T-Zone Nose Pore Strips > Reviews > these strips are pore-fect

Author's product rating:   

Does it dehydrate your skin?	No
Value for money	Excellent

Advantages:	get rid of blackheads, cheaper than the competition
Disadvantages:	they smell a bit weird

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Recently my skin has been terrible, and I am repeatedly breaking out in spots. I also noticed that I am getting a lot of blackheads on my nose, so much so that when I first noticed them, I thought I had dirt smudged on my face and was trying to wipe them off! If only it was that easy to get rid of them!

~What are pore strips?~

If you are not familiar with pore strips, they are basically a strip, which is placed over the nose, chin or forehead - wherever the blackheads occur - they then stick to the blackhead, and lift it away - or supposedly anyway!

I have used several different brands of pore strips over the years and some have worked, some haven't. The latest brands I've used were Biore (which was a free sample) and I found excellent, and Elizabeth Arden, which worked but were nowhere near as effective as the Biore ones.

I headed down to Boots fully intending to buy some biore nose strips, but couldn't believe it when I saw the price of them - £7.99 for six strips. In the past I have usually paid between £2.99 and £4.99 for them, so I was slightly put off by this £7.99 price tag and decided to look around before parting with any money. The next shop I tried was Body Care. They stocked two different types - a brand I'd never heard of at £1.99 for 6 strips, or T-Zone, which I had heard of, but never tried at £2.99 for 6 strips. I noticed that they also stocked T-Zone packs for £3.75 including a box of 6 strips and a bottle of their foaming gel wash, which retails at £1.99, so I decided to buy that and save myself £1.25!

~Packaging~

The strips come in a box very similar to the one pictured but with a slightly different layout. If I wasn't looking for these I probably wouldn't have actually noticed them. They are aimed at teenagers of course, but still I think the packaging is a bit boring and I don't like that orange and green swirl - I think it makes them look cheap.
Each strip is individually sealed in foil packs and each pack has a nick in the top so you can easily open it.

~How to use~

These are very easy to use. You simply wet your nose and then stick the strip smooth side down, smoothing out any bubbles. You then wait ten minutes and peel off. Simple.

~My Experience~

There are a few good points to these strips in comparison to others. Firstly with other brands you wet the strip itself rather than your nose, which means the tacky stuff gets all over your fingers and can spread over your face and around your nose, leaving a general mess - the Elizabeth Arden ones were especially bad for this.

Secondly it's easy to tell which is the smooth side. I know that sounds a bit of an odd thing to say, but I've used strips in the past, where the instructions ask you to wet the smooth side, but both sides feel smooth - especially if your hands are wet!! With these strips one side is sort of like fabric and the other is smooth, shiny and is coated with the solution.

When I first applied the strip, one thing I noticed was that it has a quite strong smell, which was noticeable despite my cold, It's a sort of medicated smell, and I'm sure I can detect Tea Tree in there somewhere.

After waiting with the strip on my nose, looking like a bit of an idiot quite frankly, the strip began to feel stiff, so despite the fact it wasn't yet 10 minutes as advised by the box I decided to remove it. My experience with these strip things, is that if you leave them on too long they don't work. I don't know why, but it's something I discovered right at the beginning after keeping them on too long 'to make sure they worked extra well' - take my advice as soon as it starts to harden, peel it off.

Now, I don't know if it's just me, but I think there's something intensely satisfying about removing a pore strip. It's like using a Dyson cleaner - half the lure of it is seeing all the dirt come up, or similarly, waxing your legs and seeing all the hair on the wax strip afterwards, it's just so damn satisfying!!!

In all honesty, these things hurt to remove. I don't think it's just me here, because I've had friends say it as well. Although the box says if it starts to hurt, remove it by wetting it, I don't want to do that coz I wont get to see the blackheads on the strip, hence I will not be fulfilled! When the thing finally comes off, I have to say I am impressed. There are noticeably little black sticky things on the strip as well of lots of teeny weenie fine hairs - that's what hurt! I remember a pore strip advert from years ago where the girl held the strip up to the light to see what was on it - but if you do that you'll see nothing, hold it horizontal and you can see lots of little gooey bits sticking up - lovely!!!

I was impressed with the look of my skin too, firstly there wasn't any residue left, although I washed my face anyway just to be sure, and the blackheads were visibly less noticeable. Very impressive

~Extra Info~

-These can't be used on broken skin, or if you have swollen, broken, sunburned or excessively dry skin.
- T-Zone have a website which is www.t-zone.co.uk if you want to have a look
- The product is not tested on animals

~Conclusion~

These were very good, I would say just as good as the Biore ones, but a lot cheaper. At only £2.99 for six, they are definitely worth trying, even if they're just to keep in the cupboard in case of a breakout!

P.S. Sorry about the title - they're getting worse with each review!!