How To To Minimise The Appearance Of Pores

While you cannot reduce your pore size permanently, you can minimise their appearance by keeping your skin clear of oil, and by boosting your skin's collagen levels. So, while we cannot eliminate our pores, here are some top tips that will make them appear smaller.

1. Be sure to wear SPF

It's important to use SPF daily for many reasons, but one is that the sun's harmful UV rays can loosen your skin's collagen and elastin, which leaves larger pores and stretchier skin. To avoid this, be sure to use a minimum of SPF 30 every morning.

2. Use Acids

AHAS (Alpha hydroxy acids) and BHAS (beta hydroxy acids) can help unclog your pores, making them look smaller. The acids exfoliate the skin on a cellular level. Try a product with glycolic acid (AHA), which can help the surface of your skin appear brighter, and salicylic acid (BHA) product, which will penetrate the skin at a deeper level to remove dead skin cells. Just remember, if using skincare with an acid in, it is important to wear sunscreen everyday as the acids make your skin more sensitive to the sun.

3. Cleanse daily

Cleansing your skin will keep the pores clean, and harder to spot. If you only cleanse once a day, choose night-time so you can free your pores of the daily build-up.

4. Try a clay mask

A clay mask can help unclog pores by absorbing out the oil. Oily skin can make pores look a lot larger than they actually are. Before you are tempted to pick at the pores, try a clay mask. We love TEMPLE SPA’s Purification clay face mask, £14.

5. Avoid touching your face

It sounds simple, but it can be much harder in practice! Avoid toughing your face to prevent bacteria from reaching your pores. Also, while squeezing you skin may be tempting, it’s more likely to result in an harder blemish, blood or even scarring… so keep your hands away!

Why do pores become large in the first place?

Each hair follicle has a pore at the top of it, and everyone has many hair follicles all over their skin. Within each pore there is the sebaceous gland, which produces oil. Some people may have an overactive sebaceous gland that leads to a clogged pore. Another reason may be due to a decrease in skin elasticity, which leaves larger pores and stretchier skin.