Clean & Clear Blackhead Eraser Scrubby Gel Strip Review

Clean & Clear Blackhead Eraser Scrubby Gel Strip ($5.89) are a new and interesting take on Biore Pore Strips that are launching now at drugstores. Nose Pore Strips have definitely come in a variety of variations over the years from charcoal and black ones to scented versions the simple pore strip has had its moment in the sun. Let’s not forget there are literally dozens of Japanese and Korean products like Sony CP Stick that promise to go to battle with those blackheads on your nose!

I guess someone felt like we needed something new and exciting to try out on those pesky blackheads on our nose! Clean & Clear decided they wouldn’t go with a simple nose pore strip. No way. That’s too simple! Instead they created a scrubbing gel strip! One part pore strip and two parts scrub this little strip morphs from a strip to a exfoliating cleanser that acts to scrub away your black heads.

Does it work?

Clean & Clear Blackhead Eraser Scrubby Gel Strip are available in six packs and will set you back about $6 bucks at places like Target (that’s where I got mine). They contain 2% salicylic acid and are oil-free. According to the box they treat and prevent blackheads. They also contain menthol which does cause a tingling on your nose when wearing these.

Ironically the box says “treats and helps prevent blackheads without the hurt” but in fact they do hurt! But more on that later…

Ok, so, these pretty much just like a nose strip. In some ways, they are easier to apply. Make sure your nose is wet and your hands ARE DRY. I made the mistake of having slightly damp hands and part of the strip dissolved on me. Just be sure to have dry hands. Also, make sure your nose is very wet when applying! I’ll tell you why shortly. These peel off easily and have a slightly rough texture. It’s almost as if they poured some sort of cleanser onto a piece of paper and allowed it to dry. In fact, that’s what this is. A dried up cleanser with a bit of adhesive on the back to stick to your nose. The strip performs completely different compared to a regular nose strip. It doesn’t tighten or create that papier-maché-like effect that a normal nose strip does. This actually starts to dissolve. According to the box it should remain on for two minutes. I’ve used them three times already and each time I extended the wear because the entire strip was dissolving completely. Why do I want it to dissolve completely? More on that in a bit but I promise you’ll want it to completely dissolve. The first time I did 2 minutes, the second time I did a lot more water and wore in 3 minutes, and the last time I did even more water and did 4 minutes. It dissolves a bit but not completely. It does have a tingling as you wear it but it wasn’t something that causes issues for me but does deserve mentioning for sensitive users.

When the 2 minutes or more are up you’ll pop to your sink and splash some water on your nose and start scrubbing and scrubbing and scrubbing and scrubbing. It’s damn difficult to get this off your nose. I had to really scrub hard to get it to break down and turn into a little bit of a lather. It isn’t grainy so it isn’t acting to exfoliate blackheads. How does it work!? How is it going to get those blackheads out? I imagine they think leaving salicylic acid on your nose for two minutes will have an AHA-like effect and whisk them away but in reality all you’re doing is rubbing your pore little nose red. My nose sort of felt sore after. If you have sensitive skin you’ll probably look like Rudolph after using one of these. That’s why I mentioned that I’d have liked to see the strip dissolve more. I think if it did dissolve there would be less rubbing evolved and less pain. These aren’t ideal for drier skin types by the way which is obvious since they contain salicylic acid which can be drying. I was curious enough to try them but I did feel like they dried out my nose and cheek area. Which also reminds me, when I scrubbed these away I had a little bit of a hard time keeping bits of the broken down cleanse from hitting my eyes. I really didn’t want these this formula anywhere near my eyes! I think in the future a washcloth might help a lot.

In the end I still had blackheads on my nose but I sure did have a super clean nose that was shine-free after all this. I don’t have visible pores on my face but I do have smaller ones on my nose and I could be imagining this but my nose actually looked really smooth after I used these strips but aside from that I’d say stick to a traditional Biore Pore Strip. Not only do they work better but you also, get that gross gratification of looking at the strip after you tear it away!

Clean & Clear Blackhead Eraser Scrubby Gel Strip are a little too harsh in my experience. Add that and the fact they aren’t actually doing much of anything at all makes me recommend keeping your Biore Pore Strips.

Clean & Clear Blackhead Eraser Scrubby Gel Strip are available now. If nothing else, they are actually sort of fun just to try out if you can snag them on sale.

Used them already?

Do share!

Where to buy

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