best products to shrink pores and help w/ black heads

[AroModerator]

It’s a myth that pores open and close, they simply do not have the physical ability to do this.

Reality is, if minimising pores was as simple as whipped egg whites and lemon juice then there’d be numerous over priced products on the market with these ingredients and the claim that it does so. However, there are no products on the market that make such a claim, all of them only claim to minimise the appearance.

[JessicaAllisonModerator]

Aro is absolutely right, pores do not “open and close”, and there are very few ways to physically, permanently make the pores smaller. I actually had someone ask me this question on my blog a while ago, and I did a post on it. Basically, there are two ingredients that may help in the pore reduction area- salicylic acid and retinol.

Salicylic acid (aka. beta hydroxy acid or BHA) is a chemical exfoliant that’s oil soluble, so it can actually dissolve and remove the gunk in your pores that’s stretching them out and making them look larger.

Retinol increases the rate at which your skin renews itself and encourages your skin to produce healthier cells; it can actually strengthen and tighten the skin. Tighter skin means smaller pores!

There is also some evidence that fractional CO2 laser treatments or photodynamic therapy (PDT) may be options, but this isn’t widely agreed upon by experts, and of course, it’s pretty invasive.

Here’s the link to the post I did on the topic, if anyone wants more details:

http://outinapout.blogspot.com/2011/12/ask-outinapout-do-pore-minimizers.html

I do get where Sophie is coming from with the mask: Albumen (egg white) will cause the skin to temporarily constrict, making it feel tighter and perhaps smoother. Lemon juice contains citric acid, an AHA, which exfoliates, but since AHAs aren’t oil soluble, it can’t actually clear out the pore like BHA.

Keep in mind, both lemon juice and albumin are skin irritants. The oatmeal is probably in the mix to soothe away some of that irritation, but there’s no telling how much. I personally wouldn’t use the mask, but I have no doubt that some people could use it and feel like they’re seeing results- and honestly, since most of the “pore minimizers” on the market are total bunk, the results probably aren’t very different than what those people were seeing with a $70 serum.

Personally, I’d follow where the science goes and stick with the BHA and retinol

[misscarrionGeek]

If you want something short term to hide pores while you’ve got makeup on, the Za Pore Smoother is amazing – I mainly use it because it absorbs oil incredibly well, and I have pretty oily skin, but it really does smooth over pores and make them less visible under makeup. And I haven’t had any problems with it causing breakouts in the areas I’ve been using it; if you’ve got really sensitive skin, or skin that flares up with new products, then you might want to be careful, but since Za isn’t too expensive it could be an option you look into. I know Moisture Mist does one as well, but they’re a New Zealand only line I think…

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