'Shrink' My Pores, Please

Products that claim they can shrink or get rid of pores are the ones that entice me. Being a victim of large pores and black heads, I am was willing to drop money after money to find a product that lived up to its promises. Well...

Pores are simply openings; they don't have tiny muscles that dilate and contract... There are no products that will get rid of them, either. You're born with a certain number of pores and that number remains constant throughout life.

The best thing to do is to keep pores clean because trapped oil and dirt will develop into black heads. This can be done by cleansing and exfoliating. Please note that washing your face more than twice a day (even if you have oily skin) is not recommended.

What Product Claims Really Mean

As of late, there has been an increase of brands that produce anti-aging or natural products. But what do "anti-aging" or "natural" really mean?

Anti-Aging Claims

Did you know that products can legally claim to be anti-aging if they contain sunscreen?

There are two important factors that determine how your skin ages: genetics and sun exposure. So if you don't have the money to splurge on anti-aging products, just slap on some sunscreen (which should be apart of your everyday skincare routine, anyway).

Natural Claims

Even if only one substance in a product is natural, marketers can use this term. Natural ingredients could make up less than 1 percent of the total. Since product labels only tell us what ingredients are used and not how much is concentrated in the item, it could contain small amounts that don't make the product very effective.

Dermatologist-Tested

Companies send dermatologists products to try but it doesn't say how many people tested the item or how carefully and scientifically they tested it. Even if a dermatologist tries a product and doesn't like it, the manufacturer can still say it was 'dermatologist-tested', because it was.

So who or what can we trust? Customer reviews. I always read Makeup Alley [MUA], Essential Day Spa and Sephora before buying a product.