Bioré Baking Soda and Charcoal Line

Bioré is a recently available brand The Netherlands, which I have covered in a previous article about the Press Launch Event. At the event, we got a demonstration of the products, which I have been testing frequently over the past few weeks. For this post, I’m going to show you all the products that are currently available of the Bioré Baking Soda and Charcoal Line.

Bioré is known for their simple approach to battling one of the most frequent skin problems, clogged pores. The lines that I’m going to show you focuses on either Charcoal or Baking Soda as their active ingredient. Both lines basically have the same type of products to cleanse pores, but are different in strength and have a different recommendation per skin type.

The Bioré products containing Baking Soda are recommended for people who have a dry/combination skin, which the latter is my skin type. The Baking Soda in these products does not remove oils as harshly as the Charcoal products do but still cleanses the skin properly. The three products that are currently available are the Pore Cleanser, Cleansing Powder Scrub and the Deep Cleansing Combi-Strips.

The Bioré Pore Cleanser with Baking Soda (€8,99/200 mL) is a cleanser that scrubs softly and removes dirt and impurities from pores without drying out the skin. It is hypo-allergenic and has a pH-balanced formula. This cleanser can be used daily by pumping an amount on your hands until it foams while massaging the cleanser on the entire face, rinsing thoroughly using water afterwards.

The Bioré Pore Cleanser with Baking Soda has a gel-like substance, a semi-transparent white base that also contains tiny little scrub particles. I’m not sure what those are made of, but they feel very mild. The cleanser is absolutely great for my dry to combination skin. I do have acne problems from time to time and washing my face using anti-acne cleansers often make my skin dry out. This one doesn’t do that. I love the consistency of the cleanser and the smell is amazing. It really has a clean, fresh and juicy scent. I’m not sure where they were going for but it really reminds me of a juicy green apple scent.

The Bioré Cleansing Powder Scrub with Baking Soda (€10,99/125 g) is a scrub that needs to be used in combination with water that carefully removes dead skin cells while dissolving quickly to prevent over-scrubbing. This scrub can be used by first wetting your face with water, taking an amount of the powder on your hand and activate by massaging the powder over the entire face. The scrub is also hypo-allergenic and has a pH-balanced formula.

The powder is white and very finely milled. As you can see, due to the Baking Powder, the scrub fizzes when it gets activated with water. I’ve never used a product like this before so it was definitely interesting fun to try out. I really like that the scrub dissolves and gets less gritty quickly, because I’m definitely a person that can over-scrub and make my skin irritated when scrubbing and I really like how smooth and clean my skin feels after using this scrub. It doesn’t say anywhere on the packaging that it can be used daily. I personally like to scrub my face once or twice per week. The scrub has a more citrus type of scent to it compared to the cleanser.

The last product of the Baking Soda line is the Bioré Deep Cleansing Combi-Strips (€10,99). The pack contains seven Nose Strips and seven Facial Strips that work as a magnet to pick up dirt, oils and blackheads and unclog pores thoroughly but still works less harsh compared to the Charcoal Line. To use these strips, cleanse face and wet the area that you want to apply the stip to. Remove the protective film and press the smooth side firmly on the area of the face. Leave the strip for 10-15 minutes until it has hardened (feels like paper maché). Then, remove the strip by slowly peeling the edges and working your way trough the middle. Leftover sticky residue can be removed by simply washing your face. I’m going to show you the results directly below since you won’t see much.

The two strips are white and have different shapes and sizes, due to one being designed to apply on the nose and the other on any other area of the face, which is also easy to cut to size using scissors. I have larger pores but thankfully, I don’t have a lot of trouble with blackheads or clogged pores.

What I noticed is that making my nose wet is not enough to thoroughly saturate the strips. When I use it the conventional way, the strip just doesn’t stick on that well so I personally like to apply some water on my finger and wet the strip on the top, fuzzy part until it’s completely saturated. I can definitely notice that it then activates the smooth side, which becomes really sticky. I used to other strip on my forehead, which is aside from my nose, the most oily and acne prone area of my face. After drying, the strips could be easily removed but unfortunately, it only removed a lot of hair instead of impurities. I’ve tried these several times and I continued to have the same results so these strips are not strong enough for my skin to remove the impurities in my pores.

The Bioré products that contain Charcoal are recommended for people who have a normal to oily skin type. The Active Charcoal in these products deeply cleanses the skin of dirt, oil and blackheads. The four products that are currently available are the Deep Pore Cleanser, Pore Minimizing Scrub, Self-heating 1-Minute Mask  and the Deep Cleansing Pore Strips.

The Bioré Deep Pore Cleanser with Charcoal (€8,99/200 mL) is a hypo-allergenic cleanser that according to the description, removes and absorbs twice more dirt and impurities compared to a regular cleanser. It purifies pores for a deeply cleansed face and a smooth skin. This cleanser can be used daily by pumping an amount on your hands until it foams while massaging the cleanser on the entire face, rinsing thoroughly using water afterwards.

The Bioré Deep Pore Cleanser with Charcoal  has a gel-like substance, a semi-transparent black base. The consistency of the cleanser is similar as the Baking Soda version, only not containing any scrub particles. It has the same, delicious scent and in addition, I also notice a minty scent and sensation, which makes the cleanser feel very refreshing after use. I have to say for both products, the scent is very strong but it doesn’t bother me at all, but keep that in mind if you’re sensitive to scents. This cleanser really feels like it deeply cleanses my skin but leaves my skin feeling dry, so I can definitely see that this would be more beneficial for an oily skin type. I do still like to use this cleanser when I have my oily days, especially during the Summer period but I personally don’t like to use this on a daily basis.

The Bioré Pore Minimizing Scrub with Charcoal (€10,99/125 g) is a hypo-allergenic scrub that activates in combination with water, deeply cleanses impurities, dirt and oils from pores. Natural micro-crystals smooth out the skin and minimizes pores visibly. This scrub can be used by first wetting your hands face with warm water, then taking an amount on your hands, rubbing them together to make the scrub foam and gently scrub your face. The scrub needs to be removed immediately after scrubbing with warm water. Use the scrub two to three times per week for best results.

The Bioré Pore Minimizing Scrub with Charcoal has a similar gel-like substance to the cleanser, also with the same scent and mint sensation and has a semi-transparent black base like the charcoal cleanser but also now contains scrub particles. These scrub particles are definitely rougher than the ones in the Cleanser with Baking Soda. I like to use this scrub when I have a bad skin day, where my skin just feels very oily and dirty. I can’t use this scrub as recommended because it isn’t compatible to my skin type, my skin feels super clean after using this cleanser however, I have a very dry cheek area, which will probably become drier than a desert if used two to three times per week. It doesn’t feel overly dry when using this cleanser though, it just feels like all oils have been stripped from my face but leaving a soft feeling instead of feeling overly dry.

The Bioré Self-heating 1-Minute Mask with Charcoal (€7,99) is an innovative, hypo-allergenic mask that cleanses pores in only one minute. The unique formula is self-heating when it comes to contact with water, which causes the pores to open to easily and deeply remove dirt and oils. that activates in combination with water, deeply cleanses impurities, dirt and oils from pores. Natural micro-crystals smooth out the skin and minimizes pores visibly. The mask needs to be activated with water, so before applying the mask on your face, wet your face and apply the mask using dry hands and disperse the mask over your entire face. You can add more water to spread the mask more easily. Massage the mask on your face for one minute. Massaging the mask with water on your face makes it heat up. The mask doesn’t harden so after one minute, rise thoroughly using water. You can use the mask for a maximum two to three times per week.

The Bioré Self-heating 1-Minute Mask with Charcoal is  a grey that has a very thick texture and has a slight scrubbing feeling. The mask immediately heats up as soon as I applied and started massaging. It is such a strange sensation to have to mask heat up like that! It feels definitely warm but not extremely hot. It has a subtle scent which smells similar like the cleansers and I also notice the minty  scent and sensation in the mask. After use, it really feels like it’s pulling all impurities to the surface of my skin. This is because sometimes when I use this mask, I get a bit more bumps instead of less so it might seem that it irritates my skin. However, these are bumps of impurities that were already present deep inside my skin which would normally surface at later time, but are now pulled up by the mask so it can clear up more quickly. It is however, very drying to my face, so I like to apply this mask to my problem areas, which is my nose and forehead. I also like to use this mask in combination for the nose strip as a preparation step to open up the pores.

The last product of the Charcoal line is the Bioré Deep Cleansing Pore Strips with Charcoal (€6,99). The pack contains six Nose Strips that work as a magnet to pick up dirt, oils and blackheads and unclog pores very thoroughly, resulting in a three times less oily skin after only one use. To use the strips, cleanse face and wet the nose area. Remove the protective film and press the smooth side firmly on the area of the face. Leave the strip for 10-15 minutes until it has hardened (feels like paper maché). Then, remove the strip by slowly peeling the edges and working your way trough the middle. Leftover sticky residue can be removed by simply washing your face.

Again, I didn’t think that the strip was wet enough the conventional so I used the same method as I did using the Baking Soda version. Be careful though, over-saturating the strip may cause it to not dry thus not being able to pull out the impurities. This strip works amazing for me. Like I’ve mentioned before, I don’t have many blackheads but a few of them came out when using this strip. I’ve also used it on my boyfriend, who has bigger pores and blackheads than me so I could take a picture of his strip results, you can check them out yourself by clicking HERE and a more close-up shot HERE.

I’m really impressed by all the Bioré products that I’ve tried so far and I can definitely see why this brand is already popular in some other countries. Even though some weren’t as compatible to my skin, I do still like to use them from time-to-time when my skin does get oily. I like to use the Pore Cleanser with Baking Soda on a daily basis, while using the scrubs depending which one I use on how my skin is looking weekly and the Self-heating 1-Minute Mask together with the Deep Cleansing Pore Strips with Charcoal from time-to-time.

If I would pick products to try out, I would definitely check out the Deep Cleansing Pore Strips with Charcoal in combination with the Self-heating 1-Minute Mask or one of the cleansers, depending on your skin type.

The Bioré Free Your Pores! Baking Soda and Charcoal Line is available at selected Etos and Kruidvat stores and online at Bol.com.

Have you tried any products from Bioré? Which prodict are you most interested in to try out?

*These products were given to me for review. Please check out my disclosure page for more information.