What to do for deep, clogged pores
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Sun Jun 17, 2007 10:47 am

Ok, so I have, like most people, blackheads. I get them on my nose. My mom likes to try and squeeze them when she's around. She always says I have really deep pores. Does anyone know anything about how I can minimize my pores? And maybe anything on how to clear blackheads? Anything will be appreciated! Thanks! Smile

free skin care · Sun Jun 17, 2007 10:58 am

Most people have good success with using BHA lotions or gel to keep the pore clean. Regular expoliation is the keey to keep blackheads in check. HTH

free skin care · Sun Jun 17, 2007 11:03 am

Apparently eating nothing but apples for a week and getting regular enemas helps Very Happy

Seriously I think iaimei has given good advice ...get a good salicylic acid face wash/lotion. Make sure it is a low pH though or it will be useless.

Worth bearing in mind as well that a lot of this stuff is hormonal and will get better. my daughter went through years being called pizza face at school but now at 16 her skin has really started to clear up. She still gets the breakouts but it is no where near as bad as before. For now eat sensibly (and I mean more than flippin' apples!), drink plenty of water and keep your skin as clean as possible. Smile

Sun Jun 17, 2007 11:08 am

Ya, the "apple fast" from "acne free in 3 days" I havn't actually had the time to complete that, barely got through one day of eating apples....but i gave up (no thanks to my friends! lol) and ate some pancakes with smarties in them.

By the way, I'm 14. Can 2 years make much of a difference for me? Neutral

free skin care · Sun Jun 17, 2007 11:09 am

guapagirl wrote:

Apparently eating nothing but apples for a week and getting regular enemas helps Very Happy

I read your post in the other thread. I love your sense of humour. Laughing

Now back to the topic of this thread:

I think it's important to exfoliate your skin on a regular basis. I've been using EpidermX II every day and my pores look much cleaner and smaller.

Sun Jun 17, 2007 11:23 am

How often should I exfoliate my skin?

free skin care · Sun Jun 17, 2007 11:28 am

lilkid13 wrote:

Ya, the "apple fast" from "acne free in 3 days" I havn't actually had the time to complete that, barely got through one day of eating apples....but i gave up (no thanks to my friends! lol) and ate some pancakes with smarties in them.

By the way, I'm 14. Can 2 years make much of a difference for me? Neutral

You eat pancakes with smarties in them Rolling Eyes

Yes two years can make a lot of difference and you need to know that everybody is different. It would be lovely if as parents we got a message saying 'ok junior is now 11.7 years. She will behave like a monster for precisely 6 years 2 months and 1 week' and it was the same for every child but it aint. My oldest started getting badly spotty at about 11, my youngest is barely showing any signs yet and she's 12 1/2. It's different for every one. You may be clear at 16 or it may take til 20 (EG my neighbour ...his face was terrible for years. If we were americans he would have probably gone to a derm it was so bad. He hit 20 and they all just dried up now he has great skin).

Either way these things are hormonal and a good diet etc help (so no more smarties pancakes!) and you can let it make your life a misery and spend hours obsessing about how you look or you can just go out and have fun being a kid, running around, snogging girls, listening to music or whatever ...just live and forget it and one day you'll catch a glance of yourself and you'll be grown up and looking cool.

Sun Jun 17, 2007 11:34 am

Would you recommend any multivitamins?

Oh and my brother, he's 13 and his skin's so clear!! :'( all of my sisters have good skin too!!! Im the odd one out, could it be something I'm doing? or not doing perhaps? I've had this problem since I was 9 or 10 >.<

free skin care · Sun Jun 17, 2007 11:43 am

use a salicylic toner every day dianayvonne.com does a good cheapish basic one. I've always had skin like the sahara so you would get better advice from some of our more oily forum members I'm sure. One thing, overactive sebaceous glands = oily skin = younger looking skin long term. Be thankful when you hit 40 and you still look 30! Very Happy

free skin care · Sun Jun 17, 2007 12:04 pm

Can't say enough about salicylic acid peels and products.

Also, a good scrub. Very Happy

free skin care · Sun Jun 17, 2007 12:43 pm

lilkid13 wrote:

By the way, I'm 14. Can 2 years make much of a difference for me? Neutral

When I was around your age I used way too many harsh products because I thought they would help. Avoid them! A lot of drugstore products targeted towards teens are drying. They will actually make your pores WORSE by drying you out and making your pores produce more oil. This is what happened to me.

A gentle cleanser with 1% Salycidic acid is good. A bha would be good too-- try Paula's Choice 1% gel to start off with. That helped my pores.

Sun Jun 17, 2007 1:00 pm

Yen had mentioned Exfoliating, how often should I exfoliate my skin? morning and evening?once a day? once a week?

Sun Jun 17, 2007 1:13 pm

How many times you exfoliate your skin would depend on the type of exfoliant you are using but if your skin tends to be oily with blackheads then I would suggest 3x per week. You may also want to considering going for a deep cleansing facial to have your blackheads removed professionally. Trying to remove them yourself or having someone else do it who is not a professional may result in broken capillaries or long-term scarring. You should be cleansing your face twice a day, every day. I would recommend Dermalogica's Dermal Clay Cleanser, Dermalogica's Gentle Cream Exfoliant and Dermalogica's Skin Refining Mask. Using these three products regularly along with a light oil-free moisturizer (Dermalogica's Active Moist) should have those blackhead cleared up in no time! Good Luck!

Sun Jun 17, 2007 1:24 pm

thankyou VERY much! Very Happy

free skin care · Mon Jun 18, 2007 6:16 am

I think AHA or BHA will help.. Smile

free skin care · Mon Jun 18, 2007 8:19 am

An AHA works mainly on the skin's surface...for deep pore cleansing a BHA is the type you want.

free skin care · Mon Jun 18, 2007 10:24 am

I've been using the Jan Marini products since I got home Saturday night. It's been less than 2 days, but I think I am already seeing it work! I don't know if it's my imagination haha. What I saw yesterday was when I washed my face and looked at my pores on my chin (big problem area, VERY congested), I saw a lot of white plugs looked like they were being pushed out. So it seems like the JM products are cleaning out the gunk from deep inside my pores. I got a warm washcloth and massaged the gunk out of my pores. I also used my extractor and my fingers (after cleaning them of course) to push out some of the stubborn pores. Overall, the past 3-4 days my skin has looked better considering I am getting over my worst breakout of my entire life!

Now about 4 days before I started Jan Marini, I also started taking these new supplements my mom bought me. My parents are huge on supplements and they order from this Korean company. I'm not even sure what they are, but I've been taking them since my mom told me the benefits are to clean out your system from the inside and get better skin/digestive health. My mom is convinced that my acne is because I have toxins inside and my hormones are affected, etc. So the improvement in my skin COULD also be due to these supplements. I can definitely feel them working on my digestive system (I won't go into detail on this Bad Grin

). My parents noticed my skin looks better this weekend as well and they think it's the supplements.

I can say that I like the way the Transformation cream goes on. I haven't experienced drying yet-- in fact my skin feels more hydrated than in has in weeks now. Still have some patches of flakes from dead skin peeling, but not as bad as before. The Bioclear tingles slightly but I barely feel it and it's not uncomfortable. Same with the Bioglycolic lotion. It's still early to tell, but in the first couple of days, I like the JM products.

Hopefully the supplement and JM combo will get my skin back on track to where it was a year ago-- clear!

I'm also going to post this in the products review section because it is more relevant there.

free skin care · Mon Jun 18, 2007 11:00 am

This is what i've done and it has greatly helped blackheads and pores, although i'm a few years older than you(roughly 25 )
oil cleansing method nightly, you can read up on it on this board.
epidermx 11 nightly,
honey and asprin mask 20 min. a few times a week
and DIY asprin toner a.m. and p.m.
( I use 1/2 pure aloe vera gel, 1/2 distilled water,6-8 asprins, and a drop or two of glycerin)
one batch will last about a week
Good luck!

free skin care · Mon Jun 18, 2007 12:29 pm

I also recommend BHA... IFP has BHA/AHA products and some are still 20% off...
http://ifeelprettyproducts.com/exfoliants.htm

free skin care · Mon Jun 18, 2007 12:49 pm

There are a few other schools of thought on oily/acne-prone skin, and clogged pores. Myself, I'm 26 and while I was super-oily and acne-prone as a teen, I still get quite a few breakouts and have clogged pores even though my skin has dried out a lot over the years. Here's some stuff from back when I was a teen, though:

1) For a while I was on tetracyclene, and then when I went on BC pills my skin got better. I don't necessarily recommend either, but for the BC it was a side benefit since I was going on it anyway for its intended purpose! obviously this is something you should be careful with and think about and talk about with a doctor, but if you're super-super-bad, it can help. These two work in different ways, and tetracyclene can actually decrease the effectiveness of BC pills, so make sure to discuss every step with a doc if you wind up taking any medications.

2) The deep facial isn't a bad idea - what you'd want are called 'extractions', at least in US spas/salons. But I've had extractions done and they didn't help me much with my blackheads. It's hard to keep pores clear but there are products out there that can help, read on!

3) What are you doing for moisturizer? There are many schools of thought, so you should experiment, but some like Dr. Hauschka believe in applying oil on top of your already-oily skin (the idea is that it signals to the oil glands to stop producing). Dr. H has a Normalizing Day Oil, and there's Decleor's Ylang Ylang oil - something to maybe try if you haven't yet.

4) Keep your skin clean! This is a big one, and one I'm still very bad about. But don't touch your face with dirty hands, etc. - clean is key. In this vein, I also used to spot-treat with straight organic tea tree oil, and it did help quite a bit, it's very antiseptic.

5) Have you tried an acne serum like Best Bath Store or Juice Beauty in addition to whatever spot-treatment you're doing? A layer of something like that might help too.

6) Lots of people swear by using Oil Cleansing Method (OCM) for clogged pores. I myself only recently started experimenting with this, but it DOES seem to be helping, and it's the first thing that has ever helped my clogged pores! I'd be very careful what oils you use if you're already oily/acne-prone, but some on this board fit that description and still have luck with OMC. You might try looking up some of those threads and seeing if it's something you'd like to try.

7) Beyond that, everything said here is dead-on - AHAs and BHAs (more B than A) are good with pore cleansing. Tone with a salicylic acid toner, and basically be healthy and enjoy life. It only gets better, and my skin was worlds better even in college when I went off the pill, so hang in there!

free skin care · Mon Jun 18, 2007 3:44 pm

I've been using IFP'swww.ifeelprettyproducts.com) and have not had a break-out since March 2007. As for BHA 1% will do nothing. There have been great threads on this forum discussing BHA and AHA's so please do a search to find out more. That's how I got started with my current routing--searching and reading experiences!

free skin care · Mon Jun 18, 2007 3:50 pm

I think the BHA 2% from IFP should work great, and as Lisey said it's 20% off this month, so you're in luck. (I missed out on the discount since I got it last month.) I started out with the BHA 2% but have now upgraded to BHA2%/AHA4%. If you're not sure, you can just buy the sample size only. It's not too expensive.

free skin care · Mon Jun 18, 2007 4:28 pm

I agree with the use of acid peels but I also would add a clay mask. I just tried the B Kamins Diatomamus Earth Masque for Oily or Combination Skin and found it cleared out pores better than even the Dr. Hauschka. I'd use the B Kamins on trouble spots a few times a week now just to clear up the stubborn areas. I'm glad I got that sample.

Mon Jun 18, 2007 6:18 pm

ginnielizz wrote:

There are a few other schools of thought on oily/acne-prone skin, and clogged pores. Myself, I'm 26 and while I was super-oily and acne-prone as a teen, I still get quite a few breakouts and have clogged pores even though my skin has dried out a lot over the years. Here's some stuff from back when I was a teen, though:

1) For a while I was on tetracyclene, and then when I went on BC pills my skin got better. I don't necessarily recommend either, but for the BC it was a side benefit since I was going on it anyway for its intended purpose! obviously this is something you should be careful with and think about and talk about with a doctor, but if you're super-super-bad, it can help. These two work in different ways, and tetracyclene can actually decrease the effectiveness of BC pills, so make sure to discuss every step with a doc if you wind up taking any medications.

2) The deep facial isn't a bad idea - what you'd want are called 'extractions', at least in US spas/salons. But I've had extractions done and they didn't help me much with my blackheads. It's hard to keep pores clear but there are products out there that can help, read on!

3) What are you doing for moisturizer? There are many schools of thought, so you should experiment, but some like Dr. Hauschka believe in applying oil on top of your already-oily skin (the idea is that it signals to the oil glands to stop producing). Dr. H has a Normalizing Day Oil, and there's Decleor's Ylang Ylang oil - something to maybe try if you haven't yet.

4) Keep your skin clean! This is a big one, and one I'm still very bad about. But don't touch your face with dirty hands, etc. - clean is key. In this vein, I also used to spot-treat with straight organic tea tree oil, and it did help quite a bit, it's very antiseptic.

5) Have you tried an acne serum like Best Bath Store or Juice Beauty in addition to whatever spot-treatment you're doing? A layer of something like that might help too.

6) Lots of people swear by using Oil Cleansing Method (OCM) for clogged pores. I myself only recently started experimenting with this, but it DOES seem to be helping, and it's the first thing that has ever helped my clogged pores! I'd be very careful what oils you use if you're already oily/acne-prone, but some on this board fit that description and still have luck with OMC. You might try looking up some of those threads and seeing if it's something you'd like to try.

7) Beyond that, everything said here is dead-on - AHAs and BHAs (more B than A) are good with pore cleansing. Tone with a salicylic acid toner, and basically be healthy and enjoy life. It only gets better, and my skin was worlds better even in college when I went off the pill, so hang in there!

well...I don't use a moisturizer. Should I start using one? Havn't tried any acne serums really. Other than "On the Spot"-acne treatment, I havn't used many products, But I've just ordered a bunch...well...my mom did lol.

Mon Jun 18, 2007 6:24 pm

I really only ever just washed my face with soap and water once in the morning and once at night 'til I heard that soap can overdry your skin....and my skin of course also started getting a lot worse more recently. But you know what? I started a new diet (I still cheat a bit tho lol) and since I started on friday...my skins cleared up a lot! Very Happy

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