Product Recall: Biore Strips
Kate rips the gunky truth out of the pores of Biore’s history. She and Doree learn that this product has a paradoxical connection to the beloved Lilith Fair, are intrigued by the messaging that your skin is dirtier than you ever knew (but you’re going to love it), and wonder if pore strips are really just a recreational skin care product.
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Transcript
Kate: Hello, and welcome to Forever35, a podcast about the things we do to take care of ourselves. I am Kate Spencer.
Doree: And I am Doree Shrier.
Kate: And we are not experts.
Doree: No. We're two friends who like to talk a lot about serums,
Kate: And today we are bringing you product recall, a weekly episode where we dig deeper into the history of an iconic product and its impact. It comes every Friday. It comes every Friday, bringing it to you every Friday here on Forever35. And today I am in the driver's seat.
Doree: Oh, baby.
Kate: If you want to reach us, send us some feedback, suggest products for product recall, share your experiences with the products that we talk about. You can leave us a voice message or send us a text at (781) 591-0390. You can also email us at Forever35podcast@gmail.com.
Doree: Visit our website Forever35podcast.com for links to everything you mentioned that includes our sources, videos, et cetera. And you can follow us on Instagram @Forever35podcast. Join the Forever35 Facebook group. The password is serums. Sign up for our newsletter at Forever35podcast.com/newsletter, and you can shop our favorite products at shopmy.US/forever35. Some of our favorite products are on the Balance Bound website,
Kate: Are on the Balance Bound website? Oh, yes. I was like, wait, the Balance Bound website put skincare products on. Then I realized what you're talking about. Yes. Some of our favorite products are on the Balance Bound website, products that reference things that grew from our brains, which is a wild thing to think about.
Doree: A Wild thing. So check those out at balancebound.co/shop/Forever35.
Kate: Well, Doree, Today I am very excited because folks have been sending in products or moments that they want us to dig deeper into here in our weekly product recall segments. And I'm very honored to take this one on for the team.
Doree: I'm excited for you.
Kate: Today we're talking about Biore Pore Strips strips.
Doree: Oh, yes.
Kate: And it was interesting to me how many people were like, please do Biore Pore Strips strips. Please do Biore Pore Strips, because clearly they have made their mark.
Doree: Oh yeah. And have they left their marks on our noses?
Kate: No. They've removed things from our noses. Well, it was also kind of funny to me is that I actually mentioned them to a person who I work with who's 25, and they were like, oh, I could have just brought you one from home. And I was like, oh, huh, people are still using these. How interesting.
Doree: That is interesting.
Kate: Because I have not used a Biore pore strip in possibly a decade and a half, although I did use one this week and recorded my experience, which you'll hear later in this episode.
Doree: Okay. Okay.
Kate: Doree, just off before we get started,
Doree: yes,
Kate: this is impromptu, but what do you, you know about Biore Pore Strips? What is your experience with them? What do they mean to you? Have you ever even tried one?
Doree: I have tried one. They were never a consistent part of my repertoire. I don't know that I ever even purchased them. I feel like it was often a thing of like, oh, some, I was with someone and they were like, do you want to do a Biore Pore Strips or something? Do you know what I mean? Do you want to do a line of coke?
Kate: Yeah. In the eighties, that would've been a drug commercial. Yeah. You want to smoke my dad's cigarettes?
Doree: Yeah, totally. Yeah. And I just remember you would put it on and then rip it off and you would see the little remnants of blackheads on the poor strip.
Kate: Right. You would look down.
Doree: And that was the aspect of it that I think was so satisfying.
Kate: Oh, we will get into that. Because the advertising company knew that too.
Doree: Oh, did they ever?
Kate: But our story starts in 1887.
Doree: What? Kate?
Kate: Taking it back to a completely different century, and not even the one before us, but the one before that.
Doree: This is shocking to me. I thought they were invention of the 1980s.
Kate: Doree They are actually an invention of the 1990s.
Doree: Okay. But You're taking us back,
Kate: But I'm taking us back. I'm just going to talk about the 18 hundreds for 30 minutes and then mention pore strips at the end. I want to get into basically who created Biore and how we got here.
Doree: Okay.
Kate: The reason our story starts in 1887 is because that is when a Japanese man named to Tamir Naga decided to go into the soap business. He wanted to create a product and create a soap product. Now, I am not only am I not a historian, I am not a historian, a Japanese historian. No. And so I do not even want to try to speak about what was going on in Japan at the time.
Doree: Okay. Fair.
Kate: Only to say that it was from, from the brief stuff I have read about kind of the 1850s to early 19 hundreds in Japan. It was a time of massive upheaval and transformation. Not only was industrialization kind of taking off globally, but Imperial Rule was reinstated in Japan at that time. And I think a lot of things were kind of changing in the culture as well. And there is a lot of, there's a ton of research on this that I actually was like, I need to take books out of the library to learn about this, but I don't even want to try to speak to it. But just know things were changing. Obviously it's a time where around the world, it's the Industrial Revolution. Advertising and marketing is picking up. We've kind of seen this in a lot of our conversations. So Tamir Nagai decided that he wanted to produce a soap, and he called the Soap Kao second. And you maybe have heard of Kao, k a o, because cow is still in existence, and it is Japan's largest consumer product company to this day. So a lot of this information is coming to us curated on their website. So it is very much a corporate narrative. Exactly, yes, yes, yes. A romanticized version of their history. So according to their website, the word Kao sounds like the Japanese word for face. And this was indeed a face soap. And they write that the soap available in Japan at the time was either poor quality domestic soap, or imported at a high price, determined to create an affordable, high quality facial soap made in Japan. Nagasai began product development. This led him and his team to acquire expertise in chemistry and mixing techniques for fragrances and colors. So basically he did what we have seen so many of these founders do, which is I want to create an elevated product, but offer it at an accessible price point. This seems to be the pattern of many of these origin stories. So the other thing he did, in addition to creating this very specific soap product, is that he was known as being revolutionary at the time for the way in which he advertised. He put his product in newspapers a few decades later. In the 1910s Kao used a very famous Geisha as part as a model for the face soap. He also put billboard ads next to railways. So folks who were on the train would be like, you'd be tooting along and you would just be passing an ad for this soap. The other thing that, the other thing he did to become a pivotal business leader at the time, was that he managed to distribute this product nationwide across Japan. And that was not something that was happening. A lot not happening. So all these things hit at the right time. It became a huge product, and the company became massive. So decades, decades, decades go by. And in the 1950s, they're still doing soap, they're known, they're loved, but now they're branching into other things. We're talking like household cleaning products, shampoo, diapers.
Doree: Are they still only in Japan?
Kate: That's a great question. I believe so at this time.
Doree: Okay.
Kate: This is also when they launched Biore Face, face Cleanser. So Biore is a product that comes from the Kao company.
Doree: Oh, I See.
Kate: It's not like they acquired Biore
Doree: It's a line that they invented.
Kate: They invented. And it's first sold in Japan, and they launch their own brands, but they also go on to acquire brands and they have a market in Asia with brands that we don't have readily accessible here. But then they also have a European and American market. So if you want to get a sense of some of the companies that they now own, I want you to thank John Frida. I want you to think, I want you to think Curel, Jergens, bio Oil, molten Brown,
Doree: They own all of these brands.
Kate: These are all brands under the Kao name,
Doree: And they're still based in Japan.
Kate: Yes.
Doree: Fascinating.
Kate: So let's circle back to Biore. Okay. Okay. So Biore was launched by the Cow company in 1980 as the first non soap cleansing wash. Now, does that sound at all like Noxzema? It does Remember how they were saying it's not soap. Yes. If you haven't listened to our product recall on Noxzema, the same language is used to describe it.
Doree: Yes.
Kate: Which was fascinating to me. And what was really interesting, I read on this website called professional beauty.com, that the name Biore came about from the company hosting an annual naming contest.
Doree: Wow.
Kate: I know. And it comes from combining two words, bio meaning life and ore meaning a precious or such as gold.
Doree: Oh, interesting.
Kate: It says it all it, it also stands for beauty, intelligence, originality, reliability, and enrichment, which sounds like almost a, that feels like school motto.
Doree: It also feels like a retrofit. You know what I mean?
Kate: A hundred a percent. But they have a winning brand on their hands. And what remains interesting to me about Biore, because you can get beyond Biore pore strips, you can get Biore skincare products in the United States. They are not the same as the Biore skincare products offered in Japan. And we have talked, I mean, we'll talk more about this later, but we have talked about their sunscreen a lot because it's so fantastic.
Doree: But yet it is not sold in the us.
Kate: No. They don't even make, in their US line of products. They don't even make a sunscreen. Their focus is very specific about targeting things like blackheads.
Doree: Okay.
Kate: So Biore is already a fully functioning line in Japan. It's well known. It's extremely popular. And they launched something called the Biore Pore Perfect. In Japan in 1996. And it's a hit. And it is the Pore Strip.
Doree: It is the Poor Strip. Okay. Yes. Okay, got it. Got it.
Kate: They then decide to launch it in the United States. Now, Biore has tried to launch products. They decide to launch it via Jergens, which is a company they own.
Doree: Okay.
Kate: But they don't call it Jergens.
Doree: Okay.
Kate: So Jergens does all the, it's their people working on the Biore pore strips.
Doree: Okay.
Kate: But it's not called the Jergens pore Strip. And ah, I read this really interesting article about the kind of advertising philosophy and strategy behind Biore pore strips in the Washington Wall Street Journal. And someone's quoted as saying it was thought to be hipper than Juergens, and thus more suitable for its target audience of women in their teens and twenties. And this was interesting because Kao had tried to launch products in the US before, through Jergens, but they were a bust.
Doree: Oh, interesting.
Kate: They had two prior, and both of them kind of flopped. So I get a feeling like they were like, we want to keep doing this. But the name Jergens,
Doree: It's just not working.
Kate: Its not sexy. When you think of Juergens now, I think of their lotion.
Doree: Their lotion. Yeah. Self tanner. Yeah. I think they had a good self tanner for a while.
Kate: But that's all I think about. I don't even think about face cleansing, and I certainly don't think about it as a 15 year old. I wouldn't be like, right. Give me some Jergens. Right?
Doree: Yes, yes,
Kate: So it's 1997, April, 1997, and Biore Pore Strips launch in the United States. We're going to take a break, and when we come back, I mean, you know what happens?
Doree: Oh, and I can't wait.
Kate: Okay. So it's April, 1997.
Doree: Okay. I'm about to turn 20,
Kate: And I'm in my senior year of high school. Bill Clinton is president.
Doree: Oh, he sure is.
Kate: I'm listening to Return of the Mac on the radio. Still one of my favorite songs of all time.
Doree: What am I listening to? This is Spring of my sophomore year.
Kate: I'm going to say you and I are both listening to a lot of Annie DiFranco at this time.
Doree: No, I wasn't listening to Annie DiFranco. She was too hippie-ish for me.
Kate: Oh, well, I mean, I was listening to a lot of Phish and Gwyneth Fish shows and listening to a lot of Anni.
Doree: Yeah. Oh, I was listening to a lot of, I think I was still listening to a lot of Brit pop.
Kate: Oh. Like Blur, blur
Doree: Blur, Oasis. Although by then, well, whatever. That is a total sidebar, but
Kate: Here's what you need to know. Candle On the Wind. 1997 was the number one song from the Billboard Top 100 that year.
Doree: Okay. Yeah. That tracks. Hey. Okay. Okay. You know what? Albums came out in 1997. Blur had a new album, pavements Bright in the Corners came out.
Kate: This means nothing to
Doree: Me. Okay. Computer Radiohead Slater, Kenny,
Kate: Biggie Smalls died in 1997.
Doree: A new blonde redhead album came out. Oh
Kate: My God. I don't
Doree: Spiritual. Oh my God. The iconic Spiritualized album came out. Well. Yeah. So that was the kinds of albums I was listening to at the time. Anyway, we
Kate: We were in different Worlds Doree because I was traveling to Limestone Maine to attend the Great Went Phish Festival.
Doree: Wow.
Kate: I know. Would've not been friends then, but that's why it's good. We met as adults.
Doree: Totally.
Kate: So here's what was also going on. Biore Pore Strips strips were a massive hit in the United States after a year of sales. After a year, the sales were about a hundred million. Oh my gosh. So they made about 50 million in their first six months since launching.
Doree: Wow.
Kate: And they accounted for 20% of the company's revenue.
Doree: Oh my Gosh
Kate: There was an a Nielsen survey that ranked Biore pore strips as the bestselling skincare product of 1997. So this was huge. And they knew their audience. They were our, yeah, the audience was people our age at the time. They did not have a huge advertising budget. So they worked with the ad agency, Deutsche, and they had a very interesting strategy. They gave away samples at colleges across the country and get this Biore Pore Strips was one of the sponsors of that summer's Lilith Fair tour.
Doree: Oh Shit.
Kate: And they gave away 2 million poor strips during that tour.
Doree: Okay. That's genius, isn't
Kate: Isnt It though.
Doree: Yes. That's genius. They knew their audience.
Kate: They knew their audience, and it was me listening to Annie and fucking popping my blackhead on my nose. So I thought that was so telling, because again, they did not have a huge ad budget for this product, but they knew how to get to the right people.
Doree: So this is also very interesting, because today, obviously the way to get to college aged kids would be find the TikTok influencers and give it to them there. But I just like how they did this all sort of like IRL
Kate: I mean, it was remember ground, the team, street teams, street teams, stuff like that. Yes. I was definitely in the street team for the band Guster.
Doree: Oh, sure. That tracks,
Kate: Yep. Doesn't it?
Doree: Yep.
Kate: But that was the way they were, and I think people still mark it this way. Yeah. I'm sure if you went to Coachella, I mean, everything is branded now. but they
Doree: But they would have to, but you would've had to post on Instagram or TikTok
Kate: A hundred percent
Doree: For your street team Guster.
Kate: Oh my God, yes. So much. You know what I mean? It would be social. Yes.
Doree: Yes.
Kate: But there's none of that. But what is also really interesting to me is the way in which they kind of create this narrative about how I'm speaking in hyperbole. But the way it comes off to me is like, you are disgusting. You're about to find out how disgusting your face is. So one of the first ads that Deutsch does for them claims that these poor strips will remove more dirt, oil and blackhead than you ever knew you had. So there's this kind of feeling of you are really dirty and you don't even know.
Doree: Right.
Kate: Dirty is not the best word. And they don't, I mean, they talk about dirt, but it's this idea that your skin almost like your skin's bad, and we're here to show you.
Doree: And you don't even know how bad it is.
Kate: Yes. And
Doree: There's also something about it being beneath the surface that
Kate: I think you're pulling it out of your skin.
Doree: Yeah. You're pulling it out.
Kate: So what was really funny is that in this same Wall Street Journal article, they said to develop the Biore ad, Jergens and Deutche conducted focus groups with hundreds of women. The research showed the need to demonstrate the effectiveness of the strips versus facial cleansers. The problem showing a magnified use strip on the air would repel many viewers. In the end, Jergens decided to show a cartoon diagram of a cross-section of skin with the strip prying debris from the pores. The commercial also shows a self-confident woman who peels off her strip, takes a peek and grimaces. She says, the results are evident on the strip, if you like looking at that sort of thing. So here's that ad.
Doree: Wow.
Commercial: We're looking at the Biore Po Perfect strip in about 10 minutes. It unclogs pores by grabbing dirt, makeup, even blackheads, and pulling them away. What you can see on the strip when you're done, if you like looking at that sort of thing, Biore, clean, honest, I washed this side, this side of my face with my old facial cleanser.
Kate: Okay. So
Doree: if you like looking at this kind of thing, right.
Kate: we all like looking at that sort of thing. So what ends up happening is the appeal of the Biore pore strips is seeing what comes out of your skin. So the way the pore strips work is that you wash your face. Actually, why don't we, in instead of me just telling you, why don't I play the audio of me reading the directions? Because I did a pore strip this week, and I recorded first. I've recorded the before and the after. Okay. So let me start by playing you just me reading the directions and just kind of fu fuddling my way through.
Doree: Sure.
Kate: A pore strip. Okay. So I'm going to try a biore po strip. I'm a scientist for probably the first time in, I don't know, 20 years. Here's the instructions. Remove strip from the pouch twist strip to loosen and separate slits prior to use after washing your face. Oh, I have to put it on a wet nose. Okay. I'm not going to do this right now. Maybe I will. Okay, I'll go wash my face. The strip won't stick on a dry nose. Okay. Dry hands. Oh, peel. Strip off plastic liner. Okay. Plight to the nose area, smooth side down, pressing down to ensure good contact with the skin. Let dry for 15 minutes until stiff to the touch, like paper mache slowly and carefully. Peel off starting at edges, pulling toward the center. Okay. I am going to go wash my face and put this on, and I'll report back in 10 to 15 minutes. This is some real Woodward and Bernstein investigative journalism that I did here. So I put this So you have to, the way Pire works is you have to wet your face. Other companies have since come out with other, there's 8 million Pore strips now on the market with Gajillions. And some you wet first and put on, Biore wants you to wash your face. And then they does have slits, which the word just, I don't know why it kind of grosses me out, but it kind of crack it open, and then you press it down onto your nose. So I sat like that for 15 minutes, and I will update you shortly. Here's a recent ad for pore strips. Let's play this.
Commercial: Get ready. This is going to be good. Safely removes blackheads just like that. It's dermatologist tested. Now see for yourself the number one trusted blackhead remover, biore.
Kate: Okay. The sound effects are really special. And what's so interesting to me will link to this commercial so you can see it, but the message remains the same in the commercial from 1997 and a commercial from a couple years ago. It's like you're going to peel this off and it's going to be kind of gross,
Doree: but you're going to love it.
Kate: Yeah. You're going to kind of love to see what comes out of your nose. So the messaging is really like Your nose is, your skin is dirtier than you realize. And you can see it on the strip, which is a real departure from a lot of advertising that markets, you can feel it working. You can't really feel the poor strip working. It just hardens on your face, but you can see it. And this makes it appealing not just to women, but men start buying these and using.
Doree: Interesting. Okay.
Kate: And the hypothesis is that this is because they can see what is on there. So a representative from Bii said that the gross out response, this is in a different article that I found that was in the Tampa Bay Times, but it seems to be interviewing people in Akron, Ohio.
Doree: So it might have been syndicated
Kate: a hundred percent. So one person, this is from 1998, 1 person that they interview says, you could say I'm addicted. I have trouble keeping it within the limit of three times a week. They recommend, it's disgusting, but I love to look at the strip and see all the junk that comes out of my skin. Oh my God. And then this person named Kellyann Frankl from Biore says that this is like, what makes it appealing. She says, there's an instant gratification ew factor. I think it's especially cool to men. And the article goes on to say that the company estimates that a quarter of the products users are men, although they usually pilfer from their wives or girlfriends, rather than buy their own.
Doree: Ooh.
Kate: And what's interesting is that, so Ponds came out with a competitor, I think only a few months after Biore did. Biore was the first, but Ponds came out right after. And this articles from 1998. And it says that Ponds, all the poor strip advertising up until this point had featured women. But Ponds was releasing an ad, a print ad in details, GQ and Men's Health that year. That features a laughing man modeling the nose strip with the tagline, the most disgusting thing you'll ever enjoy.
Doree: Oh my gosh.
Kate: All right. So let's take a break here, and then we'll come back and talk about my own experience and if they actually do anything. Okay. All right. So Doree, let's hop back to my experience with the poor strip. Here is, oh, I think I recorded me ripping it off my face.
Doree: Great.
Kate: So I sat with it for 15 minutes here at my desk, and then this is what happened. Okay. So I am going to record audio and video of me taking this Biore pore strip, so it is hardened on my nose.
Doree: Amazing.
Kate: And honestly, I'm afraid this is going to hurt. I haven't done this in so long that I don't remember what it feels like, but it has hardened paper mache. And I guess now I'm going to rip it off. Ow it hurts. I don't, I don't want to do this. I hate this. Ow. It really hurts. Doree. Okay. Ow, this hurts. Ow. This really hurts. I can't believe people do this. I guess I'm just going to yank it. Fuck. This is worse than a bandaid. Okay, here we go. One Ow. Two, three. I'm nervous. Okay. 1, 2, 3. Ow. Oh shit.
Doree: Oh my God. But if you ended up injured,
Kate: Okay, here it go. Hold my skin. Ow. Ow. That hurt. I don't see anything On the strip. Is that because I need reading glasses? It's a lot going on here. Too. Fucking old to be doing this. My nose feels smooth though. Okay. This was anti-climactic. And honestly, I'm kind of disappointed. I thought it there would be more action. I don't see any dirt on the strip,
Doree: I feel like there would be more action.
Kate: Feel like I remember doing these. Don't you remember? Okay, I'm going to pause myself. Don't you remember doing these and seeing stag mites or stag tights coming out of the pore strip?
Doree: Yes. But may I just propose something, Kate?
Kate: I'm open to it.
Doree: Okay. What I'm proposing here is that your skin as a 43 year old woman is different than your skin as a 16 year old
Kate: Hondo P. And what I wouldn't give to ask my kids if I could pore strip them and see what comes out, because they're in puberty, and I do see little blackhead on their noses, but I'm not going to expose them to this.
Doree: So I feel like that is why they initially marketed it hoes to teenagers and not middle-aged women.
Kate: Totally.
Doree: Cause totally. It's not as satisfying.
Kate: No. So I will say I did examine the strip a little bit in brighter light, and I did have a few little dirt blackhead things.
Doree: Okay.
Kate: Which Was exciting, but not, it was waking up and imagining Santa Claus has brought you a million presents, and all you have is like a candy cane.
Doree: Wow. Okay. oh my gosh.
Kate: Which I basically prove the ads. So much of the satisfaction of a Biore PO strip is that you're seeing gross, gross stuff that came from your own body. It's the same reason a lot of us like cleaning our ears.
Doree: Yes.
Kate: Because you get that ear wax and you're like, oh my God. That came out of me.
Doree: I mean, Popping pimples,
Kate: Popping Pimples, pulling out an ingrown hair
Doree: Yeah. I mean,
Kate: we've talked about this.
Doree: Yeah.
Kate: There's a satisfying gross out element that is a very human thing.
Doree: Yes.
Kate: So As for the efficacy. Of a poor strip.
Doree: Yes. Let's talk about that. Okay.
Kate: Do they actually work? So The short answer is like, yes, you're going to put this thing on your face. Many of which I believe many of these poor strips on the market are essentially adhesives. So in that article that I found in the Tampa Bay Times, they interviewed a dermatologist about this, and this person said, they've hyped this really well. But you could basically do the same thing with a piece of duct tape.
Doree: Okay. This was going to be my question. How are these different from a piece of tape?
Kate: So
Doree: According to this dermatologist, there is no difference.
Kate: Biore Says that their Pore strips are not made with adhesives or glue.
Doree: Okay.
Kate: Here's a direct quote from their website. While other wannabe Pore strips use adhesives or glue to remove blackhead, Biore, Pore strips use patented sea bond technology. So they are designed to bind the blackheads, not your skin. With this technology, our Pore strips were created to lift out the entire Pore plug, not just the top of it. So there are 8 million articles online of some variation of do pore strips work. We ask a dermatologist and we try that. This is everywhere. So I didn't even link just Google to pore strips work.
Doree: Yes.
Kate: You'll find a million answers. And the general gist of it is like, yeah, they work. You're putting something on your face and it is going to, when you yank it off, it's going to take out dead skin and you know, can get some stuff a blackhead out of a pore, but it's not actually cleaning your skin. I don't think it's, it's not,
Doree: it's a short term.
Kate: Exactly. It's a short term fix. I don't know. I'd be curious if it's a part of people's skincare routines or practices, or if it's more a thing that people do for fun. Are poor strips just more recreational than anything else?
Doree: Interesting question.
Kate: Because you could essentially put a piece of duct tape across your nose and yank it out, and you're going to have chunks of dead skin on there. So, I don't know. Dori, I think the biggest kind of scam about Biore in general is that the company makes really great products. Those are just not available in the United States.
Doree: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there are some stores, I mean I've, I've gotten the Biore sunscreen. There's a few, I love this. There's some stores that import products from Korea and Japan, but yeah, they're not generally available here.
Kate: No. And if you go to the Biores website with their American products marketed for where we live, they call themselves pore obsessed. They have built the Biore line in the US off of pore strips. Whereas I think in Japan it existed prior to their poor products. And so they have a massive line there. And on the website they even say, oh my gosh, this quote made me mad. Lemme Find it. Hold on. Oh shit. And I think I remember being like, I'm going to copy this. Oh, here it is here. It's okay. It says, while the formulas and development are separate from those in America, we're able to leverage our parent company's innovative Japanese technology backed by years of scientific research and development. Hello, skincare jackpot. So they're basically saying we have different formulas. we develop things differently.
Doree: Yes.
Kate: But we're using the same innovative Japanese technology, which feels like exoticism to me in their marketing, which is a much larger conversation that I don't think I am the person to be the expert on. And there are already people talking about this, but I think the ways in which language like that is used to sell Asian beauty lines to western countries is fascinating. So that is, to me, what's most interesting about Biore, right? We can get their hydrate and glow, gentle cleanser, moisturizer and toner. They have a whole pore strip. There's endless strips now there's the original, which is what I used. There's the charcoal deep cleansing. There's ones for your forehead, there mens oil controlled charcoal, deep cleansing, pore strips, there t-zone targeted. There's ultra strength. So they have six different pore strips now available here where we live.
Doree: Wow.
Kate: Unnecessary, I'm sure. Yeah. But I would definitely be like, I've got to have
Doree: Maximum strengths. Yes.
Kate: They also have pimple patches, cleansers, moisturizer, serums, scrubs. But their focus is really skincare. And if you shop bundles on their site, they have a blackhead and Whitehead bundle. They have acne and blackhead
Doree: Like, okay, they're really leaning into this.
Kate: They're leaning into blackhead. Yes. And Whiteheads a little bit, but as blackheads are something else. They're those, your little gross, little clog poreys. So that is how we became Biore pore strip obsessed.
Doree: Wow. Lilith Fair.
Kate: Lilith Fair. They got us at the Lilith Fair at our most vulnerable.
Doree: Right. As we were hearing all these messages of empowerment, we were being told, we were also being told like,
Kate: Your blackhead are disgusting.
Doree: Blackhead are gross. Well, isn't that just the paradox of the beauty industry in a nutshell, Kate?
Kate: I mean, honestly, here's who was at Lilleth Fair in 1997. Cheryl Crow, jewel, indigo girls, Lisa Loeb, Fiona Apple, Sean Colvin, Tracy Chapman, Natalie Merchant,
Doree: I Mean,
Kate: and more. But that's quite a list. Feminist icons, all of them.
Doree: Someone was just telling me about the great Cheryl Crow documentary, which I've not watched, but they said it's really good. It's called Cheryl. It was on Showtime.
Kate: I'd Watch that. Okay.
Doree: Okay. Kate, thank you so much for this.
Kate: It was a pleasure. I would love to know if anyone out there is using Biore PO strips, if you love them. Oh, Doree. This is the thing. It hurt so much to take it off. It hurt so much.
Doree: Wow.
Kate: I Hated it. It was worse than taking off the bandaid.
Doree: Wow.
Kate: A million times worse. And your nose, this area around the edge of your nose is so sensitive.
Doree: Yeah,
Kate: I did not. I was not called to do it again at all.
Doree: Well, Kate, thank you for this. I learned a lot.
Kate: It was a pleasure.
Doree: Delightful. All right. Thanks everybody.