I Didn't Know You Had Freckles On Your Nose!

One of the first indicators that I was not born with flawless skin was an incident that happened on the little-yellow-school-bus many years ago. One of my best friends and I were sitting on our afternoon ride home from school when she blurted, "I didn't know you had so many freckles on your nose!" You see, I didn't have any freckles...I was cursed with blackheads. Nothing suited me more than to crawl under my seat, leaving my plagued skin and I alone in a dark, isolated cave. Thanks to progressive technology and advanced research, any skin problem has its solution. Have some hyperpigmentation? Laser treatments, peels and dermatologist- performed microdermabrasion can fix that in no time. Frown lines won't go away? Botox injections can fill in those wrinkles asap. Always remember this and never fret about your skin...there's always something out in the vast universe that can fix it!

After getting over some embarrassment, I mustered up the courage to get off the bus, walk home and figure out what the next step was to clear my complexion. All throughout high school, I turned to Biore's Deep Cleansing Pore Strips to remove blackheads and clean out my pores. For four years, these strips did the job and never again did someone ask if I had freckles (I still feel so embarrassed recalling the situation!). However, once I moved to Manhattan and started college, I found that deep-cleansing masks worked more efficiently and weren't as abrasive as the skin-ripping pore strips. I haven't found a better one than Kiehl's Rare-Earth Facial Cleansing Masque. This morning I used a Biore pore strip (after having not used any for about three years) on my nose and used two of their face strips on my chin and forehead. I followed each instruction step-by-step and allowed the strips to dry for about ten minutes. When the time came to remove them, I started pulling the strips and experienced quite a bit of pain. My face was beet-red and looked super-irritated. I can't imagine this as being healthy or good to do to my skin! Perhaps the most unfortunate part was excitedly looking at the strips and seeing nothing on them knowing full well that blackheads could have been pulled. Perhaps Biore changed their original formula for the strips? I don't remember them being so ineffective. What are your experiences with these pore strips?