Breathe Right alternatives: reusable and magnetic options in the UK

Breathe Right alternatives at a glance

You can buy three kinds of Breathe Right alternative in the UK: other adhesive strips, a dilator worn inside the nostrils, and magnetic systems with a reusable clip or band.

Strips and internal dilators

Magnetic systems

How we chose

We judged every option on the same criteria we use for all our comparisons: fit and sizing, what's in the box, ongoing cost per night, adhesion support, guarantee and returns, UK availability and delivery, subscription flexibility, and published evidence.

Every price comes from the brand's own pages or a UK retailer's listing, checked on 27 October 2026. For Breathe Right we used the standard prices on Boots' own listings and left out its multi-buy offer. Other brands' prices are what their own sites charged, including their bundle and subscription prices. Where a single pack was on sale, we used its regular price. Costs are for one person: one strip or one pair of stickers or tabs a night, or a Mute dilator worn for up to 10 nights.

We didn't test airflow, how firmly anything holds or how comfortable it is, so none of those has a winner. Chemists and supermarkets also sell own-brand strips, which we haven't checked or priced.

Why people look for a Breathe Right alternative

The commonest complaints are about the adhesive, the cost and taking the strip off. On Amazon UK, the "customers say" summary across five of Breathe Right's main listings (8,969 ratings) counts 407 mentions of adhesiveness, and 240 of them are negative. It counts 241 mentions of value for money, and 156 of those are negative. Amazon tags these automatically; we didn't sort them.

We also read 125 reviews that Amazon picked as top reviews, so they aren't a random sample. Twelve said the strip hurt or was hard to take off. Breathe Right's FAQ says the strips won't hold on wet, oily or moisturised skin. And because each strip is single use, you pay again every night.

Plenty of reviewers are happy, though. Of the 88 four- and five-star reviews in that sample, 37 praised how well the strip stays on all night.

Where Breathe Right wins

You can buy it today. Boots, Superdrug, Tesco, Sainsbury's and many other chemists and supermarkets stock it, so there's nothing to order or wait for.

There's no kit to buy upfront and no subscription. A 30-pack of Original Small/Medium strips is £13.99 at Boots, or £0.47 a night, which is less per night than any Airlift starter or plan.

The brand goes back to the early 1990s, and you can choose between Original and Clear, each in Small/Medium or Large, and Extra Strength in one size.

Its FAQ explains how to put a strip on and take it off, sets a 12-hour daily limit, and says plainly what the strips aren't for.

If you want something reusable: magnetic systems

Magnetic systems are the main reusable alternative to Breathe Right, and they still use adhesive. A reusable clip or band sits across the front of the nose and clicks onto two small single-use stickers or tabs, one on each side of the nose, each holding a thin metal disc. You put on a fresh pair every night. What changes is where the adhesive goes: beside the nostrils, with no strip across the bridge and nothing inside the nose.

The first month costs more than strips, because you're buying the clip or band as well. After that you only buy stickers or tabs. We compare the two formats in magnetic vs adhesive nasal strips and cover more brands in the best magnetic nasal strips in the UK.

Airlift

Airlift is a rigid clip with magnets that sits across the front of the nose on two single-use stickers. We make it.

It suits you if you want something reusable, don't want to guess your size, and want time to try it at home. Every starter box has all five clip sizes, XS to XL, plus a magnetic applicator. Complete and Ultimate come with 30 alcohol prep pads for every 30 nights, which clear oil from the skin before the stickers go on. The adhesive is latex-free. Under the 90-Night Airlift Test, you email within 90 days of receiving your order and get back everything you paid, delivery included. You keep the clip and send nothing back, once per customer. It's sold by a UK company, with prices in pounds, no import charges and same-day dispatch on weekday orders before 3:30pm.

Airlift has no Trustpilot reviews yet, and its company was set up in November 2024. It's sold only on its own website, to UK addresses. It costs more per night than Breathe Right and the cheaper strips. There's no sport version, and there's no published, independent study of it.

The Complete starter is £33 for 30 nights, plus £5 delivery. The Complete Annual plan is £240 a year, with the clip and prep pads included. Every subscription order ships free by next-day delivery, with no minimum spend. If you already have a clip, stickers on their own fall to £0.51 a night on Airlift's 360-night stickers pack.

NoseStrip

NoseStrip is a reusable magnetic band on single-use adhesive tabs, sold from nosestrip.co.uk. It suits you if you want the lowest refill cost of any magnetic system here and don't mind waiting for delivery.

All four band sizes come in the box, along with an applicator. Delivery is free with no minimum spend. Its 90-night refill is £23.99, or £0.27 a night, the cheapest magnetic refill we priced. The 30-night starter is £26.99 (£0.90 a night).

Orders take 1 to 3 business days to process, then 7 to 15 business days to arrive. There's no guarantee or subscription, and returns must be unused, in their original packaging, with you paying the postage. Its box lists "15 or 30" tabs while its instructions use two a night, so a pack may cover fewer nights than the label says. Our figures use NoseStrip's own night counts.

Intake Breathing

Intake is a reusable magnetic band on single-use tabs, made by a US company that started in 2019. It suits you if you want the longest track record of the magnetic brands, or a tab made for sport.

Its starter page shows 2,103 reviews averaging 4.4 out of 5. It makes Sport Tabs with what it describes as a stronger adhesive for sweat, and its 360-night refill is £229 (£0.64 a night). Healf, a UK retailer, sells its refills at £29.99 for 30, or £26.99 on subscription.

The starter is the expensive part. On Intake's UK store it's £64.99 for 30 nights in black (£2.17 a night), shipped from the US by courier in 3 to 6 business days. Intake gives no UK delivery price in pounds (its help centre says $18 to $25 outside the US), says it isn't responsible for charges added after purchase, and doesn't refund the original shipping or any duties on an international return. The kit has four of its six band sizes, and its 90-day guarantee needs the band and kit sent back. We compare it with Airlift in detail in Airlift vs Intake Breathing.

For most UK buyers, Airlift wins this round: every size in the box, prep pads, a refund with nothing to send back, and UK delivery in an estimated 1 to 2 working days from dispatch. NoseStrip has the cheapest refills, and Intake the longest track record.

If it's the price: cheaper strips

The cheapest alternatives are other single-use adhesive strips. Bought in bulk, they cost less per night than anything else in this article, including Breathe Right, Mute and every magnetic system.

MaxFlow, sold by NasalStrip.uk, is £9.99 for 30 strips (£0.33 a night), plus £3.99 delivery on orders under £25. Its 12-pack bundle is £59.94 for 360 strips, or £0.17 a night, delivered free. It comes in one size, and it has a 30-night money-back guarantee, though only one opened pack of each product is refunded and delivery isn't.

DreamFlow, from SleepyDeepy, is £12.99 for 30 at its regular price (£0.43 a night). On its subscription builder, 12 packs a delivery cost £72, or £0.20 a night, with free delivery and no minimum term. It doesn't publish sizes, and its refund policy lists the strips as non-returnable once opened.

Both offer same-day dispatch on orders placed before early afternoon: 2pm on weekdays for MaxFlow, 1pm for DreamFlow. Neither is sold in shops, so you'll wait a few days for delivery.

MaxFlow and DreamFlow win this round. If cost is why you're leaving Breathe Right, no reusable option comes close on a starter or over a year.

If you want no adhesive at all: internal dilators

Mute is the clearest choice if you want nothing stuck to your skin. It's a soft, clear dilator that sits inside the nostrils, joined by a small bridge across the middle of the nose. There's no adhesive and no magnet.

The starter pack is £14.99 for one small, one medium and one large dilator. Each lasts up to 10 nights, so the starter works out at £0.50 a night only if all three sizes fit you. If only one fits, you get 10 nights from it. After that, a 3-pack in your size is £19.99 (£0.67 a night), or £17.99 on subscription (£0.60). Delivery from its UK site is £5 on orders under £40. It's also on Amazon UK, where it has been listed since 2015 and has 18,659 ratings averaging 3.7 out of 5.

The evidence leans Mute's way on format. A 2026 review by UK surgeons found most research is on adhesive strips such as Breathe Right, and that devices worn inside the nostril tended to perform better than external ones.^[1]

The trade-off is comfort inside the nose. On Mute's own website, 45 of the 76 reviews rated one to three stars mention discomfort or pain inside the nose. Those reviews come from all of Mute's markets, not just the UK. Mute wins this round. To see how it compares with a magnetic clip, read Airlift vs Mute. For strips and dilators in general, see nasal strips vs nasal dilators.

If you want a stronger hold

There's no winner: no comparable test data. Breathe Right says Extra Strength is 50% stronger than Original but doesn't publish how it measured that. Intake sells Sport Tabs with what it describes as a stronger three-layer adhesive. No brand here, Airlift included, publishes a hold test. We set out all three side by side in Breathe Right vs Intake vs Airlift.

If the strip hurts your skin

If adhesive is the problem, Mute is the only option here with none at all. Every strip and every magnetic system in this article sticks something to your skin.

Breathe Right sells Clear strips for dry or sensitive skin, though it publishes no test data behind that. Boots' listing for the Original 30-pack says not to use the strips if you're allergic to latex (checked 27 October 2026). MaxFlow, DreamFlow, Intake and Airlift all describe their adhesive as latex-free. We look at what UK listings say in are Breathe Right strips latex-free?

If you'd rather keep adhesive off the bridge of your nose, Airlift's two small stickers sit at the sides of the nose instead, and Airlift suggests trying one sticker first if your skin is sensitive. It hasn't published skin test data, so we make no claim that any option here is kinder to skin.

What it costs over 12 months

Over a year, the cheaper strips and Breathe Right cost less than Airlift. This table uses each competitor's cheapest published route for a new buyer and two Airlift routes, one-time and the Annual plan, with our own arithmetic on the prices above.

Apart from Intake, Airlift's Annual plan is the dearest option here per night. Bought one-time, Airlift works out at £0.56 a night over the year, less per night than Mute or Intake, though prep pads come with the first 30 nights only. On the Annual plan you get a reusable clip in every size, prep pads with every delivery, UK delivery and a refund you can claim without posting anything back.

What the evidence says

Most of the research is on adhesive strips, and it doesn't tell you which alternative to buy. In a 1999 lab study of 20 adults, a nasal strip raised peak airflow when breathing in hard through the nose by about 12%.^[2] A 2016 review of 33 over-the-counter nasal dilators, none of them magnetic, found published evidence of better airflow for external strips and nasal clips.^[3]

The sleep results for strips are weaker. A 2016 review of 14 studies found strips made no significant difference to snoring measured in sleep labs.^[4] In two GSK-funded trials involving 270 adults with night-time congestion, Breathe Right strips didn't improve sleep problems or morning tiredness compared with a dummy strip, though both groups felt better than before the trials began.^[5] We cover the snoring evidence in more depth in the best nasal strips for snoring in the UK.

We could find no published, independent study of any magnetic nasal dilator, including Airlift's. A 2026 review by UK surgeons reached the same conclusion.^[1] So the strip studies above can't be borrowed for Airlift or any other magnetic system. Intake cites a home sleep study it commissioned from SleepScore Labs. The participant numbers, methods and full results haven't been published, so we can't assess it. For more, see do magnetic nasal strips work? and our science page.

Feeling clearer isn't the same as a measured change, either. In several studies, people felt their nose was clearer without a matching change in the measurements, or the other way round.^[1]

Is mouth tape a replacement for nasal strips?

No. Mouth tape keeps the mouth closed, but it doesn't open the nose. A 2025 review of 10 small studies found little good evidence that mouth taping helps, and warned it could be dangerous for people whose nose is blocked.^[6] For why mouth breathing at night happens, read why you mouth breathe at night.

Airlift's Ultimate system includes mouth tape alongside the clip, stickers and prep pads. We make no claim about what the tape does.

Will any alternative fix a deviated septum?

No. None of these products changes the structure of the nose. A strip, dilator or clip acts on the nostrils only while you wear it, and Breathe Right's own UK site says its strips are no substitute for septum surgery.

Which alternative should you choose?

It depends on why you're leaving Breathe Right. Some people should stay with it.

Choose Airlift if

• you want something reusable, with every size in the box and no strip across the bridge
• you want 90 nights to try the Complete starter, with nothing to post back

Stay with Breathe Right if

• it already works for you and the cost doesn't bother you
• you want to buy in a shop today, with nothing to wait for

Choose MaxFlow or DreamFlow if

• you want the lowest cost per night and are happy with a single-use strip
• you're fine ordering online and waiting a few days

Choose Mute if

• you want no adhesive on your skin at all
• you're comfortable with a device inside your nostrils

Choose NoseStrip or Intake if

• you want the cheapest magnetic refills and can wait for delivery (NoseStrip)
• you want the longest track record or a tab made for sport (Intake)

Sources checked

All checked on 27 October 2026.

1. Breathe Right UK: FAQs, products, Original, Clear, Extra Strength and terms of use: range, sizes, single use, skin guidance, stockists, the septum line, the Extra Strength claim and the absence of a brand guarantee.
2. Boots listings for Breathe Right Original Small/Medium 30 and Extra Strength 26: standard prices and the latex warning, checked in a browser.
3. Breathe Right on Amazon UK, including Original Large 30 and Original Small/Medium 30: Amazon's "customers say" counts and the 125 top reviews we read.
4. MaxFlow (NasalStrip.uk): product page, refund policy and shipping policy: prices, size, guarantee and delivery.
5. DreamFlow (SleepyDeepy): product page, subscription builder, refund policy and shipping policy: prices, returns and delivery.
6. Mute: starter pack, medium 3-pack, FAQ, returns policy and Amazon UK listing: format, sizes, prices, guarantee, delivery, ratings and the reviews on its own site.
7. NoseStrip: starter, refills, refund policy and shipping policy: format, sizes, prices, returns and delivery.
8. Intake Breathing: starter kit, UK store, refill packs, guarantee, international shipping, Sport Tabs FAQ and Healf's Intake range: sizes, prices, guarantee, delivery and review count.
9. Airlift's shop, refills, refunds, shipping and help pages: Airlift's products, prices and policies.

Questions people ask