Face Blok Update | Shark Tank Season 1

Irina Blok noticed the serious and gloomy mood caused by everyone having to wear plain surgical masks during the 2009 swine flu outbreak. To address this, she created Face Blok, a line of fun and attractive masks designed to lift spirits and bring joy in stressful situations. Will the sharks find her business worth investing in? Find out in our Face Blok update and pitch recap.

If you’re short on time, here’s a quick overview of what happened to Face Blok after Shark Tank. 

Irina entered Shark Tank Season 1, seeking $50,000 for 30% equity in her fashionable surgical mask business. After her presentation, she left without securing a deal.

In terms of a Face Blok update, the company is no longer in business. However, Irina has shifted her creative focus to designing greeting cards, logos, videos, and websites. Notably, her portfolio includes the iconic Google Android logo. Through these endeavors, she has accumulated an estimated net worth of $5 million.

Shark	Result
Robert Herjavec	No offer
Kevin O’Leary	No offer
Kevin Harrington	No offer
Daymond John	No offer
Barbara Corcoran	No offer

Shark Tank Face Blok Pitch

• Entrepreneur: Irina Blok
• Business: Fashionable surgical masks  
• Ask: $50,000 for 30% equity
• Result: No deal
• Sharks: None

Irina stepped into Shark Tank wearing one of her whimsical designer surgical masks. She started her pitch with a playful “oink!” while wearing a pig-themed mask.

She sought an investment from the sharks to meet surgical standards and expand her product line. 

With this investment, Irina hoped to start a new trend and make face masks exciting.

Face Blok is a novelty surgical mask designed to add a touch of fun and personality to typically mundane medical items.

In addition, the masks have unique and fun designs, with playful features like animal noses or colorful, quirky patterns. 

The product aims to uplift the spirits of both patients and healthcare workers, providing a brief moment of cheer and escape from the often stressful healthcare environment. 

Moreover, while maintaining necessary medical standards for protection, Face Blok masks offer a distinctive and expressive alternative to traditional surgical masks.

The sharks wanted to know if Irina had any interest or orders for her product. 

She responded that when the masks were featured on Fox and the Sydney Morning Herald, her website received over 700,000 hits, and she got a call from a major pediatric hospital. 

However, her sales were less impressive, with only 200 Face Blok masks sold. 

The sharks were clearly not impressed by the low sales and the news that there were no standing orders for the masks.

Since Irina didn’t have many sales, the sharks had a hard time considering an investment. 

Robert Herjavec said that Face Blok wasn’t even really a company but rather a product in the prototype phase of development, and he dropped out. 

Barbara Corcoran found the masks “freaky” and dropped out as well. 

Meanwhile, Kevin Harrington described the masks as a “novelty item, not a serious item” and declined to offer a deal. 

Daymond John agreed with Kevin’s assessment and exited the negotiations, too. 

In turn, Kevin O’Leary said the masks are unique but not an investable idea. He was the last shark to withdraw from the negotiations.

With no offer from any of the sharks, Irina left without a deal. 

What happened next for her company? Keep reading our Face Blok update to find out.

Shark Tank Face Blok Update

Our Face Blok update research found that while the company never took off, Irina added the Face Blok designs to her portfolio, which helped generate more business in the design field.

Through her exposure from Shark Tank, she promoted her personal website, where she still showcased her design ideas. 

Later on, during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, our Face Blok update found that Irina stopped selling masks and instead focused on making greeting cards and a series of drawings about life during COVID-19. 

These drawings became well-known and gained international recognition.

As of July 2021, Irina remains active online, creating logos, videos, and web designs for various companies.

Significantly, she went on to make the globally recognized Google Android logo. 

With an estimated net worth of $5 million, Irina’s story continues to evolve beyond Face Blok.

This is our final Face Blok update.

Would you like to learn about the other companies featured in Season 1, Episode 5? Follow the links below for our other company updates from the episode.

• Body Jac Update
• Granola Gourmet Update
• Good Grief Celebrations Update
• My Therapy Journal Update

Before you go, check out our Shark Tank Season 1 page for more updates