As a beauty editor, one of the first things I learned is that you can’t make your pores smaller. Honestly, it was a terrible day. A lot of my day is spent looking at pictures of beautiful celebrities with perfect skin (hi, Hailey Bieber) and trying out skin care products that say they will smooth skin. What about my pores? No matter what blurring face primers I use, they are very obvious. And you’re going to tell me that some people have just won the genetic lottery and there’s nothing I can do about it? But there are ways to make pores smaller, it turns out. Kind of!
The truth is that you can’t really change the size of your pores (boo), but there are ways to make them look smaller (yay). Honestly, though, having visible pores is just part of being a person with a face, and there’s no need to feel bad or insecure about it. I get it, though: we all want our skin to look clearer and our makeup to go on more smoothly. What can be done, then? Cosmo talked to dermatologists Shari Marchbein, MD, Arash Akhavan, MD, and Lindsey Yeh, MD, who all gave us tips on how to do this and explained why your pores look big in the first place.
Tip #1 for minimising pores: Clean your face twice at night.
Tip #2 for reducing pores: Make sure to exfoliate regularly.
Tip #3 for shrinking pores: Use products that don’t clog them.
Tip #4 for making pores smaller: add retinol to your routine.
Tip #5 for minimising pores: Get a professional facial.
Tip #6 for making pores look smaller: think about getting a chemical peel in the office.
Tip #7 for minimising pores: wear a mask once a week.
Treatment #8 for shrinking pores: Get a laser treatment.
Tip #9 for reducing pores: Always wear sunscreen.
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Tip #1 for minimising pores: wash your face twice at night.
Dr. Yeh says that “not cleansing your skin properly or consistently can lead to buildup on and worsen the appearance of large pores,” so you should wash your face twice a day. You can wash your face with a gentle cleanser and lukewarm water in the morning, but before bed, you need to do a double cleanse. To do a double cleanse, you first take off your makeup with an oil-based cleansing balm or oil. Then you wash your face with your regular gel or cream face wash. Dr. Yeh says that “oil-based cleansers effectively remove makeup and also help break down clogged pores and blackheads.” This may seem counterintuitive. I usually use micellar water to quickly clean my acne-prone skin, and then I use a gel cleanser to wash it again.
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Tip #2 for minimising pores: Exfoliate on a regular basis.
If you want your pores to be clear and tight, you need to exfoliate. Most dermatologists say to skip scrubs because they can be too harsh. Instead, they say to use acids like AHAs, BHAs, and/or PHAs to chemically exfoliate. These acids help break down the glue that holds together dead skin cells on the surface of the skin that are blocking pores. BHAs, like salicylic acid, are especially good at making pores smaller because they help break down the oil and dirt that gets stuck inside them.
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There are a million different things you can use to chemically exfoliate your skin, like acid serums, masks, and peels you can do at home. I personally like using an exfoliating toner. Adding one to my skin care routine has been one of the best things I’ve done to make my pores look smaller. Toner pads are easy to use and work well. Cosmo readers always say that Paula’s Choice 2% BHA Liquid Exfoliant is one of their top picks.
There is a catch, though: your pores will eventually fill back up with dead skin cells, so you need to use your favourite exfoliating toner on a regular basis for the best results. Dr. Marchbein says that people with oily or combination skin can usually exfoliate with a gentle product every day. People with sensitive skin should only do it once or twice a week.
Tip #3 for making pores smaller: Use products that don’t clog pores.
You can do all of the things on this list, but if your skincare products have ingredients that could clog your pores or are known to be “comedogenic,” your pores will probably always look stretched out and bigger than you’d like. Biba de Sousa and Sofie Pavitt are two of my favourite aestheticians who can tell me if a skincare product might clog my pores. You can use the pore-clogger checker on both experts’ websites to copy and paste a product’s ingredient list into a small box. In a few seconds, you’ll be able to see what ingredients, if any, could be bad for your pores. You should always run a new product through one of these checkers before you try it.
This also applies to makeup. You should also run primers, foundations, tinted moisturisers, and skin tints that say they “minimise pores” or “blur” through a pore clogger checker. These products may also contain pore-clogging ingredients.
Tip #4 for minimising pores: Use a retinol in your routine.
The lining of your pores also weakens when collagen does, which makes them look annoyingly big. Dr. Marchbein says that using a retinol in your skin care routine can help your skin make more collagen and make the walls of your pores stronger. You can either get a prescription retinoid from your dermatologist or buy an over-the-counter retinol. But be careful: retinoids and retinols are very strong, so start with them only once a week and work your way up to more often as your skin gets used to them.
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Tip #5 for making your pores look smaller: Get a professional facial.
Dr. Yeh says that getting regular facials that focus on cleaning out your pores and getting rid of congestion can help make your pores look smaller. I swear by HydraFacial, DiamondGlow, and Glo2Facial as three great choices. These facials work well and don’t hurt at all. They can temporarily make pores look better by removing dead skin cells and dirt from pores. They are done in medical spas and dermatology offices.
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Dr. Marchbein says, “HydraFacials allow for deeper delivery of active ingredients, like glycollic and salicylic acid, post-treatment, which can further contribute to glowing skin, a reduction in hyperpigmentation, and the appearance of smaller pores.” DiamondGlow is a gentle microdermabrasion tool that uses a special exfoliating tip to smooth out skin, remove dirt from pores, and add special serums to make your skin look very glowy. Glo2Facials use oxygen bubbles to remove dead skin cells. Depending on the treatment your provider chooses, it may also help reduce oil production.
Tip #6 for making pores look smaller: Get a chemical peel in the office.
Chemical peels with exfoliating acids (like TCA, glycollic acid, salicylic acid, and lactic acid) and/or retinoids done in the office are very helpful for making pores and uneven skin texture look less noticeable. These peels aren’t cheap (they can cost between $250 and $600 depending on where you live), but they do a great job of smoothing out the skin.
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You can also change the strength of your chemical peel based on your skin type, skin goals, and how much time you have to recover (more strength means more time to recover after the peel). I really like the VI Peel for making large pores look smaller, but you can always ask your doctor which pro peel is best for you.
Tip #7 for making pores smaller: wear a mask once a week.
Great news! Your self-care masking sessions can really help shrink your pores. Dr. Marchbein says that clay and charcoal masks help to get rid of buildup, bacteria, and oil—basically, everything that gets stuck in pores and makes them bigger. The effects of masking, like those of exfoliation, only last for a short time, so you need to do these treatments at least once a week to keep them up.
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For pore-minimizing treatment #8, get a laser treatment.
The Clear and Brilliant fractionated laser is Dr. Marchbein’s favourite laser for making pores look better. It stimulates collagen, makes skin smoother and less discoloured, and, as you might have guessed, makes pores smaller. In my experience, the downtime is very short (usually just a day or two of mild redness), and for the best results, you should have four to six treatments spaced six weeks apart. You can try Halo or Fraxel if you want more dramatic results with fewer treatments. Just be aware that you will have to deal with looking like you got a bad sunburn for a week.
