Side Effects of Using Pore Strips

Side Effects of Using Pore Strips

Hello Ladies,

Today, I have got a skin care related article rather than my usual cosmetics reviews. This article is about my personal experience with blackhead eliminating pore strips.

Side Effects of Using Pore Strips

I was a big fan of the “pore strips” from a lot of brands like Biore, Nivea, Tzone etc. Nivea has pore strips especially designed for the chin and forehead area too. At first, it seemed super exciting as to how this tiny strip would just remove all of my whiteheads and blackheads, but then my skin started to react awfully to these strips. After a long Google search and speaking with a few friends, who suffered the same reactions, I decided I need to inform you ladies about the same.

Cool Cool Deep Magnetic Cleansing Charcoal Nose Strip

Usually, every brand recommends that we should use these strips once or twice every week. That being said, another research says we shouldn’t use these strips more than 3-4 times in a month. I followed all the instructions carefully and also took off the strip really carefully after it dried up. After a few months, I started noticing broken capillaries on the corners of my nose and on my chin. This is when I started searching online for remedies and causes. To my surprise, using pore strips can cause broken capillaries.

What are Capillaries?

These are the smallest blood vessels of our body that help in microcirculation of blood.  When these break, they appear as fine red threads of blood under the skin and are quiet visible. Broken capillaries occur when the capillary walls narrow  nd widen too quickly causing the muscles in the walls to tear. This in turn allows the blood to seep out resulting in broken capillaries.

blackhead strip

How Can Pore Strips Cause Broken Capillaries?

The answer is simple. When you pull the pore strip off, no matter how slowly and carefully you’re doing it, you manage to damage the first layer of your skin. Your skin is pulled. The skin around your nose, cheekbones and chin is more sensitive than that of your forehead.

blackhead strip

Broken Capillaries are permanent.  Luckily for me, there are just 2 tiny ones on my nose and 1 on my chin and aren’t very visible. I haven’t used pore strips ever since my horrible experience. I go for facials instead now; something that I got super broke or lazy to go for earlier.

Moreover, all this pulling and tugging of your skin by the pore strips tends to make your skin wrinkle faster according to a few studies. That’s not a surprise though since damaged skin ages faster than healthy skin.

Also, all those chemicals in the glue that help to get the blackheads out aren’t safe for your skin and I wouldn’t recommend using these strips religiously.

To conclude it all, pore strips definitely help to clear out your blackheads, but do they fight the main cause of the blackheads? No, they don’t. Blackheads usually appear in a few days to a week after using these strips leading you to getting hooked on to these strips and using them way too often. I would suggest sticking to regular facials which are safer for the skin and include proper exfoliation of the skin in your skin care regime.

Hope this review helps you ladies out and please don’t use those strips too often! Be nice to your skin.

Lakme Fundamentals Deep Pore Cleanser
Pond’s Smooth Pores Pore Tightening Facial Foam
VMV Hypoallergenics Fine Finish Pore Minimiser
L’Oreal Dermo-Expertise Skin Genesis Pore Minimizing Skin Re-Smoother
Cettua Nose Pore Strips
T-Zone Nose Pore Strips: Instant Fix for Blackheads
Biore Nose Pore Cleansing Strips Black
Jeunesse Natural Charcoal Pore Strips
Cool & Cool Deep Magnetic Cleansing Charcoal Nose Strip

IMBB RECOMMENDS

35 thoughts on “Side Effects of Using Pore Strips

  1. You know I just recieved my Montagne Jeunesse Natural Charcoal pore strips today and was about to use them….so now I’m totally in a “Should I or Should I not” phase!!!

    1. You should definitely try em out. Just don’t overdo the whole pore strip thing, use it once a month if you must.

  2. thats quite informative! thanks for sharing..i too use nose strips but max once a week and sometimes once in 15 days havent faced broken capillaries yet but i’ll be even more careful now!

  3. I ve been using the charcoal strips all these days.. 🙁 glad that you shared this piece of information..no more am gonna use them.

    1. So if using pore strips and pulling it off is gonna damage the skin, will waxing facial hair cause similar harm wer in the wax strips are pulled off??plz clarify..

  4. Hey Rama,

    Yes, waxing facial hair tends to cause your skin to sag/wrinkle and age faster. It also causes broken capilaries.

    I would suggest you stick to threading and/or laser treatment!

  5. This is one of the few times I actually feel better having never used some beauty product. 😀 Normally it just makes me feel fuddy-duddy 😛
    I have never used pore strips, and never will. Somehow, the idea of having stuff yanked out barbarically from my facial appendage gives me the creeps. Love this post, Preiti! 🙂

    1. Hey Samantha!
      That’s real cool that you haven’t used them yet. You can try them if you want just for curiosity sakes! 😉

  6. thanks for this post.. i have been saying this to many girls for years.. dont use it.. ur subjecting such a small area on your face to such barbaric pulling.. anyway those blackheads will come back.. regular exfoliation works the same way.. once you see this as a quick fix u get addicted to it and the skin is ruined there.. Good post.. 🙂
    For curiosity and fun sake u can use them rarely..

  7. Yikes! Someone was asking me about these not too long ago, but I didn’t have any personal experience with them. Now, I know why these shouldn’t be used. Thank you for posting this article.

  8. thanks for the info. i use pore strips about once a month and from now on i will keep an eye. although so far i have not had broken capillaries. another thing i like to mention is that these pore strips are not suitable to all. it led to breakouts on my face when i used ponds. i love biore and use it once a month

  9. oh my! Really! :O I love using pore strips but thanks to my lazyness i use once in like 2/3 months. 😛 Now m not going to use any. 😐 Thanks a lot for sharing. 🙂

  10. Great post, Preiti. I’ve never been a fan of pore strips, especially since I don’t have much of a blackhead problem. Somehow the whole idea of yanking something off my skin does not appeal to me. I go through enough of that nonsense with waxing on my limbs anyway. Can’t put the face through a similar risk. 😛

  11. thats a really informative post.. a few days back, i was actually enamoured by these pore strips.. thanks for saving my money and my capillaries! 🙂

  12. Broken capillaries are not permanent if you don’t want them to be. There is a treatment called vascutouch, and it cauterizes the capillaries, skin tags, and cherry angiomas. But it’s still wise not to use nose strips.

  13. I never had skin problems just the tiny blackheads on my nose. 1st thing washed my face w/dove bar pat it dry no moisturizer or anything applied, then wet my face, place the biore strip on nose. When removing it ripped my skin. It’s red, it burns bad, liquid coming out of it, then it’s dry, and looks like a huge blister. had this about almost 3 weeks. tired alcohol makes it burn, neosporin, Vaseline, aloe Vera. doctor mometasone, hydrocortisone, triamcinolone, naftine one at a time for about 3-4 days each. It itches & burns w all & no improvement in healing. I will never again use nose strips

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