So I am going to start off this review sounding like a broken record and echoing the words of many South African beauty enthusiasts. bloggers and vloggers… When will we get a Sephora in South Africa? Gosh, it has been a long time “begging”.  Nonetheless when I find myself traveling or have one of my family members coming in from whichever place they are traveling to, and get asked what I want from Sephora, I ALWAYS ask for anything from the Sephora Collection brand. Now I have had these Sephora Charcoal nose strips since last year April when my sister returned from the Middle East but I just haven’t had the opportunity to use it yet.

On my nose and cheek area, I have craters for pores. We all know this stems from blackheads where oil and other substances gathers in there and clogs it. Using makeup doesn’t exactly help the situation but of course, a girl never learns. Seeing that it is winter and my skin requires all the love that it can get, I decided to pull these nosestrips out of my stash and give them a go. Sephora has such a huge range of these Sephora Collection branded face masks and I would highly suggest popping a few of these in your basket should you find yourself travelling wherever there is a Sephora. Ideally, there are a few local online suppliers that stock Sephora branded products but we all know the exorbitant prices of these sellers. Let’s get into the reviewing part of this post, these nose strips are aimed at purifying and scrubbing (scrubbing, how?) and you find one strip per pack. I had a total of three strips and used all three of them in one go. I put one on my nose, and one on each of my cheeks. Following the instructions on the sachet was pretty clear and straightforward. Firstly you position the strips where you want it and then you wet it to activate it and make it stick even more. Before applying the nose strip, you have to make sure that your face is makeup free and clean. Don’t dry your face as your face should be wet/damp when applying the strip.

When the nose strip is dampened on the nose, it is a much darker grey. I left it on for 15 minutes as the instructions suggested. When smoothing out the ridges that forms (especially on the nose area) you will have a lot of grey residue on your fingers so stay away from wearing light shaded clothing when using these nose strips. You can quickly feel this mask getting to work as when you try to move your nose a bit, it has a tight feeling. The scent of the strips is quite fresh (floral and citrusy) and smells somewhat high end. You would think that something this fragrant would irritate your skin especially if you have sensitive skin but these strips are however clinically tested and suitable for all skin types.These strips retails for R57.12 at Sephora in Dubai Mall which is a bit steep for one nose strip. Obviously due to the exchange rate the price may vary from country to country but these were purchased in the UAE. Now I know you’re probably screaming at me to reach a verdict whether these nose strips work or not and I can happily report that YES THEY DO. So when I went to research the current price of these strips on the Sephora UAE site, I saw quite a number of mixed reviews on this product. When I do my reviewing of products, I initially hold off from googling the product because I don’t want to go into the review process with preconceived notions of the product that will later cloud my thinking and writing.

As with any product, especially in skincare, people’s opinions and experiences will always differ. What you might seek out of a product might be different to what I might. I do however feel like this product worked for me as it extracted 90% of the gunk in my pores. I didn’t want to upload an after picture of the strip as it looked really nasty. Removing the nose strip was actually not that painful – well depending  on your pain threshold. On a scale from 1-5 for an average individual, I would give it a 3. After the removal of the strip you can also see dead skin cells on the strip. You are left with just a little bit of residue but nothing that a little bit of lukewarm water can’t fix. The areas where the strips were applied felt super soft and smooth after.

All in all, would I purchase these nose strips? Absolutely! Obviously there are some locally available charcoal face masks or facial products which is just as great and does a fabush job of eliminating toxins, dirt, impurities and protecting your skin against everyday pollution but having a product like this available to me when overseas would be quite nice seeing that I had a pleasant experience using it.