SkinFood Egg White Nose Pack (Cool Down) Review

SkinFood created the Egg White Pack, a packet of facial strips meant to eliminate blackheads, which I reviewed here. Along with these strips, the brand also created an accompanying Egg White Nose Pack (Cool Down) nose strip, meant to refresh the nose directly after using the Egg White Pack's nose strip.

The Cool Down Pack is sold individually, so I bought one just to try it out. Since I bought this at a US location SkinFood store, they placed a makeshift English label on the back, which has the same information as the product's webpage. It states that this pack is a gel that hydrates, soothes and calms newly exfoliated skin and uses egg white extracts to tighten enlarged pores. The instructions state that after using the egg white nose strip, open this package and remove the film. Next apply the smooth side of the strip onto your nose, lining up the round edges with the tip of your nose. Then remove after 10 minutes and use toner and moisturizer afterwards. There are also ingredients and a warning to keep this product at room temperature and away from sunlight.

I ripped off the sticker label to see what the original packaging had. The instructions are the same, but this description adds the purpose of egg white, which has lots of albumin and amino acids (though this doesn't mean anything to me as I'm not a chemistry major...).

The cool down strip is one millimeter thick and seems like a cotton pad. This is the correct orientation to place on the nose; it should be like an "M" shape.

The other side of this strip looks like really smooth jello.

Hopefully this is my last hideous photo I post on here -.- Before I used this strip, I washed off all the residue from the previous nose strip and made sure my nose was dry before applying this cool down strip. It feels sticky like jello, but also cool and refreshing once I placed it on my skin. While this is a two dimensional strip with no slits for curvature, it fit on my nose fairly well and stuck on firmly.

The Pros

• This strip really is cooling and refreshing.
• It's very easy to use, with no mess at all. There's no need to rinse off my nose after using this strip.
• It stays on my nose nicely and I don't need to worry about it slipping off or budging.
• It is very easy and painless to remove.
• My nose feels smooth and has a healthy glow afterwards.

The Cons

• This cool down strip really isn't necessary...but it's still nice to use every once in awhile.

Overall, while this cool down pack isn't necessary, but it does feel very cooling to the touch. I'm sure this would be even more refreshing during the hot summer months. If your nose is very sensitive to using nose strips, I suggest using this cool down strip afterwards, but otherwise, it isn't essential.

SkinFood Egg White Pack Review

SkinFood has several nose packs meant to target blackheads using strips, with main ingredients such as Black Bean, Chlorella and Egg White. I purchased the Egg White Pack, meant for the nose, forehead and jaw (actually the chin), which I'll review here. This pack comes in a cardboard case, with strips individually packaged inside.

The backside and this product's webpage explain that egg white extract exfoliates and refines pores, controls excess sebum and directly removes blackheads. It also states that these strips should only be used once or twice a week, and you shouldn't use this product on the same area "twice consecutively" meaning...only use it once a day I suppose. The bottom of this packaging has the manufacture and expiration dates, with just under a one year and a half shelf life.

Inside this pack, there are 10 total individually packaged strips, five for the nose and five for the forehead and chin, which is convenient if you just want to use one. The front has an image of exactly where each strip should be placed on the face.

The backside has very detailed instructions. Both the nose and forehead/chin instructions are identical, except one says "nose" while the other says "forehead and chin." The instructions for the nose pack (pictured above) say to wash your face and leave your nose very wet, then peel off the liner on the strip. Next place the nose strip, smooth side touching the skin, and firmly press down the entire strip to make sure it has complete contact with your nose and to eliminate air bubbles. Also line the round edges of the strip on your nostrils for more accurate placement. Leave the strip on for 15 minutes in the summer or if your face sweats a lot, and 10 minutes otherwise, letting the strip dry. Afterwards, peel the strip off from the edges inward and rinse off excess residue from your face with toner or water.

The nose strip is on the top and the forehead and chin strips are on the bottom. I put the smooth side up for the nose strip, which is also the correct orientation to put on the nose (like an "M" shape). The triangle pieces have the non-smooth side facing up, with a felt-like texture. Honestly, these two pieces look like scrap cutouts...they're very small and don't serve much purpose, especially when blackheads aren't common in these areas compared to the nose. These strips are very thin and are very adhesive, like stickers, making it very easy to place. They feel flimsy, but stick onto the face well. There is also a very subtle scent that is hardly noticeable.

Well, don't I look silly. Here are the three strips on my face. The two triangle pieces should be like arrows pointing down, while the nose strip should be placed like an "M" shape. Within one minute, I can feel the strips hardening. Of course, towards the end of my ten minutes, I feel little air gaps on both sides of my nose. After removing the triangle strips, I was left with a lot of sticky white residue that was easy to wash off. The nose strip left a big red imprint that lasted a few minutes.

Here are the strips after I removed them, with the chin on the left and the forehead on the right. There is literally nothing on the chin strip, and only a few small hairs on the forehead strip.

The nose strip sadly also had little results. There were quite a few fuzzy nose hairs that were pulled, along with some gunk the entire length of the pore from the left and center of my nose. The bottom left of my nose (where the pores were cleaned) feels much smoother than the right.

The Pros

• The adhesiveness makes these strips very easy to put on my face and stay on very well.
• The shape of the nose strip makes it easy to form around the bottom of my nostrils.
• The triangle strips are pain-free to remove and the nose strip is tolerable, if done slowly.
• A decent amount of blackheads were removed, though I was hoping for more.

The Cons

• The forehead and chin strips are very small and are pointless in general, since these areas aren't common trouble spots for blackheads.
• It's difficult to remove all air bubbles between my skin and the strips.

Overall, I have always liked the effectiveness of nose strips, but these strips didn't have as much effect as I had hoped. While they were easy to use, but I see no use for the triangle strips and the nose strip didn't remove too much gunk. Maybe if I can fully eliminate the air bubbles, I can more effectively remove my blackheads...

Update: I used the nose strip again, and this time I put pressure on the strip to mold directly onto my nostrils for the first three minutes. Doing this, I was able to rip out a lot more blackheads! But while removing the strip, I also saw many blackheads that were barely sticking to the strip and then stayed in my pores. I'm just glad that I had much better results the second time around.

Also, this Egg White Pack also has an accompanying Egg White Nose Pack (Cool Down) strip that is sold separately and meant to cool down the nose directly after using the Egg White Pack nose strip; you can read this review here.

The Face Shop Volcanic Clay Black Head Charcoal Nose Strip Review

The Face Shop has a small line containing New Zealand Volcanic Clay that eliminates blackheads, with products including nose packs and nose strips. Here I'll be reviewing the Volcanic Clay Black Head Charcoal Nose Strip, which can be purchased individually or in a set of seven. This nose strip also comes in Aloe, but I chose Charcoal since that seems more hardcore.

The front shows that this product uses New Zealand volcanic mud, which contains natural minerals, to clear pores and create smooth skin. This product's webpage states that this nose pack removes blackheads and dead skin cells thoroughly.

The directions on the backside follow the illustrations well. Start by washing your face and leaving your nose very wet, then remove the lining from the strip. Place the strip across the bridge of your nose as reference and firmly press down from center outward, making sure that the entire strip is on your skin and that there are no air bubbles. Leave on for 10 to 15 minutes until the strip has completely hardened on your skin, and slowly remove from the edge inward. There is also a warning, cautioning people only to use this product up to two times a week.

The strip has a grayish, fuzzy side (top photo) and a black smooth side that is directly against the plastic film (bottom photo); the latter is the side to be placed directly against the nose, and the orientation follows the former (the strip should have the "M" shape while on your nose).

Please excuse the most unflattering, unnecessary close-ups...! It's stressful knowing that I only get one chance with nose strips, especially with my past experience with nose strips, it usually never turned out well. But this time was a success! I doused my nose with cold water, then carefully lined the "U" at the bridge of my nose and placed the rest of the strip on my nose, pushing down firmly from center outward. Not the entire strip stuck to my nose; the bottom edge was very resistant. The first few minutes, the strip feels like slipping off, but just keep it in place until it molds around your nose. Within three minutes you can feel it hardening and stiffening and becoming sticky to touch. After 10 minutes it has completely hardened. This was when I felt air gaps, which means I wouldn't be able to remove all the blackheads.

Here is the strip after I removed it, with gunk stil intact. Removing it doesn't hurt if you go really slowly, but it is stuck on pretty well, like paper mâché. Because there were those gaps around the edge, I was able to peel it away. Peeling this did give me some tooth pain, however, because I had a root canal done on my front tooth and the nasal cavity is connected to the oral cavity. This sounds a bit gross, but I was able to see the gunk being pulled out deep within my pores. It's very satisfying to actually see my face being cleaned. On the left, you can see white gunk sticking up. The strip completely removed deeply inside these pores (which are about 2 mm long), while the center and other side got about 25% of the length (about .5 mm long). To avoid this, next time I have to make sure that every part of the strip is firmly on my nose, with no air bubbles.

Clearly I didn't think through about the before and after photos, since they have different lighting. I'm only using these to demonstrate the effects after removing the nose strip. The charcoal, when wet, left black watermarks on my face and fingertips, which are easy to wash off. Also to show just how effective this strip is, the pores of which had gunk removed are now very red. (Well my entire face looks red because of this lighting...but that's not the case)!

The Pros

• It is fairly easy to use after the first time around.
• It removed gunk deep in my pores (though only on the right side of my nose; left side in strip photo).
• There is virtually no scent; there was an initial, very subtle scent when I placed the strip on my nose, but I got used to it within a minute.
• My nose definitely feels matte and really clean afterwards.

The Cons

• The 2D shape of the strip doesn't fit perfectly around my nose, especially at the bottom edge of the strip near my nostrils.
• It may be difficult to remove air bubbles within the strip, which results to not maximizing the strip's strength of ripping out all the blackheads.

Overall, I am really satisfied with this nose strip! I'm surprised that this one use removed so much gunk deep into my pores. Now that I get the hang of it, hopefully next time I'll be able to remove more of the gunk all around my nose. Using strips is the best, most direct way of removing blackheads, so I can't wait to get my hands on more of these!

Tony Moly Eggpore Series Review

I'm finally getting around to reviewing what seems to be Tony Moly's most famous line of products, the Eggpore Series. This series includes the Blackhead Out Oil Gel (white egg), Tightening Pack (brown egg) and Silky Smooth Balm (golden egg) and there is also a less common Real Egg Jelly (khaki egg). I ordered the first two eggs from this series from Amazon's A-Poly and am planning to order the balm in the future! I'll give an overview about the general elements (size, amount, usage, etc.) in the Blackhead Out Oil Get section, because both eggs are pretty similar.

Blackhead Out Oil Gel

Here are the four sides of the packaging of the first egg in the series. The first image, starting in the upper left and going clockwise, is the front of the box. The second image is written in Korean, the third has directions and ingredients in English and the last has instructions in Korean with images to demonstrate. The directions say to massage the gel over areas with blackheads for three to five minutes, then rinse off with lukewarm water.

These eggs are much larger than I had imagined! I thought they would be the size of chicken eggs, but really they are so large that they barely fit into my palm.

Despite being such a large container, only the bottom of the egg has the actual product, containing 30ml. It is recommended to use this series just once or twice a week, so the products will last quite awhile. I have heard a mix of reviews about the effectiveness of these products, mostly negative, but being a sucker for adorable packaging, I had to tap into this series! The first two eggs are wash off products actually to control blackheads, while the balm is a primer to conceal blackheads.  Specifically the Blackhead Out Oil Gel is to eliminate the blackheads and the Tightening Pack is to tighten and close up pores.

One thing to be aware of: when I first opened my white egg, I took off the flat lid. When I put the lid back over the product, I thought the lid wasn't placed well enough, so I kept pushing the lid down until I accidentally pushed the lid into the product, scooping half of the product out of the egg and onto the table. Moral of story: the lid just rests over the product, so don't try to secure the lid!  In this picture you can see how messy the ring is around the yellow lid...one of my biggest pet peeves is messy things!

The consistency is a smooth, fluid gel with occasional yellow beads for exfoliation. The gel is a translucent gray that turns white as you massage it on your face.  The picture of my fingers shows the gel in different, equally poor lighting.

The Pros

• The light citrus scent is pleasant, especially since I'm placing this product all around my nose.
• I like how the gel turns into white foam, showing the product at work.
• The yellow beads are a nice exfoliation.
• The packaging is SO cute!
  

The Cons

• None so far!  I will have to use this product throughout the weeks to see if my blackheads to improve.
  

Tightening Pack

Here are the four sides of the Tightening Pack's packaging.  Starting at the upper left and going clockwise, the first image is the front of the egg, the second image is written in Korean, the third image is the backside with the directions and ingredients in English, and the last image has the directions in Korean, accompanied by three illustrative images.  The directions say to apply over your pores and leave on for 10-15 minutes, then wash off with lukewarm water.

You can see how thick this product is. Peeling off the lid is definitely a struggle the first few times because of how sticky this thick product is!

This product is surprisingly very smooth and has a light consistency, unlike the hard and stiff clay texture I had originally imagined.  I applied a thin layer on and around my nose, which was just translucent enough to barely see the blackheads.  I think just this thin layer is enough for the mask to be effective.

The Pros

• There is no noticeable smell, even throughout the 23+ minutes I left this mask on my nose.
• The smooth, light consistency gives a relaxing, cooling sensation on my nose.
• This product easily smooths over my nose, so I don't need much product per use.
• This mask hardens into clay in about 10 minutes, leaving a smooth finish that I can't stop touching!
• After using both products, my nose feels really clean!  Even if my blackheads don't get smaller, my nose will still be clean, which is satisfying enough.
• The packaging is cute!  These eggs are a set, so I have to get them all!
  

The Cons

• None; I absolutely love this product!  This is my favorite egg out of the two I have.
  

My brother also used these two products with me, and he agrees that his nose feels very clean after using these two products too.  We plan to use these two eggs once a week.  I hope we both get satisfying results soon!