Review: Sexylook Strawberry Blackhead Pore Cleanser Set and Laneige Multiberry

Budget Babe stumbled upon this awesome product to remove blackheads which costs less than $20!

(And nope, this is NOT a sponsored post)

Before I start, let me just say that it is quite hard to be a female in Singapore you know. There are so many societal expectations for us to dress up, look good...not to mention peer pressure to follow trends and also the fact that we are consistently bombarded by ads convincing us to spend on XXX product for our skin.

Yes, there's no doubt the female consumer industry is a profitable one. Back in my days when I was at an ad agency, we targeted females quite a bit too. In fact, we even launched a credit card specially for females because we recognized their spending power. Yup. Sorry not sorry.

I had a number of female readers ask me about how I manage to save while still taking care of my skin. The answer is simple - I try products for cheap before committing, and I always do a mental stock-take of the number of items I have for each function. I like samples and either get them for free or buy them off Carousel for cheap; they let me try out the product before committing to it. For instance, a few months back I had a fetish for sweet-smelling strawberry products and was super tempted to buy Laneige's Multiberry Peeling Gel and their Multiberry Yoghurt Overnight Pack.

Thank goodness I tried out the samples first which I bought off Carousel for $3 in total. The peeling gel was awesome (a detailed review next time) and I've since upgraded to their full-sized product, but their yoghurt overnight mask (which I had high expectations for) totally fell flat! The salesgirl claimed it was suitable for all skin types, but that was a LIE. I woke up to 4 mini pimples the next day after leaving it on overnight. Yes, my skin was definitely softer and more moisturized, but there are tons of other ways I can achieve that without having to deal with new pimples! I therefore wouldn't recommend anyone with oily skin to try this as it might be a bit too rich for your skin, but if you have really dry skin I can see how this product would really help. 

ANYWAY, I digress. The whole point of this blog post was to talk about the awesome product I discovered quite by chance on Qoo10...only to realize later on that it has already been reviewed by Xiaxue once. Apparently there are a number of sponsored blog reviews online as well, which I had no idea about!

As a dancer, I struggle with clogged pores quite a bit as a result of perspiration (common among sporty and active people too), but it never quite bothered me until recently when my boyfriend expressed his concern that he could see quite a few obvious blackheads on my nose. I tried a number of blackhead scrubs, Biore's nose packs, etc...but nothing was really working for me.

Then I remembered I had this Strawberry Blackhead mask set sitting around somewhere which I had bought during my strawberry skincare products fetish. When I first tried it back then, it didn't impress me much as the smell was not as yummy as the Laneige Peeling Gel! But I gave it a second shot, and have since used it five times. In fact, the reason why I'm sitting here writing this review during my lunch hour (I'm working from home today since everyone has gone on a business trip) is because I just applied this earlier this morning and the results were so darn good that I just had to share with you guys.

Oh, and no, this is not a sponsored post. I paid for the product on my own (it cost me $12.90 back then as it was a promo) and wanted to share because hey, Budget Babe is all about cheap + good right?

Fresh off my nose. Look at how many blackheads there are!

(On a sidenote, aren't my nails pretty? I did them on my own HAHA. Cost: $2)

This is the BEST result in all my 6 times of using this product. Previously, the mask took out on average 1 - 5 blackheads each time so I just brushed it off as a run-of-the-mill blackhead removal product. But today (and I guess also because I haven't done this mask in a week but have been dancing so much in the past few days!) the results were crazy. And yes, also quite gross. I initially didn't want to post up my own photo but figured you guys would think this is a sponsored post if I just talked about it without showing any personal proof!

It is a bit tedious for regular usage though. Here's what the box says:

The product is from Taiwan, so all the instructions are in Chinese. I struggled with reading the characters, but for your benefit, I found an English version online:

I'll summarize it for you:

Step 1: Apply the sebum softener and massage into nose for 2 - 3 minutes.  Wash off.
Step 2: Spread the strawberry mask on your nose and let dry. Peel off.
Step 3: Apply the essence on your nose. Done!

Because there are quite a few steps, I use this only about once or twice a week. 

 
  Here's how the mask looks like when squeezed from its tube. 

 In fact, it does the job so well that you can even see the open pores after you've ripped off the mask from your nose. That, is my other grouse about the product, but I guess it is a small price to pay given that it effectively gets rids of my blackheads and whiteheads. The essence provided does not really close up the pores as well as it claims, but you can just use something else for this purpose if it really bothers you. For me, I just apply my pore minimizing cream over it.

What I can't figure out though, is why the product looks so different in all the different blog reviews I searched. The below 2 photos really confused me, because 1) the mask did not look like that on my nose vs. on Xiaxue's and 2) I didn't really see those "strawberry beads" in the mask compared to this reviewer in the Philippines.

Other than that, it's a pretty good product! If you're looking for something to remove blackheads, I would say stop wasting money on all those skincare products out there (there are so many who claim this promise, aren't there?) and just get this. Unfortunately it is not available in retail stores at the moment so you'll have to purchase it online at Qoo10, and the full price is $29.90 at most. If you're really hard on cash, you can wait for a promotion and get it cheaper when they are clearing stocks (I got mine for $12.90 because of a promo).

And no, there's no "promo code" or "quote BudgetBabeXOXO for X% off when you purchase" for this, sorry. As I said, this is NOT a sponsored post. Although if the Sexylook marketing team sees this and wants to sponsor me a few products to keep + give away to readers, I wouldn't say no!  

I'll review the Laneige peeling gel in another post when I have time, but here's a photo of their claims for you:

With love,
Budget Babe