A sucky masque

Users of Biore's pore strips derive a curious pleasure from slowly peeling off the stiff, dried paper and sticking their now-clean noses into the otherwordly stalagmites of oils and impurities these strips pull from god-knows-where in their skin. I like them myself, but they always seemed a little inefficient and overadvertised - they're small, pricey, and packaged like surgical equipment.

My friend Amy suggested I try this today: Queen Helene's Mint Julep Masque. It's available in most pharmacy stores for a ridiculously low price of $3.29 (8oz). It smells of creamy mint and looks like plasticized avocado butter; it's thick, dry, and almost acrylic-like.

As soon as you'll apply it, the minty, cleansing, sucking burn begins; it's no worse than weak mouthwash, so no worries. The masque dries in under ten minutes, and you can wash it off after fifteen. It doesn't exactly peel off, but it's not hard to rinse away either. I wasn't expecting much from the product since it looked too creamy to properly pull, but pull it did. My nose appeared cleaner than after using strips, and for once, the rest of my face got the same treatment. A little dry, but that's normal. The clean feeling is so strong, in fact, I felt like my feet had become smoother.

According to Amy, you can also use small amounts of the masque overnight, in particularly problematic spots. Queen Helene's says it helps with zits; drop some masque on one and let it dry overnight.