How to Minimize Your Pores

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Kim Haertl with Simply Beautiful in Austin, Texas. I'd like to talk to you about a little problem a lot of people have and to how to minimize your pores. Large pores are caused by an over-production of oil in your sebaceous glands. Quite often, the result is breakouts. So we're going to talk about how to purify your pores, therefore, getting the dirt out and minimizing so they appear smaller. What we're going to do to begin with - Nancy has already washed her face. So I'm going to suggest that you wash your face with a very mild cleanser. I love Cetaphil. Clinique has a great, mild facial soap. And we're going to move on to a toner. Just on a cotton round. This is a very gentle alcohol-free. We want to keep it alcohol-free because alcohol tends to dry out the surface of our skin. And if you dry out the surface of your skin, your skin's going to tend to produce more oil to make up for it. So, alcohol-free toner is great. We're going to start with that. You're going to move on to a really gentle scrub, an exfoliator. My favorite, right now, is St. Ives because the beads are very small and they're perfectly round so when you rub them on your skin - Nancy, may I have your hand so I can do this on your hand? We're going to just take a dime-size on moistened skin and rub in circles. You'll feel that exfoliation kind of just really, really removing that dead skin and the dead skin also contributes to breakouts by plugging the pores. When you're finished with this, I want you to again rinse it with warm water. Now I didn't say that before, but don't use hot water on your skin. It's - it does open the pores - but also dries out the surface of your skin. A lot of people think hot water is the only thing that's going to get through that oil. It's not. It's going to dry out the surface and it helps to loosen your skin. So keep it warm and then splash it because - splash it with the warm water, keeping the pores open. Your next step is a mud mask. So you want to get something heavy. Swiss Ives has a great one. Just get a mud mask, you can find them anywhere. Put it on - a thin coat is all you need. What a mud mask is going to do is draw out the dirt and impurities from your skin into the mask. So that - while you're reducing the amount of oil in the skin - it's going to come to the surface and your pores are going to shrink because there's not so much dirt and oil in there. Now I'm going to tell you, once you first begin to use a mud mask, more dirt and oil are going to come to the surface so you might suffer a little bit more breakouts. But, eventually, that'll get all clear and clean and you will feel - see a much minimized look in your pores. Remember, don't overuse makeup - less is more. You don't want to clog your pores. And never pick at your skin. So, cleanse, tone, mask, exfoliate once a week, mask twice a week and don't overuse your makeup and never pick at your skin. Enjoy your smaller pores!"