Despite my strict beauty and skincare regime, I'm prone to blackheads and they tend to gather on my chin and nose.

Blackheads are disgusting and they look absolutely horrible, so over the past few years I've tried various products that claim to help reduce blackheads. A few have been quite succesful but blackhead removing strips are by far my favourite as this method is very simple as well as quick and easy. It's also not as uncomfortable as say using a blackhead tool as no prodding or poking is required - just apply the strip, wait for a while and voila, done!

I've tried a range of different brands of blackhead removing strips and these ones which are Purederm branded are my favourite due to how cheap and effective they are. The price actually put me of buying them at first as I thought that they wouldn't be very good, but they're just as effective as the more expensive ones that I used to use, which were £8.00 more expensive than these.

A pack of six of these strips retails from £2.00 to £2.99 in most stores (Holland and Barrett, Superdrug etc) and I'd recommend buying in store or via Amazon as obscure websites such as online pharmacies etc sell these for £3.00 to £4.00 more. I buy mine in bulk from Amazon and I pay £8.26 for five packs, with each pack containing six strips. I personally think that this is brilliant value!

Packaging wise, the strips come in a rectangular box made out of thin cardboard. The box is white with a picture of a woman 'modelling' (lol) one of the strips on her nose. The picture fills most of the front of the box. There's quite a lot of text plastered all over the box with the brand and product name on the front and the ingredients, directions for use, warnings and so on are listed on the back. The strips themselves come in silver plasticy type sachets which are easy to tear open.

The white strips have a transparent thin plastic backing. To use the strips you simply need to wet your nose (or wherever you are applying the strip), remove the plastic backing and put the strip onto the wet area, making sure that you don't get the strip too wet else it will not stick properly. If I'm using a strip on my nose then I make sure that the area around my nose is wet too as the strip is quite wide so it covers more than just my nose. I find that I need to press and hold it down for a few seconds to make sure that it's securely stuck on and that's all you need to do.

Purederm say that you should leave the strip on until it feels stiff. I find that the time varies and it takes longer to stiffen on my nose than on my chin. I'd say on average it takes around 12 minutes until it's ready to come off. Removing the strips feels just like pulling a plaster off. It's not painful, but it is quite uncomfortable for a few seconds. As the strip is white, any blackheads etc that have been removed show up on the strip which is good as I'm able to see how effective it was. It always removes a lot of blackheads and it gets them out whole (sorry if I'm grossing anyone out) meaning that no dirt etc is left behind in the pores.

A little bit of sticky residue is always left behind but this is quick and easy to remove. These are really effective and I give them four out of five stars. I've knocked one star off because they should only be used 1-2 times a week and I'd like to use them daily. I also think that they smell quite strange and unpleasant but as the smell is not overpowering I can't complain too much. Recommended.