This cream mask hardens to peel off like a pore strip

• Peel-off strips and cream masks are some of the most popular products used in attempting to unclog pores. Green tea is also an incredibly popular ingredient in skin care.
• The Nakiz Lively Nose Green Mask combines a cream mask, a peel-off strip, and green tea.
• Insider producer Celia Skvaril decided to try out Lively Nose for herself.
• She spoke to Board-Certified Dermatologist Dr. Alexis Stephens about the possible dangers of peel-off masks and what green tea does in skincare.

Following is a transcript of the video.

Celia Skvaril: Hello, everyone, I hope you are doing well. Today, I am trying this Lively Nose green tea peel-off mask. It's basically like a mixture of a cream mask and a peel-off nose strip. So, I thought that looked super interesting. It's something that I haven't seen before. And I've been hearing a lot about green tea. You all have been tagging me in videos showing that green tea actually is pulling things out of the pores. And as we saw from my last video, the charcoal peel-off mask did nothing of the sort. It just really dried me out. So I'm hoping that this mask will do the opposite and it'll actually pull stuff out of my pores and not dry my skin out.

I look like a boy who's going off to boarding school. I am breaking out today, like.... [fake laughs] It's fine. It's really, it's not even a big deal. I'm fine. You're fine, I'm fine. We're all, we're fine. I feel like I have a nose that just keeps on giving. It's like, "Oh, you didn't see enough? Here's this. And here's this." OK, it's kind of hard to come out. It will not.... So, I've been holding this in my hand, and then I opened it, and it melted.

Hey, Siri, can you set a timer for 15 minutes? Siri: Your timer is set for 15 minutes. [crickets chirping] You can see that it's wrinkly like a pore strip, especially this one. It feels fine. It just feels dry. Like, it feels like I have a pore strip on.

Uh, guys, it got stuff. Huh. OK. These look different. They look shrunken a bit and less like they have surface-level dryness and gunk. So, I do think that it worked a little bit. I can see that my pores have less surface-level sebum on them, but what I really wanna know is if it dried out my skin like the charcoal peel-off mask did. So I'm going to bring in dermatologist Dr. Alexis Stephens to let me know.

Dr. Alexis Stephens: My name is Dr. Alexis Stephens. I am a board-certified dermatologist. I have a background in cosmetic chemistry, so I really like to look into ingredients, and I'm really excited to be with you today.

Celia: Do you know, like, what green tea does in skin care and what it's supposed to do?

Stephens: Green tea is actually amazing for your skin and for your overall health just in general. In skin care, it's very UV protective. It's an antioxidant. So it is blocking the UV rays, to a certain degree. It's not like a sunscreen. It's also really good just for kind of evening out your skin tone. It has some benefits to hyperpigmentation. It's really good for fine lines and wrinkles and just improving your skin tone and texture overall.

Celia: So, this is like a... it's sort of like a cream mask mixed with a peel-off strip, which is something that I haven't seen before. So I thought it was super cool. What can it do in specifically, like, clearing out your pores? Like, can it help with that?

Stephens: So, I don't see any evidence or data for green tea actually clearing out your pores. What green tea can do is brighten the appearance of the keratin. That's, like, the dead skin cells. So it may look in appearance to be brighter, which you may perceive as being clearer, but, like, actually getting in there, breaking down keratin material or oil, it's not known for doing that.

Celia: If we could look at the before and afters and see what we see. Stephens: Yeah, you definitely have some congestion of the pores. Just means a lot of dead skin cells and oil plugs that are in there. Some areas are a little more oxidized than others, simply because you can see, like, a little black ring around them. There's definitely some skin damage too, because did you see that blood vessel? The little red area? Yeah, those are all broken blood vessels, which happen from manipulation. Pore strips are a form of manipulation. So, if you continue to do pore strip after pore strip, you can cause permanent damage actually, because you are basically stretching out the elastin of your skin. And so you don't want to cause too much damage, and those little broken blood vessels show us a little evidence of that. So, your pores look just as congested. So far, I'm still seeing the keratin plugs, still seeing the oil, and there's actually even more broken blood vessels now. So, that goes along with what we were talking about. Too much manipulation can cause you to actually get some skin damage. And if you look really closely, do you see how your pores are actually more visible?

Celia: In my non expert opinion, I was like, "Oh, they look different." Like, they look like they have less surface - like, less, I guess, the white stuff that's sort of on the... I don't know what is different about them, but they look different.

Stephens: OK, so this is actually that brightening effect that's happening. Remember that this pore strip has alpha arbutin, right? So that's a natural brightener. Green tea on its own, that's a natural brightener too, and then it's got titanium dioxide. So that's another thing that's going to reflect light off of it and make everything look brighter. So what you are appearing as more clear pores, it's actually just 'cause they're brighter. Your pores are just as congested.

Celia: So it's, like, not worth it. [laughs]

Stephens: In my personal opinion, to dilate your pores means that they're going to look more obvious to the naked eye. To cause skin damage where we see increased broken blood vessels is gonna be, long term, not your friend. You're not gonna be happy about that. So I do not think this is a great product for you, my friend. You want to be smart about what you're putting on your skin, right? It's about the long term. That temporary, like, little benefit, that satisfaction that you feel 'cause you see the keratin filaments, that's not worth it, 'cause you've now expanded your pore. Guess what? A larger pore is gonna be able to fill up with more stuff. So it's not better for you in the long run. I'm sorry, friend.

Celia: That's OK.

Stephens: I know that you guys love your peels, but they're not great for your skin.

Celia: Time's up! OK, goodbye. Thank you.