Large pores are a common problem that both men and women face daily. From the reality of an impure environment to learning to maintain good daily cleansing habits, achieving smaller pores is possible with a little bit of knowledge. By choosing the right products and learning about cleaner natural ingredients you can easily achieve smaller pores with these helpful tips. Keep reading to learn more. Looking for soaps to shrink pores? Go Here
I've been assisting people in helping them to learn to love their skin again for years. It's a joy listening to the many compliments people get after using our bar soaps and skincare. I am so thankful that my own troubled skin issues resulted in other peoples' skin problems being resolved more naturally. I believe most anyone can enjoy beautiful and healthy skin if they take the time to learn a little bit about skincare and ingredients.
You may be wondering if a bar of soap or natural skincare can really help shrink pores. You can skip to our our reviews HERE and read the testimonials and see for yourself. So, what about all the internet articles and blogs that say bar soap clogs pores? Should all of us be buying all the products they recommend such as chemical cleansers, peels, surgery, SLS cleansers, phthalates etc? What big-box commercial brands have you been relying on that aren't living up to your expectations?
People are sometimes surprised that our particular brand of bar soap formulas and skincare help the skin so much and so quickly—especially doctors that use our brand. I like to remind people that it's all about the natural plant based chemistry in each of our bar soaps and skin care products that we specially handcraft. We use an old fashioned cold process method of not heating oils to high temps and select supreme top tier ingredients. This is what makes our soap and products a healthy skin care story success.
The Dirty Truth
Large commercial brands rely on cheap chemical cleansers. These may seem to work for a time, but soon they will over-dry the skin. What happens in the case of chemical cleanser usage is that the sebum in each pore has to overcompensate, releasing more oil onto the skin to make up for the excessive dryness the chemicals in the cleansers cause on the skin. So, you might see your skin get oily, then use a product, and then your skin will get tight and dry again. You may not be happy about that but maybe your stuck with the feeling that it's better than breaking out all the time and so, you deal with it.
You'll notice that if you stop using the chemical product, your skin looks awful. So, you have to keep using the product daily in order to keep your skin clear. You didn't solve the issue though sadly enough, and likely created a new more serious skin problem. You may be confused of the kind of skin you now have - oily, dry? One thing you do know is that you don't have the results you were hoping for- balanced skin: and that's enough to make intelligent people want to explore more natural alternatives.
Finding Natures Balance
More problems occur when skin is prevented from achieving it's natural balance and instead is left struggling to overcompensate for the over-cleansing and stripping occur from chemical products. Over time your skin may stop producing oil all together (this is the natural affect of chronically over-drying the skin) and this is where you will start to see crepey dry skin and deep lines, or rash- not fun. But there is hope.
Why do dermatologists recommend all the chemical cleansers and unnatural creams and products anyways? The short answer is that drugs are a big business. Most practitioners in the medical field aren't studying natural remedies. They study chemical medicines that are marketed to them by pharmaceutical sales representatives who visit the doctors office (and staff) during lunch or may invite the entire office staff including the doctors to large lavish conferences where doctors and staff are offered large financial incentives by drug companies. In return doctors get on the bandwagon to make more profits by promoting the drugs to their clients and patients. The reps have high sales quotas to meet and the doctors get "kick backs" on the drugs they sell to the world through their offices. It's a dirty secret no one talks about and it's big business.
If you live a healthy lifestyle, you already know that you can either take the doctors' drugs (which nearly always have unwanted side effects) or try to solve your own problem. It takes trial and error and many (understandably) get frustrated in the process. If that is your experience or the experience of someone you love, I understand. It took me a long time to figure out what was causing my eczema and itchy skin, but once I figured it out and started applying the knowledge along with my herbal background and started sharing it with my friends and family, my business grew into a passion because as people started began sharing it with their friends and family, they also started sharing beautiful testimonials of hope!
Here's The Dirt.
Unfortunately much of what you read in online is paid copy. In other words someone is paid to promote something. This includes top ten lists, magazine articles etc,. most are usually (not all) paid advertisements. You might read that a certain bar soap (usually animal tallow) clogs skin because of chemicals and certain oils and then all soap gets a bad rap. Article after article you can find warnings about not using soap on your face. No wonder some people are surprised when they use our soaps and for the first time have the best skin they have ever had!
Other times you may read articles that say things like "don't use soap- use this chemical liquid cleanser instead"- only to find out that the liquid soap cleanser product they are promoting causes cancer, or is chemically laden lacking natural ingredients.
I personally have scalp eczema (or should say had scalp eczema), and now that I make and use my own balanced naturally formulated face, body, and shampoo bars, I no longer have scalp eczema. My clients tell me the same thing after using our soaps and products. I believe in what I make because it works not just for me but also for my customers, some of whom are doctors.
Unfortunately in today's world it's a reality that not all companies in the medical field or any field for that matter- are in it for the love of the truth. Many companies are knowingly or unknowingly, selling harmful chemically laden products that damage the organs of the body including the skin which is mind you the largest organ of the body. Warning signs may show up in the form of red and irritated skin rash from the chemical creams or unnatural liquid cleansing soaps your doctor recommends for your eczema or psoriasis. Even though those products may be harming your skin and you complain when they don't work for you, you're told to keep using it and your underlying pain and skin problem goes unresolved. I hear it all too often. Hopefully at this point people realize that they have to take matters into their own hands- as I did. Read below to learn what to avoid and what to include in a healthy skin care regimen.
Helpful Tips On Choosing Better Skincare & The Chemicals You Should Avoid
Sodium Laurel Sulphate (SLS), BHT, fragrances made with phthalates, and or bad formulations are all significant contributing factors to eczema, psoriasis, acne, and rash break outs etc. Each ingredient in a particular formulation along with the chemical ingredients can be skin sensitizing and irritating. Two soaps with the same ingredients can differ depending on how much of the oil ratios are used as well as the quality, purity and integrity of oils used. You can't merely read ingredients and copy a bar of soap and get the same end result because it's the total chemistry along with the amount of each ingredient as well as the quality of each ingredient that makes soap (or any product) harsh or moisturizing and everything in between.
Using natural plant based materials and avoiding chemicals is a great place to start, but it's also the oil ratios that and botanicles that makes a product good or bad. For instance, cold process soap making and artisan master soaping is not the same as art and craft melt and pour soaps and neither is cooking soaps (hot process) true master artisan soap making due to the fact that those both require heating up all the botanicals, oils, and ingredients to extremely high temps- thus destroying the naturals ingredients, making them useless or weak at best. One must understand chemistry and artistry together. This is a master artisan and not merely a "crafter".
The Good News
A well-made bar of soap can do more than shrink pores. A well-formulated bar soap can clear up acne, eczema, rosacea, and many other skin problems, while moisturizing and balancing the skin and scalp. Our bar soaps contain a certain ratio of ingredients and non-irritating oils that help regulate the sebum (oil output) from our pores which help to bring the skin back into natural homeostasis (balance). You should be able to go a day without a product and not see skin issues in time.
All of our soaps combine castor oil, unrefined raw shea butter and olive fruit oils, avocado oils, clays and botanicals and more to achieve the perfect balance. It doesn't matter if you have normal to oily or normal to dry or somewhere in the middle. Your skin will 99.9% of the time do great with our natural and gentle formula of small-batch artisan soap bars, creams, lotions and exfoliates.
Remember
Give your skin some time to adjust after using harsh chemical cleansers for months and years because your skin has been through a lot and will need some time to start working property again. Once you remove those chemically-laden products and start using a more gentle and balanced product, you will realize that your own skin will start to balance out again and when you go a day without product your skin will still look beautiful. Once you find a great skincare products that works for your skin, you will want to sing it's praises to everyone.
Here is why our brand ME AND A TREE SKINCARE not only shrinks pores but also help balance skin.
1. Formulation
I formulated for a very long time using my own sensitive, prone skin until the soap formula left my skin perfectly cleansed but also moisturized. I had to keep tweaking my formulas until I landed on the perfect balance of soft and clean without being tight and dry. That took me a long time but was well worth the effort. I can use my soap on my eczema-prone scalp. This has helped me help thousands of others. Many other people who suffer from eczema, rosacea, and even psoriasis, use our soap to help with the unique issues they face.
2. Ingredients
The kinds of base oil, clays, flowers, essential oils, unique botanicals, real herbs & extracts all form a synergistic relationship with one another in our soaps and products. Think about a cake and then think about about how each ingredient by itself wouldn't necessarily make a great cake and in fact would not make a cake at all. Raw eggs or plain flour alone can't make cake. Additionally your cake wouldn't have moisture without oil and water. What about flavor? Without fresh ingredients, and real vanilla and chocolate, your cake may taste cheap and not that great. Well, that concept helps explain how soap and face care works as well. Each ingredient compliments or balances the other one. If you were to add too much flour or not enough flour, your cake wouldn't achieve "cake status" even though you have all the 'right ingredients." Some skincare is the same way. There's a bunch of ingredients in the product but not in the right quantities and it affects the chemistry.
What about single ingredient products?
Here's another example. Take, for instance, coconut oil. A lot of people think that raw oily coconut oil is excellent for the skin on the face. I beg to differ but thats another blog for another time. I have seen bar soaps with only that one main ingredient- coconut oil. You would think that only adding one pure oil in a bar of soap would be great for the skin, but it turns out that it behaves very differently in a soap. It's very drying! Try a coconut only bar soap one day, and you will see what I mean. Single oil coconut bar soaps are marketed to be "minimal" giving the consumer the false idea that it's somehow better than multi ingredient bar soap but in reality the single ingredient soap feels horrible on your skin. Pure coconut oil bar soaps are sometimes referred to as sailor soaps! That's because they lather in saltwater! That means they are very harsh and make terrible facial bars. I wouldn't even wash my armpits with them. They are extremely drying. While I love the idea of a pure olive oils soap bar- they melt faster than you can say "New York Minute!" Is coconut oil bad? No! Is olive oils bad? No!
If you combine coconut oil with olive oil or a certain many other kinds of oils and botanicals and in a specific chemical ratio, you get a very moisturizing soap bar that lasts a long time and that rivals skin creams of the highest order and lather beautifully (yet don't over dry the skin). It's all about chemistry, just like a cake. Some "cakes" are simply much better than others, right? Do you want the fresh cake or the month old cake? Do you want cheap ingredients in your cake or do you want the best? Do you want a mediocre baker or do you want an experienced one? Same with artisan small batch skincare! No one will argue that experience combined with fresh quality ingredients is always better.
3. Cleansing & Moisturizing vs. Stripping & Over-drying
You want a bar soap that gently cleanses the dirt, dead skin cells, and grime from the long day; without leaving your skin so tight and dry that your face feels sore, looks red, feels dry, or causes your skin to over or under produce sebum oils. If you don't have a balanced well-formulated face product, you will know within a few months. Your skin will become overly dry with bouts of more excessive oil production days or, you will have oily skin with dry patches along with breakouts, bumps, and sensitivity. You may also notice premature wrinkles and aging.
Instead use a product that cleanses but doesn't leave a greasy feeling on your skin or on the other hand a tight feeling all over your face. A little tightness (very little) may be okay, but the "I can't move my face it's so dry feeling" is never acceptable. You may apply cream after cleansing, but you shouldn't have to make up for an excessively "dry tight skin feeling" unless you are in the dead of winter (skiing in Colorado, in the desert in the dry heat, or in a windy, cold place like Chicago in November. In any of those cases, you'll need some extra moisture and protection as the elements are bombarding your skin.
Secrets to Shrinking Large Pores
Use a gentle, very soft-bristled skincare brush and mild soap together in gentle circular motions with tepid warm water to gently exfoliate and wash away dirt and dead skin especially paying careful attention to the small crevices around your mouth, nose, chin, and hair line. Cleanse your skin two times a day. Always close the facial pores back up with cool water at the end of your cleanse. Wash your face with a gentle brush and mild soap after you get up in the morning and once again at the end of the day before you retire to bed. It's important to get off all makeup and sweat daily. Do not ever sleep in make up! Not even blush! Wash it off! Lips stick- wash it off at night. Use lip balm if you want a little shine but take off all your makeup including lip stick and this includes mascara etc. Your skin needs to breathe at night and cleansing it helps to naturally eliminate toxins while you sleep.
Avoid all liquid soaps- especially so called natural ones that add Borax. Borax can be used for cleaning floors and clothes but not for your face and skin. All liquid soaps must use harsh chemicals for lathering agents and those damage the skin over time—instead, op for a gentle cleansing balancing facial bar soap such as Me and a Tree's Spearmint Wheat Grass & French Lavender gentle face bars. For a complete list of gentle and exfoliating face bars go HERE). Apply a natural plant based cream for day of night depending.
Exfoliate 1-3 times per week. There's been a lot of talk of pumice and jojoba beads harming the environment and choking aquatic life, so by all means, avoid those. There has also been some hype about derma rollers. Those work by created micro abrasion on the skin, which forces the collagen to produce in the skin, creating a more youthful skin appearance; however, derma rollers can introduce bacteria into the deeper layers and pores and cause serious skin eruptions and worse, if not using a new needle roller every time. Dead skin gets trapped on the fine needles that are nearly impossible to see with the naked eye. Unless you are planning on using a new needle roller one every time it can be quite costly, and a waste in my view especially when you can gently agitate the skin by using a natural and gentle exfoliate weekly like Jumping java Body & Face Exfoliating Scrub. Jar and soap exfoliators are clean, multi purpose, and more sterile, and they work just as well (if not better), than rollers without the redness that lasts for days at a time and possible skin infection that can occur with use.
Exercise. Yep, you guessed it! It's not only great for longevity but excellent for your skin as well! Exercise forces toxins out, and our skin is the largest organ in our body. Exercise forces our skin to produce collagen too. But don't over -do it! You don't want to fatigue the body either. Running, swimming, gym workouts, dance, etc. are all helpful in moving fats through the bloodstream, aid in transporting toxins out of the body, helping clear up breakouts, and helps keep the skin elastic and firm. Always be sure to wash your face and body before your sweat dries too long on your skin to prevent breakouts and deep lumps under the skin.
Cut Back On Salt & Fatty Foods Before Bedtime. I believe in eating avocados, nuts, and legumes for healthy skin; however, eating late at night or too many fats and oils and slat before bedtime can result in tired looking skin, breakouts, and more aging. Lighter meals at night are better all the way around, and your skin will look more radiant and refreshed when you get up in the morning.
Get Adequate Sleep. This is a big one. Your skin tells the truth about everything. You must get a good night's sleep if you want beautiful skin. Sleep allows the body to heal, and when we cut back on much-needed rest, the body goes into stress mode, and it will show up in our personality and skin. Get sleep! Unplug and relax before bed. Your skin will look much better if you go to be earlier.
Have something you want to add to your skin routine that we didn't mention? Please tell us what works for you! We love reading and seeing what you are doing to keep your skin and body healthy! Email us or comment below!