Peel-off strips are the best beauty remedy for our obsession with pore size. What’s more, this pore-purging pleasure can be made even more effective with a neat trick involving baking soda and water – some say up to twice as many blackheads can be lopped off with this beauty hack.
Intrigued? Here’s how to create your very own pre-pore strip priming lotion. First, you need to understand how peel-off strips work. These little babies yank out the dirt clogging your pores via brute force; that is, a special glue “grabs” onto blackheads and pulls them free when you remove the strip.
To boost your strip’s well, stripping power, you’ll need a toner-type lotion to loosen up the icky stuff encrusting your skin. Loosening up the flaky dead skin on the surface helps the glue from your pore strip to adhere better to the offending blackheads. Here’s how:
STEP 1. The recipe for this custom concoction is embarrassingly easy: Just of one teaspoon of baking soda mixed into a cup of water. That’s it!
STEP 2. Saturate clean cotton pads with this “soda water” to create a DIY mask, then press these pads into the curves of your nose; the pads should stay put.
STEP 3. Go about your business for three minutes or so, then toss the pads. Re-wet your nose area with a tiny splash of the same baking soda solution, then apply your pore strip of choice.
After the allocated time as dictated by the package directions is up, gently lift off the strip. Pick at the edges until the entire shebang works itself free. With any luck, you should find the strip peppered with a scattering of unwanted flotsam and jetsam.
So, quick recap: Soak your nose in a baking soda solution to loosen up dead skin for easier extraction, then slap on your pore strip for superior blackhead removal.
Try this top tip out the next time your nose is feeling congested, and let me know how it goes. Your pores can thank me later!