Nasal strips and makeup: how to wear them with your skincare routine

You can use nasal strips alongside makeup and skincare, as long as the strip goes onto a clean, bare nose and everything else goes around it. Foundation, moisturizer and sunscreen all leave a film that stops the adhesive from gripping. At night that means cleansing first, and in the day it means doing your nose before your makeup.

Here's how to fit a strip into a night routine, wear one in the day, take it off gently and use one for workouts.

Can you wear a nasal strip with makeup on?

You can wear a nasal strip with makeup on the rest of your face, but not with makeup under the strip. Strip makers say the adhesive won't stick properly to wet, oily or moisturized skin. Most base products, from primer and foundation to tinted moisturizer and SPF, are designed to leave exactly that kind of film, so a strip pressed on top of them grips the makeup rather than your skin and tends to lift at the ends.

The workaround is to swap the order. Wash and dry the strip area, put the strip on, and then do your makeup around it. Keep liquid products a little way back from the strip's edges, because they can creep underneath. A light dusting of powder near the strip is less likely to cause trouble than a liquid, though nobody has studied this, so treat it as a practical tip rather than a rule.

There's no research on nasal strips and cosmetics. The advice here comes from strip makers' instructions, dermatologists' guidance on cleansing and skincare, and clinical guidance on medical adhesives.

How do you fit a nasal strip into a night skincare routine?

You fit a nasal strip into a night routine by putting it on straight after cleansing, before any serums, treatments or creams. The American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) recommends applying products in this order: wash your face with a gentle cleanser and pat dry, apply any medication or treatment, then moisturizer and sunscreen, then makeup if you want it. A strip slots in neatly after the first step.

1. Take off all your makeup. The AAD says not to sleep in makeup and to always remove it before bed. It also says to resist scrubbing, even to remove makeup, because scrubbing irritates the skin.
2. Wash with a gentle cleanser. The AAD's face washing advice is a gentle, non-abrasive cleanser that doesn't contain alcohol, applied with your fingertips and rinsed with lukewarm water. If you use an oil or balm to dissolve makeup first, follow it with a gentle wash so no oily film is left on your nose. For oily skin, the AAD recommends a gentle foaming face wash.
3. Pat your nose completely dry with a soft towel.
4. Put the strip on just above the flare of your nostrils and press both ends down. A 2025 evidence summary on medical adhesives advises applying adhesives to dry skin, without tension and with gentle pressure.
5. Apply your treatments and moisturizer to the rest of your face, steering around the strip.

If you're also taping your mouth, our guide to fitting mouth tape into your skincare routine covers retinoids, face oils and lip care. For more on oil and adhesives, see nasal strips on oily skin.

How do you wear a nasal strip during the day?

You wear a nasal strip during the day the same way you would at night: on a clean, dry nose, applied before anything else touches it. The AAD's order still works if you put the strip on after cleansing and then apply moisturizer, sunscreen and makeup around it.

Sunscreen is the one product people are reluctant to skip, and you don't have to skip it on your face. Just keep it off the small patch where the strip's pads sit, and remember that the strip covers part of your nose. If you'll be outside for long, think about shade or a hat for that area. Strip makers say not to use a strip over sores, sunburned or irritated skin, so a burned nose means a break from strips.

Strip makers also say not to wear a strip for more than 12 hours a day and that each one is single use. If you take one off at lunchtime, use a fresh strip rather than pressing the old one back on. How long can you wear a nasal strip? has more on timing.

For daytime and night use, TitanAir Nasal Strips come with instructions to apply them to clean, dry skin and skip moisturizer, which fits the order above.

How do you remove a nasal strip without wrecking your skin?

You remove a nasal strip gently by wetting it first and peeling it slowly. Strip makers suggest washing your face with warm water for about 10 seconds and then gently lifting each side, or taking the strip off in the shower. The 2025 adhesive summary also advises moistening the skin before removal and peeling at a low angle, close to the skin, rather than pulling straight up.

That fits naturally into your cleanse. At night, take the strip off as part of washing your face the next morning. After a workout or a day out, remove it at the sink while you cleanse, then carry on with the rest of your routine once your nose is dry. If there's adhesive left behind, our guide to removing nasal strip residue covers gentle ways to lift it.

Watch how your skin responds over the first week. Strip makers say an application site reaction such as redness, irritation, pain or peeling can happen, and to stop if it does. Nasal strip skin irritation explains how to tell normal pinkness from a problem, and nasal strips for sensitive skin covers what to look for if your skin reacts easily.

Can you wear a nasal strip for workouts?

You can wear a nasal strip for workouts, and a bare nose gives it the best grip. In a small 1999 study in the Canadian Journal of Applied Physiology, a strip lowered nasal resistance and delayed the point where people switched from breathing only through the nose to breathing through the mouth by 15.2%. The authors called the delay relatively small, so think of a strip as making nose breathing a little easier rather than a performance boost. Our guide to nasal strips for exercise covers the wider research, which is mixed.

The AAD advises washing your face after sweating heavily and as soon as possible afterwards, noting that perspiration, especially under a hat or helmet, irritates the skin. That's a good reason to train with little or no makeup, put the strip on a freshly washed nose before you warm up and take it off with warm water when you wash afterwards.

If you wear sunscreen for outdoor sessions, the AAD says no sunscreen is "waterproof" or "sweatproof" and advises reapplying about every two hours outdoors and after swimming or sweating. Reapply around the strip, not over it.

What does a routine look like in practice?

This table pulls the steps together for the most common situations.

When should you see a doctor?

See a GP or dermatologist if your skin reacts to a strip and doesn't settle when you stop. The NHS says contact dermatitis can make skin itchy, blistered, dry and cracked, and that it can be triggered by irritants such as soaps and detergents or by allergens in products such as cosmetics. It advises seeing a GP if symptoms are persistent, recurrent or severe. If a reaction keeps coming back, try removing one product at a time to find the culprit.

It's also worth seeing a doctor if your nose stays blocked for weeks, if one side is always blocked, or if you snore loudly and also stop breathing, gasp or feel very sleepy in the day, which the NHS lists among the symptoms of sleep apnoea. If you're pregnant, ask your midwife or doctor before adding new products for breathing at night.

Our pick (paid partner): TitanAir Nasal Strips

Our pick for a strip that fits around a skincare routine is TitanAir Nasal Strips. This is our recommendation, not the result of testing or ranking strips ourselves, and Titan's strips weren't used in any study mentioned here.

Titan says the strips are drug-free external nasal dilators with flexible spring-loaded bands. Its instructions match the routine above: wash and dry the nose, skip moisturizer, place the strip just above the flare of the nostrils on the soft part of the nose, and remove it by loosening with warm water and peeling slowly from the ends inward. Titan says every batch is third-party tested and certified PFAS-free, and its 30-night guarantee gives you time to see how TitanAir sits with your routine.

Read next

• How to apply nasal strips the right way
• The best nasal strips for women
• Nasal strips vs pore strips

* This content is for informational and educational purposes only and is not medical advice. It is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease or health condition. Talk to a qualified healthcare provider about your health.