Friday Cheapies : Comedone Extractor

To be honest, I've bought this stuff before, but I've never ever *really* found out how to use it. My college buddy said that you just have to put your face over some hot water to "steam open" your pores, and then you go to town with the comedone extractor. When I tried that method, it was just too painful to be true. Surely *that* is not how you use it?

Then I found out, yep, scraping your nose with that sharp little hoop really *is* how you use it. This is the most disgustingly fascinating video I've ever seen on Youtube:

Seriously, though it looks creepy, you end up watching it all the way to the end. ^^ So, after watching that, I just HAD to buy my own comedone extractor. Well, I thought it would be perfect for hard-to-reach places that my pore strips just can't seem to extract. Mainly, the sides of my nose! I could actually see little black dots, but no matter what, just can't seem to reach it!

You can see the "strawberry-ish" texture at the side.... Ugh! Although no actual BLACK spots, I find it disturbing enough. Countless of pore strips and face washes and masks later, I decided to use the comedone extractor on my nose. Sorry, no video like the fascinating one above, especially with my one hand holding a mirror and the other, the extractor ... even snapping a photo of an oil seed coming out would be an imposibility for me. :) 

On the left is the comedone extractor, on the right, a handheld mirror with a magnifying effect. The hoop (upper) end is what I use to prod at the problem area til it yields some results. The other end is supposedly a "gentle" way to "focus" on the problem area and gently keep prodding til SOMETHING pops up.

To be honest, I'm not really sure, I only use the hooped end! Can't find a proper explanation online also (it's quite similar to what I wrote above), so it remains rather unused.

I tried to find a black piece of paper to further enable me to take proper contrast between what was extracted out... but all I had on hand was an angpow packet. =p Hence, the red background. All the white bits you see are what was extracted out. I'm especially proud of the large oil seed on the far left.... Have not been getting something so juicy with pore strips in a long while. All hail the comedone extractor! You can get a cheapie one from your local drugstore for something like RM8. Pretty worth it as you can use it for a good long time, at least ... until it rusts. Otherwise, I don't see why there should even be an expiry date on this thing!

Pro tip! Try to use a softener on the areas you want to attack with the comedone extractor. I've been using the Cellnique Skin Action Sebum Gel for some time now, so it may be why I don't feel it's so difficult to extract black/white heads compared to when I was younger. The bad part (for me) is that though I'm able to extract the sides of my nose pretty effectively, I am not able to do a thorough job on other areas (which is why I still depend on masks, pore strips, etc etc) because I have a sensitive nose + sinus problem. If I pinch away too adamantly, I will inevitably start sneezing! If you have the same problem, you might want to give this a pass too. When I still went for facials, the facial consultant ALWAYS asks whether I have a sinus problem. They don't want to get sneezed on too! :P