Enlarged Pores – everything you need to know!

Enlarged Pores on the face are the bane of many people’s lives. Feeling like everyone is looking at their orange peel skin is just too much.

Ask yourself though, have you ever noticed anyone else’s facial pores?

Unless you are a skin therapist, I doubt it very much.

Pores on your skin are an essential part of being alive. Serving a purpose, they are the door in which substances from the body can reach the surface of the skin. Always “open,” just are different sizes and can be more visible in different parts of the body.

They take toxins from the body.
Help to regulate our temperature by allowing sweat to cool the skin’s surface.
Sebum is excreted onto the skin’s surface to keep it moist, to lock in water on the surface and so keeps our skin from feeling dry and rough.
Sebum also protects us from bacterial and fungal infections.

You can see why sebum, though if you suffer from acne you probably hate it, is an essential factor in the overall health of our skin. It is made up of fatty acids, triglycerides, squalene and cholesterol – all ingredients you’ll find on the labels of products combating dehydration and breakouts.

And you can see why our pores are there for a reason.

Why are some more noticeable than others?

Our face has around 300,000 pores, our bodies around 5 million so relatively speaking the ones around your nose, on your chin and over your cheeks, forehead and nose are just a drop in the ocean of facial openings.
People with oily skins often have Enlarged Pores in these areas and as we age pores naturally stretch as our skin loses its elasticity.
The main causes of having noticeably enlarged pores are;
- Genetics – if your parent(s) have enlarged pores, you probably will too.
- Oily skin – you have larger pores naturally.
- Gender – men are more likely than women. 😊
- Ageing – oh dear!
- Sun damage – mainly preventable…
- Any or all of the above.

If you do have oily skin, you’ll have Enlarged Pores for the added oil to pass through.

Sebum and dirt collect around the pore, it swells – looks larger and then the excess is likely to clog and you see a blackhead, a whitehead or simply a bump under the skin. The pore is clogged which enlarges it even further (even if you extract the gunk) and if the mess gets infected you end up with a pimple. Even without that end result, your skin’s texture and the look is not what you want.

If you are ageing, and I hope you are (‘cos the alternative isn’t so good), your skin will lose some elasticity every year from around age 25. This makes your pores look larger and and then as your cell turnover slows you’ll have more dead cells on the surface, stretching them even further and making them look even larger. Combined with menopausal hormone changes influencing your skin – you may develop breakouts – for the first time in your life!

UV or sun damage just makes all this happen even faster!!

Can Enlarged Pores be minimised or made to disappear?

YES & NO – they cannot be eradicated!

We need them to survive, but they can be made less noticeable. Here’s what you need to do:

Keep skin Hydrated.
- A well hydrated skin will have pores with “nice walls” which are strong and will resist stretching and collapsing.
- Sebum will have good regulation.
Keep skin clean, but not scrubbed.
- Use an enzyme action mask and cleanser rather then something which is harsh on your skin. Traumatizing the skin, or “taking the top” off a hole will not create a healthy pore, just makes it look smaller for a short time.
- The skin naturally exfoliates so if pores are clean they will regulate themselves.
UV and environmental protection.
- Prevent damage to the collagen around your pores by using a sunblock every day.
Using serums with antioxidants, peptides, DNA repair ingredients will restore a lot of elasticity and reverse where possible and over time, damage done to the deeper collagen layers giving you a more plumped skin which helps to maintain the pore shape.

The Products we recommend for Enlarged Pores include

Cleansers and masks/exfoliants – any from our shop.
UV protection – any from our shop.
Hydration and serums. These work together and if your skin is healthy, feels smooth, is supple and elastic you just need to maintain it using daily Vitamin A, Vitamin C and Vitamin B and as many other antioxidants as you can plus be healthy on the inside.

Specific products to minimise the appearance of your pores

Osmosis MD Rescue serum and StemFactor.

Enjoy using the products – you’ll notice more than just the Enlarged Pores looking better!

Still not sure?

If you need more help or would like personalised advice, book now for your consultation with a skin care advisor. Offering information on what skincare products are best for you. Check out our range of in-clinic services today.

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Otherwise fill in the Online Skin Consultation. Our skin care advisor will happily help you. Choosing the right treatments and products for your skin type or concern.

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