(Picture: Myles Goode/metro.co.uk)

Skincare obsessives know the thrill of smoothing a pore strip on to our nose, letting it sit, peeling it off, and gazing upon the gunk that’s been yanked out our skin.

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It’s strangely satisfying. Even with the twinge of pain. Even though we look a bit silly with what looks like a massive bandage on our nose.

We tell ourselves that this is the way to teeny tiny pores and flawless skin.

We are wrong.


You see, while pore strips are fun and appeal to the gross parts of ourselves that want to pop spots and closely analyse whatever stuff comes out, they don’t actually work to remove blackheads.

Instead, pore strips just pull out the skin’s natural oils along with the lining of the pore, leaving the skin damaged over time.



Your blackheads will remain in place, lingering and lurking, while you marvel at the stuff you believe is blackheads (but, we repeat, isn’t) left over on the strip.

We repeat: the stuff you’re seeing pulled out on the strips isn’t evidence of blackheads. It’s likely a collection of essential pore linings that should have been left in pores.

Or it’s the very top of a blackhead sitting on the surface layer of your skin, with the ‘roots’ of blackheads left in your pores.

‘The majority of what is pulled from the skin using pore strips are sebaceous filaments,’ facialist and aesthetician Andy Millward tells metro.co.uk.

‘Blackheads are a blocked plug, so pore strips are unlikely to be effective enough to loose and extract those.’

Andy explains that there’s a significant difference between blackheads, and the things we think are blackheads that need to be removed, but are in fact sebaceous filaments.

Sebaceous filaments are the lining of the pore, designed to help the skin maintain a healthy oil balance.

These can make pores look large, and can occasionally look black because oils begin to oxidise near the opening of the pore.

Sebaceous filaments are entirely necessary to the skin’s function and shouldn’t be removed, especially by aggressively yanking them out. If you do remove them, your skin will just naturally replace sebaceous filaments with new ones. You know, because it needs ’em.

A blackhead, meanwhile, is a hardened blug or blockage of the pore.

Unlike a sebaceous filament, it’s not a free-flowing oil, but a hard, solid plug.

A blackhead prevents oxygen from entering the pore, allowing bacteria to grow, inflammation to occur, and spots to form.

A blackhead should be removed – a sebaceous filament should not.

‘I advise my clients that the best way to determine the difference is to ditch the magnifying mirror,’ says Andy, because our eyes can deceive us and make us think sebaceous filaments are blackheads.

(Picture: Ella Byworth for Metro.co.uk)

‘Instead feel the skin properly during cleansing. You can’t feel a sebaceous filament, but you can feel a blockage or blackhead in the skin.’

Because pore strips aren’t strong enough to remove blackheads, but are able to pull out sebaceous filaments, they end up stripping our skin of our natural oils and getting rid of the pore’s protection from bacteria.



As a result, the pore is left open (and seemingly clear) to nasty stuff getting in and causing blockages.

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So not only are pore strips not fixing the issue we think they will, they can actually make it worse.

The harsh removal of pore strips can also cause trauma to our skin’s outer layer (you can tell when it hurts to pull the strip off), leading to broken capillaries and redness if used regularly.

Which all sounds pretty rubbish.

(Picture: Shutterstock/ Ella Byworth)

So what can you actually do if you’re trying to clear your nose of all its gunk?

Andy recommends that first of all, you need to bloody well assess if you’re looking at blackheads or sebaceous filaments.

‘If they’re sebaceous filaments, leave them alone. If you have blackheads then consider seeing a professional for extraction or use a daily salicylic acid based product to dissolve them.’

But don’t go for a pore strip or blackhead vacuum, basically. And don’t try squeezing them out yourself, either.

Let your skin be, talk to a professional if you have skin concerns, and just be a little nicer to your face.

It doesn’t deserve to be vacuumed, peeled, or scrubbed away with bits of plastic. Alright?

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Andy's recommendations for safely getting rid of blackheads: First, determine if you actually have blackheads, or if you’re looking at sebaceous filaments. A blackhead is a blockage you can feel within the skin, while sebaceous filaments are freeflowing, but visible due to the pore being enlarged. ‘Prevention is always better than a cure,’ says Andy. ‘So avoiding skin care and makeup that contains comedogenic ingredients is first thing. ‘Then using non-drying cleansers, gentle exfoliants and lightweight hydrating products etc to avoid blackheads from forming. ‘Some facialists or skin care professionals may offer extractions and will use steam or a softening solution prior to extraction to aid with their removal. Personally I prefer to use lipid-soluble hydroxy acids like Salicylic acid or Mandelic acid, either in the form of a mild peel or home care products that can help to dissolve and dislodge blackheads as well as reducing the appearance of sebaceous filaments. ‘Ingredients like Vitamin A (retinol or retinaldehyde), Saw Palmetto and DHEA also work by regulating sebum production so again, reducing the appearance of sebaceous filaments. ‘But remember, you can’t, and shouldn’t try to, stop them completely. ‘It’s important to have a realistic expectation and not try to obtain a completely ‘pore-less’ look, which only really exists in magazines and Instagram filters.’

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