menthol, methylparaben, orange oil.

CVS: Polyacrylic cid, water, silica, titanium dioxide, betaine, Peg-10 laurate, fragrance, saxifraga sarmentosa extract, methylparaben, ethylparaben, propylparaben, butylparaben.

SHARE: 3

DIFFERENT: rest (too lazy to count!)

OVERALL: I don't know much about this kind of stuff BUT... the ET ones seem better :P less unpronounceable things listed!

SMELL

Ironically I think the CVS ones smell more like tea tree oil than the Earth Therapeutics (going to shorten to ET, haha) does! I think the ET ones are unscented, or very very very faint smelling... whereas the CVS ones have a pretty strong smell, especially considering how close the strips are to your nose. ET wins!

COST

I bought the ET ones at WholeFoods down in Irvine/Tustin... for around $8-9 for a box of 10? When I googled it, the price range was anywhere from $3.50-$18.00! The CVS ones (combo pack, 7 face and 7 nose) are around $8. For the sake of consistency, CVS nose strips (only) are $6.50 for a pack of 8.

That puts ET at $.80-.90 each (unless you but it online for cheaper!) and CVS at $.57 for a combo box and $.82 for a nose box (yikes, might as well get a combo box!). CVS wins in price for the combo box, but if you're just going to get a nose box, ET and CVS are about the same. But, hey.. like I said, it looks like the ET ones go for pretty cheap online! Def worth checking it out there instead of WholeFoods.

FIT

What I mean by "fit" is how the strip fits on your face... or rather, my small asian nose. I think the ET ones would fit BETTER on a caucasian nose... or rather, anyone who has a more prominent nose structure -- but it fits pretty well on me. The CVS brand ones aren't shaped to fit the most prominent part of your nose (what is that called??). And I don't know about you, but I'd like that part of my nose to get cleaned as well. ET wins out!

REMOVAL PAIN

Today was especially bad... but on a general basis, they're both fairly painless. Even.

PERFORMANCE

As you can see by the pics... they both worked really well. If you don't want to look at the pics, just take my word for it (: haha! If you're worried about reactions to using these strips, ET ones are hypo-allergenic; I don't know about the CVS ones. I haven't had any adverse reactions to using them, but they are not advertised as being hypo-allergenic.

AVAILABILITY

I don't know about you but I haven't seen ET anywhere besides WholeFoods (I think I remember seeing them off Fuz's blog a long time ago). CVS's are pretty much everywhere. CVS brand wins on this one :P

Anyway.. so I meant for this to be more of a comparison in performance.. but both strips worked really well! There def have been days where the results have just been like.. weeeeell.. okay, gonna go squeeze my nose now. I think it might have something to do with WHEN you apply the strips... today is SUPER windy and dry. The other times I usually have tried to apply strips is right after the shower (hot shower = open pores) but I think the bathroom and bedroom became a little more humid? I don't know, either way, it didn't seem to work quite as well.

Not that some of us can afford to wait for a windy day to apply strips :P but it's just a thought.

Overall, If you can find the ET ones, good for you! If you can't, CVS ones work just as well, as long as you don't mind the smell... or shape.