Pores are the connections of the hair follicles to the skin and each hair follicle has a tiny little gland called sebaceous gland that's linked to the hair follicle.
The sebaceous gland produces the oil sebum which is crucial to our skin as it protects us from bacteria, irritants and pollution.
Now, why do some people have large pores? So firstly, they are due to overproduction of sebum. What happens is that sebum comes up to the surface and actually expands that pore. That's why if you have oily skin, you tend to have large holes on it. The second reason is a reduction in elasticity of the skin. Now when your skin becomes more rigid, as we age, the skin actually doesn't contract back around that pore to minimise it; So it tends to stay large, resulting into skin sagging with it becoming more rigid and pores looking larger.
How to we thus minimise the pore size?
Keep the skin supple.
Keep the pores unclogged.
Reduce the amount of sebum our skin is producing.
Okay, but what is the skincare routine for minimising those pores?
A good routine is to firstly cleanse with a water gel cleanser; Cerave foam cleanser is an excellent cleanser for oily skin type. After that, use a good micellar cleansing water to get rid of oil-based dirt. Garnier micellar cleansing water is a perfect one with no harmful ingredients.
Apply next The Ordinary Niacinamide serum which controls the sebum production followed by the Ordinary Hyaluronic acid, being a humectant where 1 molecule of it attracts 1000 molecules of water to retain moisture in your skin.
Hydrate your skin with the Cerave moisturising cream which will allow your skin to be more supple, meaning that it allows your pore to close quicker by keeping it hydrated.
Note: We also recommend exfoliating your skin once a week with the Orgaid Purifying face polish as it is an excellent anti inflammatory product and helps unclog pores.
Last, but not least, it's about the lifestyle choices that you make. Try to cut down on those fudgy brownies, crispy cookies and sugar-powdery donuts as high sugar intake leads to a rise in your insulin level.
So when insulin goes up, it triggers the receptors that control the sebum production. This ends up resulting in overproduction of sebum, which then rises to the surface, open up the pores and get them clogging with dirt.