Pore Secrets REVEALED!

Hi Friends,

Here’s a question I get asked a lot:

“How can I shrink my pores?”…

Watch my video below to find out why our pores are actually pretty amazing and what you can do to minimise their appearance!

Pores are tiny openings in the skin that allow our skin to breathe.

They also help the hair on our body to grow, as they create an opening for the hair follicle to grow through.

Pores enable oil from the gland to travel up to the skin’s surface, moisturising and nourishing it – all by itself!

Just imagine if your skin had no oil… it would be very dry, tight and uncomfortable.

The glands that make the oil that comes out of our pores are called the sebaceous glands…

…and the oil is called SEBUM.

Sebum works really well…(most of the time) to help keep our skin feeling and looking soft and nourished.

Many women I meet complain about having oily skin.

Yet oily skin is truly a gift from the beauty gods! Oily skin will age slower and form far fewer wrinkles over time.

AND…

…the more oil that’s produced, the more moisturised your skin will be, which helps it look younger… for longer!

Unfortunately, you can’t “shrink” your pores.

BUT – here’s the good news!

We can help make our pores look smaller.

With the right skincare habits and carefully chosen products, we can minimize the look of them, improve the texture of our skin…

…AND prevent them from becoming larger in the future!

As we age, our cells renew themselves more slowly, so we can get an unnecessary build-up of dead skin.

These dead skin cells get trapped in our pores and stretch out our pores, making them larger.

Exfoliating 2 – 3 times a week will definitely make your pores appear smaller.

This will remove the dead skin cells that clog your pores, and your pores won’t have a chance to stretch out and look larger!

The gentle way to exfoliate is to use a clean and damp muslin cloth with your usual cleanser.

Simply buff in small circular motions.

This action allows new fresh skin cells to emerge to the surface!

When you exfoliate, you’ll need to use a UV skin protector daily.

This is because removing dead cells can make your skin more sensitive to UV light, which could lead to UV damage, speeding up wrinkles forming.

I like to use a skin-saving UV protector every day to protect new skin cells from ageing (the number 1 cause of wrinkles!).

If you’re looking for a deeper exfoliation, I swear by Derma Tx Microdermabrasion – it makes skin look and feel incredible! Almost instantly!

Use it twice to three times a week for the smoothest skin of your life, and, with continued use, your pores will look smaller over time.

If you have too much oil travelling through your pores, this can sometimes clog the pores and stretch them out.

If you feel your skin is too oily, let me introduce you to your new friend – Jojoba Oil!

It’s pronounced “ho-ho-ba” and it works wonders in helping regulate how much oil your skin will produce! Clever eh?!

Jojoba Oil isn’t technically an oil (although it’s called one!). It’s actually a wax ester made of long, straight chains of wax molecules…

…making it PERFECT for overly oily skin!

Simply apply Jojoba Oil to your face each night, and it will help to regulate your oil production.

Since the molecules of Jojoba Oil are so similar to your own natural sebum, your skin thinks that it has enough oil and doesn’t need to make any more…

…which in turn makes your pores produce less oil, preventing them from stretching out and becoming clogged and looking larger!

If you feel your skin is too oily, use Jojoba Oil instead of your night cream and or serum.

I only apply a high-grade organic Jojoba Oil on my skin.

You can see the only Jojoba Oil I like to use here.

Taking a collagen supplement (I take Rejuvenated Collagen Shots) every day has not only improved how youthful for my skin looks but also the texture.

Collagen is a structural fibre that helps to keep our skin and the perimeter (or outer circle) of our pores tight and firm.

As we age we lose collagen in our skin; making it less elastic and thinner. As such, the perimeter of our pores enlarges and loosens…

…a bit like how the ankles of socks stretch and become wider and looser the more we wear them!

That’s why using products that encourage your skin to make more collagen can really help to keep the perimeter of our pores nice and tight…

…making them look SMALLER! Hurrah!

Taking a collagen supplement every day can help pores appear smaller, slow ageing AND keep your skin looking YOUNGER for LONGER!

Another way to help your skin produce more collagen is to apply a topical Vitamin C serum and/or a retinol cream – these can both help encourage your skin to produce more collagen over time.

I’ve tried and tested many collagen supplements and THIS is, in my view, the BEST on the market for reducing the appearance of pores PLUS…

…when taken every day without fail over time, fine lines and wrinkles appear reduced too! It’s a WIN-WIN!

Perhaps the more obvious (and instant!) fix for enlarged pores is makeup!

Foundation primers make great pore camouflage, as they create a barrier between your makeup and your skin…

…helping skin look smoother and foundation stay on for longer. YAY!

A clever pore-minimising primer is applied AFTER moisturiser but BEFORE your foundation and makes a great pore camouflage!

I like to apply a silicone-based foundation primer as it temporarily fills in tiny pores, so skin appears much smoother looking.

…plus it stops foundation from getting trapped in your pores!

I love to use this Delilah foundation primer, as it works wonders for reducing fine lines and pores!

It’s incredible how much the right foundation can make an instant difference to the look of pores on our faces.

Whilst I love a dewy foundation for the beautiful glow it brings to the skin, this dewiness can illuminate the uneven texture of large pores – almost highlighting them!

If you like to wear a dewy foundation or BB cream; make your pores appear smaller by using a translucent mattifying powder just over the parts of your face where you feel your pores look large – for example nose and cheeks.

A translucent mattifying powder will take down any sheen or dewiness in the foundation that can illuminate the texture and size of pores.

I use this amazingly weightless mattifying powder, which magically disappears while it mops up the shine that can highlight and make pores look enlarged!

It’s so lightweight, that it never feels like anything extra on the skin.

Plus it won’t cake or settle into creases, nor will it dry out your skin!

I hope I have helped explain the importance of your pores and the role they play in your skin health.

Let’s try and embrace our pores and remember they’re hardly ever visible to anyone other than ourselves in a magnifying mirror!

Love,