This review is proudly sponsored and brought to you by LifeStylePost - Brand Advocates Network. Any external images, if used, solely belong to their respective owners and not to me. I only re-link and use them as part of this review.

Note that all views presented here are of my own and whether the product is sponsored or not, it's honest throughout. Only that effects will vary on the individual when applied. And that both products will be reviewed as one in this post to avoid confusion.

WHAT IS IT: Nesura & SNP POP Charcoal Nose Strips

SNP POP Charcoal Blackhead & Sebum Clear Nose Patch (L): This nose pack contains Korean red pine charcoal (medicinal charcoal) and Moroccan natural clay (Ghassoul), helping easily removing blackheads, and sebum and wastes accumulated in the pores!! It is a clean & smooth pore nose pack made of a melton fabric making you feel cool. It has a higher content than an ordinary nose pack and doesn't easily ooze out. When detached, it falls off gently, and sebum and fine hairs are evenly removed.

Nesura Charcoal Nose Strips (R): Charcoal ingredients remove waste materials, blackheads, sebums and dead skin cells on the skin.

THE PRODUCT(S):

First of all, the SNP Charcoal Nose Strips a.k.a "Shining Nature Purity" Charcoal Nose Strips. Each individual charcoal nose strips is packed individually in it's little sachet for hygiene purpose.

Although the description, usage instructions and whatnots are in Korean language, those of you who have used Biore's pore pack should and well know the exact usage, although I'm going to "tease" and show you another alternative to using it and the reason for doing so.

Here's the part of the nose strip you should see when you look into the mirror after application. The woolly side is supposed to be on the outside.

The shiny black portion which is attached to the plastic film is meant to be on your nose. Good luck if you accidentally plastered this on the wrong direction ^^;

Here's how the black part of the charcoal nose strip looks like. Note that if you already opened an individual sachet, use it as soon as you possible can, preferably within half a day. If not, the entire charcoal nose strip will detach from the plastic film all by itself and harden up like a piece of hard paper.

This is how we should normally use a charcoal nose strip or a pore pack, as indicated by the instructions stated on the packaging.

Here's a look at the Nesura Charcoal Nose Strips.

Also stated behind the packaging are text in Korean. However, as I have mentioned, it's not the hard to use a charcoal nose strip or pore pack to remove blackheads.

The Nesura Charcoal Nose Strip looks pretty much the same as the SNP POP Charcoal Blackhead & Sebum Clear Nose Patch, but they work pretty much the same way.

This is another method I use when using pore packs and nose strips as there are blackheads on the bridge of my nose, where the bone is located. And using a blackhead extractor actually hurts and make my nose look red, almost like a particular famous reindeer ^^; Hence, I use pore packs and nose strips at least twice a week. The first time is the normal method, the 2nd time is to use the pack/strip upside down to thoroughly remove all visible blackheads, especially the stubborn ones that cannot be removed easily with a blackhead extractor.

I'm just going to gross you once, that's all. This is the nose strip after the second time I've used it within a week of receiving this, you can see the amount of blackheads I managed to get rid of in Round 2. Round 1 has already seen loads of blackheads and gunk removed, but I'm just going to spare everyone the agony of seeing the end result lest you are still having your meals :/

VERDICT: As these charcoal nose strips aren't actually scented dramatically, I'll just skip the scent part of the review as it has a mild and pleasant aroma. Although I do have to say that I didn't detect a hint of charcoal scent to either nose strips. I mean, wouldn't that be disastrous? Having to apply something like smells like it's going to be BBQ material on your nose, some of us who are really angsty about removing blackheads totally from our nose are probably going to attempt to grab the nearest charcoal and literally rub it on their nose xD Oh, don't worry! I use to think charcoal strips work that way when I was still in Secondary School.

But before I go on with the review, here's a quick go-through on the usual recommended method for removing blackheads via a nose strip:

• With dry hands, remove Pore Pack from sachet. With the plastic liner facing you, twist Pore Pack to separate slits. Peel Pore Pack off the plastic liner.


• Wet your nose thoroughly with water.


• Dry your hands wells, then firmly apply the smooth side onto your nose.


• Let it dry for about 10-15 minutes until the Pore Pack feels firm. Do not leave on longer than recommended as Pore Pack may become difficult to remove or even tear in half.


• Remove Pore Pack slowly starting at the edges, pulling towards the centre in an upward direction.

However, take a quick look at my personal recommended method for using a nose strip for the best result:

• First of all, exfoliate your face well with warm water. The purpose is to try and slightly open up your pores with the warm water, prepping your nose for using a nose strip. You need the pores to open up so the nose strip can suck/stick onto a blackhead for easy removal. If you use cold or tepid water, you're in effect tightening your pores as we all know cold/tepid water is akin to a natural toner that only tightens your pores. You need the pores to open, not tighten to remove the blackheads. Wash your face clean, but do not wipe water off your face yet.


• Next, with dry hands, remove the nose strip from the plastic liner and attach/smooth onto your nose. Be sure where exactly and precisely you want the pore pack to be. You can even use it upside down, instead of the usual method if you have blackheads on the bridge of your nose that you find it hard to get rid of with a blackhead extractor.


• After applying the pore pack to your nose. Pat dry your face with a towel to ensure the nose strip stays in place and that the entire nose strip is adhered to your nose properly. Let it sit and dry on your nose for at least 15 to 20 minutes before removing, and you can actually see the difference in the amount of blackheads and gunk removed using a nose strip between using warm water and cold, tepid water to wash your face first.

In the process I've recommended, you will notice that the pore pack adheres to your nose entirely and there shouldn't be any part that isn't stuck on your nose due to not being wet enough or being too dry on any part. After removing pore pack and finishing what else you need to do to remove blackheads not annihilated by the pore pack, such as using a blackhead extractor manually. Always always, remember to use a toner to tighten the pores, especially on your nose. As you had taken the trouble to do as much as you can to remove the blackheads, it would be a total shame if you didn't use a toner to tighten up the pores on your nose. Or it will be a good job down the drain, nullifying your best efforts to rid the blackheads off your nose.

As shown in one of the images above, I've used the nose strip upside down as it actually does help to remove some "hard to reach" blackheads that is on the bridge of my nose. Despite those blackheads not being very dark and visible, it's a totally different question if you were to stand in front of my face though. I mean, if you're going to remove blackheads, at least try to make it a 99% success, not 50% successful. Or you would have wasted the time, money, effort and preparation in trying to make your nose look less strawberry like.

And I still recalled back during the early 1990s when I have just started working, I was a total klutz and didn't realized that through normal facial cleansing, blackheads cannot be removed that easily. And back then, nose strips and pore packs were still new on the market and most of us were actually unaware that we could have made our lives a little easier by just getting a pack from the nearest personal convenience store such as Watsons. So, I happily left the blackheads on my nose as if I'm growing them for something LOL

It wasn't until an obnoxious colleague casually mentioned that "Your nose looks so dirty" that I sort of wake up and had to make a decision to remove it or just leave it on my nose for the rest of my life. Yes, a truly nasty wake-up call indeed for someone who knows nothing about caring for skin and beauty routines, so on and so forth. Although I have to admit that if everyone around me just kept quiet, I'm sure the condition of my nose would look terrible as of right now.

What I personally love about these 2 particular charcoal nose strips that I didn't encountered with other different brandname pore packs is that, my nose actually felt softer and smoother after use. I'm not kidding. The usual Biore pore packs that I've previously used and also reviewed here although does the job of removing blackheads close to a 90%, my nose actually looked like a crater. And on top of that, when I touched my nose, I felt "moon craters" on my nose as well. But not with these 2 products I've reviewed and tested today. Although I still see "craters" on my nose where the blackheads used to be, my nose actually felt smooth due to a layer of dead skin cells being removed and those "craters" I see are actually much more smaller than it normally looked when blackheads are removed.

And do you also know that you can use these nose strips on the rest of your face, specifically the oily/T-Zone areas and not just your nose only. The reason why I didn't show these photos is because you all would have thought me weird to use it on my face instead of just my nose only. But the explanation I can give you is that, it isn't only just blackheads you have to be wary of that shows up on your nose. The rest of our face are also resting bed for whiteheads as well, and majority of us suffer from blocked pores. So, we might as well use this on the areas of our face that we felt is blocked. And by doing so, you'll realized that when using your favorite beauty products in your usual face-care routine, the products are better absorbed into your skin than usual.

And for people like you and me who are really too much of a cheapskate to fork out money to go to a salon to clean and unclogged our pores, for fear or getting cheated without knowing. Be aware that you can use these nose strips to do the job while only forking out a fraction of your own hard-earned money. Hey, you have no idea how much gunk I gotten out of my pores when I use nose strips and pore packs on my face too xD

VERDICT: SNP POP Charcoal Blackhead & Sebum Clear Nose Patch and Nesura Charcoal Nose Strips can be used on the face, not just the nose in the event of clogged pores. It does the deed wonderfully well, without making my skin feel like a "crater" and coupled with my "upside-down" usage method, removes much more blackheads than before :D