I Tried The Blackhead Mask Everyone’s Talking About. Here’s What Happened.

It wasn’t what I expected.

Ads on social media can be really annoying, but I have to admit that they sometimes work for me, especially when it’s about supposedly ground-breaking beauty products.

If there’s a pretty girl repeatedly telling me she cannot live without a certain hair straightener/contouring kit/teeth whitening paste, chances are I will try it. Does that make me naive? I’d rather call it curious.

So when video ads with closeups of people peeling black masks off their noses started appearing everywhere on my Facebook and Insta feeds, I knew I had to get my hands on the miracle mask touted to remove ALL of the blackheads.

Like many people, I have quite a few blackheads on my nose that just won’t go away no matter what skincare products I use and how clean I keep my skin. Sure, they can be covered fairly easily with makeup, but the thought of clear skin on and around my nose makes me want to try any product that promises to banish the clogged pores. In the ads, the black mask seemed to pull out even the tiniest of blackhead along with anything else keeping skin from looking fresh and flawless, and the videos always ended with a closeup of the inside of the mask looking like an even better version of the good old, satisfying blackhead strip.

‘If this mask could really suck out all the yuckiness, it would be a game-changer,’ I thought, so of course I ordered one from Blaq. Its instructions were simple: cleanse your skin, then open your pores by putting a hot towel over your face for a few minutes, apply the mask, wait until it’s dried and slowly peel it off and enjoy the gross-but-oddly-gratifying pore unclogging magic…

Let’s get it on

The first thing I noticed about the mask was its incredibly gooey, sticky consistency. Once it’s on your skin, it’s there to stay – I even found it quite hard to wash off my hands after putting it on, and needed a lot of soap along with quite a bit of patience while I was getting it off from under my fingernails. But hey, if it would stick to blackheads as well as it stuck to my hands, then I was more than happy to spend a little extra time over the basin.

Taking a load off

After about 20 minutes, the mask felt dry to touch and I couldn’t really smile or talk properly anymore as the black gooeyness had turned into a dry, stiff layer on my skin – my face was literally frozen in its resting bitch face position.

So I ran to my bathroom mirror and eagerly started peeling from my chin up to my nose and forehead preparing for the hundreds of tiny disgusting blackheads I was about to come face to face with. The mask felt like it had become one with my skin by this time though, so peeling it off was a little like ripping off a Band-Aid that had been on for a few days.

The big reveal

Even though all of this had pointed to a successful blackhead removal, I hate to say the miracle mask didn’t quite deliver. Yes, it removed a few of my blackheads, but it also left the majority of them in my nose, where they sat smugly, mocking me for trying to get rid of them. I would even go so far as to say the good old blackhead strips I’ve been using since I was a teenager do a better job at pulling them out.

However, after a moment of disappointment, I noticed something else. While my blackheads were still there, the skin on my cheeks and forehead felt incredibly smooth. Turns out, the mask may not have had enough strength to remove all my blackheads, but it sure stripped off any old dry, dead skin, makeup residue, and even a few tiny hairs that made my skin feel a little rough, and left me with the kind of glowy complexion I usually only have after exfoliating.

Final thoughts…

If you have super sensitive skin, this mask might not be ideal, as the peeling left my face quite flushed for about 10 minutes after use, but once it calmed down, I had achieved a perfectly smooth base for my makeup.

Trying this viral mask has taught me not everything is what it seems, especially when it comes to social media marketing for supposedly life-changing beauty products. But that won’t keep me from trying them – I’m just not a quitter.

Comment: Have you tried a blackhead removing mask? What was your experience like?