What To Do About Clogged Pores Or Blackheads

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We all want that pure porcelain looking face. Nobody wants clogged pores that ruines your silky smooth skin. Today I'll share a few tips with you about how to fight them and keep them tamed.

A few years ago I had (huge) clogged pores on my nose. Not pretty. It really made me feel insecure about myself, because it looked, well, gross (my opinion). It was summer and my face gets greasy easily with hot weather, so it was only getting worse. Those nosepads which will pull out the thingies in your pores only helped for a while: the next day they were visible again and when I got home in the evening it was just as worse as it was before I used the nosepads. When I ran my finger over  my nose I could feel them. Yikes, right?

Now they are reduced so much and I almost don't have to worry about them anymore! Keep on reading to find out how I did it.
When your skin gets dry, your skin tends to nourish it itself by producing oils, to keep your skin supple, just like your hair gets greasy faster if you wash it more often. But let's not read into that too much. I wrote this post to share some tips with you!

What I did first was cleansing my skin everyday. Since I wore make-up I actually cleansed my face everyday, but apparently not good enough to not clog up my pores. So I added some things to my routine and eventually these were the things I did to get rid of my clogged pores.

• First, get rid of your make-up, I used make-up remover to wash it off my face. Any brand will do.
• Second, to remove the residues of your make-up remover and/or make-up I used a toner on a cotton pad and swiped it over my face to remove the last dirtiness off my face.
• Optional: use those nosestrips which will pull the dirt out of your pores. <-- I do recommend this step if you're thinking that your nose is unsavable, like I thought a few years ago.
• Then, while your face is cleared from all the make-up and dirt you collected on your face all day long, I used a facewash, preferably one which fights spots and scrubs your face, I used one from Garnier for instance. I do recommend one with salicylic acid. This helps the product to get deeper in your skin so it can reach your skin deeper and not only the surface. Andd not to forget one with scrub particles, especially when you're planning on getting rid of your clogged pores/blackheads. While the salicylic acid gets the product deeper in your skin, the scrubparticles remove the stuff out of your pores, not entirely of course, but it's a process with small steps.
• After that your skin might get pretty dry and/or irritated, very tight, not feeling so comfortable. Apply some toner on your skin to calm down your skin. Give it a moment to sink into your skin.
• Apply an extremely moisturizing (night)cream on your face. Especially on your nose. You might tend to skip your nose, because it always gets oily that fast, so why apply some oily cream on your oily nose? Well, your nose gets oily that fast because it's actually dry. Your skin detects that and it starts to produce oils to moisturize your skin ..the same oils which will clog your pores.. So, don't be afraid and nourish your nose. The next day you  might see a (big) difference: the pores on your nose are less clogged up than before!

That was actually the big tip. Moisturize moisturize moisturize! Just be sure to clean your skin well every night before you go to bed and put on a moisturizer before you go to sleep and after you washed your face in the morning.

Also:

• don't use creams on your face which are comedogenic: these will clog your pores and you're back at square one.
• try to avoid applying products with silicones on your 'clogged pore area', these will clog your pores as well
• don't touch your clogged pores, your hands might contain bacterias which will cause blackheads/pimples and it also stimulates the skin to produce oils. That's not what we want.
• apply a facemask once a week to give your skin that boost.

Products I highly recommend regarding clogged pores:

• Lush Tea Tree Water. This product detoxes your skin, calms it and keeps your pores in control.

• Garnier Pure 3 in 1. It makes your skin feel so fresh after rinsing it off. It contains scrub and salicylic acid. Win! It is quite agressive for your skin though, but that's why it works for me, just be careful with it on dry areas. I also like to use it as a spot treatment mask on my nose: I put some on my nose in the shower and leave it there for a while (you can also use this as a facemask, but that's too much to handle for me, especially on my cheeks) and wash it off. Bye bye big, stuffed pores!
• Any nosestrips which will pull out the gunk in your pores. 
• A very nourishing night cream, preferably one that's so oily (not comedogenic!) that it takes a while to get soaked in your skin.

So I hope these tips will help you to get rid of your blackheads! It reaaaally helped me and my nose has so much 'improved' ever since.

Of course there are days that my pores are getting cloggy, but I just use some fasewash with scrub in it and rub it over my nose to get rid of that or just use a nosestrip.

Go give it a try, you have nothing to lose, only some clogged pores ;-)