In this post, we will give you skin care tips and trick to reduce acne and minimize your large pores.
What are pores?
Pores are the little openings on our face that we like to complain about. They are very important for the healthy functioning of our skin because they produce sebum to protect your skin from dirt and bacteria in the environment.
There are actually teeny hair follicles with baby hair inside the pore which you can’t really see for the most part. Sebum is released to the surface of the skin through the pore. Pores are different from sweat pores, which only produce sweat from the glands. And only when the pore is trapped by dead skin, will comedones as whiteheads, blackheads or breakouts form inside the pore.
So a lot of you are probably wondering: why are my pores so big? So, generally speaking, it comes down to skin types. Here are some skin types:
Oily skin
People with more oily skin will generate more sebum in the pore. When the pore is filled with sebum, it will look larger. It’s kind of like filling up a pool.
Dry skin
Whereas people with dry skin, they already don’t produce as much sebum, to begin with; which is why that hair follicle or that pore size is already smaller. But then the other end of that just means that they have to work harder in restoring all the oil to their face. Otherwise, dry as a desert.
Combination skin
If you have combination skin, you will find that for the most part, just the pores around your t-zone will be enlarged compared to the rest of your face.
Face steaming
You can’t actually open or close a pore, because in order to do that you need a muscle, and there is no muscle surrounding your teeny tiny little pore. It’s basically got to do with temperature. When it’s hot, your skin as an organ expands, and it will like to magnify that hole which is the pore.
And then when it’s cold it will contract. And so what face steaming does is it’s basically using hot steam and opening your pore so that it will loosen the debris that’s actually filling the pore inside, which is like dirt, oil, whiteheads, blackheads and makes it easier to do things like extraction.
Steaming at home:
Fill your sink with hot water. You can boil some, but hot water from the tap works perfectly fine as well. Then you want to cover your head with a towel for 3 to 5 minutes. However long is comfortable for you. And if you find that it’s a little too hard to breathe, just like open the towel up a little and let that air through.
And you’ll find that very quickly your face will feel hot, you’ll start sweating, and this is actually really great because sweat expels a lot of toxins from the face as well. So not only are you opening the pores. But you’re also getting rid of that gunk. Doing this is one method, but it’s the same as having a bath or a shower. So you don’t have to do this if you just came out of the bath or the shower because it’s the same thing.
You will be able to clear your sinuses, as well, as you’re doing this. And if you just can’t be bothered with filling your sink with water and, you know, draping a towel over your head and putting your face over it, you could also get a face towel and wet it with hot water. Wring it, and then just put it over wherever you want to extract. Put it over here for like a minute or something.
Extraction
You guys have probably seen this tool around. It’s basically a metal rod with a loop on one end and a more rounded spoon extractor, which has a teeny tiny hole in the middle. This tool is used to extract the comedo, which is just a fancy medical term for pimple. And these include blackheads, whiteheads.
So when you’re once clean pores are trapped by dead skin, things like oil and bacteria start to build up inside which forms these pimples or forms these blackheads or whiteheads, which is when you use a tool to extract.
And the difference between a whitehead, a blackhead and like a pimple, for example, is a whitehead is contained. It’s not exposed to air, so it’s still under the skin. It’s just, like, slowly building up. And then a blackhead isn’t black because it’s dirty. It’s because it’s actually been exposed to air, and air oxidizes make it black. Then a pimple is just more of that pussy build up inside. If you use it properly, get this out, very gently.
Skin care
The most important thing when it comes to minimizing your pores. We are gonna focus on serums. Serums are these jam-packed concentrated little bottles of magic that are filled with active ingredients to help you target specific skin care concerns.
And there’s a lot of products for pore care. So if pores are our main concern, you want to find something that is very hydrating as well as helps with the blurring of the pores.
So it’s important to use pore control serums after you’ve just extracted all the nasties from your pores. Apart from that, it actually has mattifying powders in it, but also light enhancing pigments, so that it does kind of like manipulate lighting when it’s shining onto your face.
It’s also got the key ingredients of Tamarind pulp acid; and this is an Alpha Hydroxy Acid, which we know is a chemical exfoliant that helps to unclog the pores. Also, reduce age-related spots and blemishes and keep the skin clear. And tamarind also has a lot of antioxidants In it that help with free radicals, kind of like vitamin C.
Tamarind naturally exfoliates pore-clogging debris to help smooth and refine skin’s texture, for a boost of radiance. There’s also Vine Flower, which helps to tighten and reduce the look of enlarged pores. And there’s also an organic strawberry tree, which helps regulate oil production to reduce the appearance of dilated pores.
Dry skin or large pores
For dry skin and large pores, you can try skipping cleansing in the morning and instead use something like beauty water or micellar water to just kind of take off. And then after just follow with your skincare routine. And for dry skin, serums are a must because it helps you nourish and hydrate your skin before you lock everything in with a moisturizer. Because if you don’t have the under layers, your moisturizer could potentially not be enough for dry skin.
Oily skin
But for oily skin, it’s almost exactly the same. You want to keep it hydrated because the hydration and the moisture will then tell your pores to not make as much oil, which means it will then be smaller. And it’s not filled with a lot of like excess sebum.
Sugar, hormones & large pores
Though, it’s not that sugar itself causes acne. It’s actually what happens when we eat it, and how our body reacts to it that actually causes the breakouts. So if you’re overindulging in sweets, it doesn’t really matter what you follow up with skincare. Because if your body isn’t happy with what you’re consuming, which is a lot of refined sugar, then, you know, it’s not going to be happy outside either.
Sugar has a high glycemic index. And the glycemic index is basically the ranking for foods based on their sugar level. And sugar level affects our hormones.
How exactly does it affect our hormones?
When you eat certain foods that are high in sugar, particularly refined sugar, your body quickly converts this into glucose, which then goes into your bloodstream. This makes insulin levels in your body increase, and insulin is a hormonal response to sugar in the bloodstream. Then when your insulin spikes, this is directly linked to the receptors that are connected to the pores, and it will signal the pores to produce more oils. So the oils in the pores increase, which makes them appear larger. And then when the pores are larger, you’re also increasing the risk that they get filled with dead skin, debris and dirt, which then makes you break out more.
But it’s not even just the pores that get affected. When your insulin goes up, your body goes into fat storing mode. Which is why high sugar diets cause very rapid weight gain, and why you can’t lose weight without reducing the amount of sugar you’re consuming. No loss, no gain! If you want to have clear skin, you’ve got to cut out the sugar.