The Truth about Clogged Pores (and how to prevent them)

TRANSCRIPTION: 

Hi, my name is Amber, and I’m the founder of Bambu Earth, and I wanted to talk to you today about clogged pores. Now, we’ve all had them, and we probably know what they look like and feel like, but I want to talk to you about why they happen and how to minimize them from happening. Now first of all, I want to just preface this by saying that not everything in your pores is bad. Sometimes I think we look in the mirror, and we see stuff in our pores and we think “gosh, they must be clogged”, when in all actuality, our skin is constantly producing a waxy, oily substance called sebum and sebum is good for our skin. It helps protect our skin against bacteria and free radicals, but it's when that sebum overproduces, your skin produces a lot of it, and it mixes with dead skin cells, and dirt and debris, that your pores become at risk for being clogged, and then leading to blackheads, whiteheads, and pustule and cystic acne. 

 

So what I want to explain is just a couple of easy ways that you can prevent that from happening. The first is to exfoliate regularly. Dead skin cells are a big piece of this. They can mix with the sebum on your skin and they can block your pores. If you’re regularly exfoliating once every 3 days, then this should minimize it as well. The second thing is to use an oil based moisturizer. This can seem very counterintuitive to people, especially if you’re trying to stay away from oil because your skin is experiencing acne. But actually the very opposite is true. If you’re using the right oils, your skin needs to be taught not to produce extra oils, and in order for that to happen, it needs to get enough oils onto it so that it can stop over-producing its own oils. So those are two easy ways that you can minimize clogged pores, and I hope this tip helps. 

 

Product Recommendations: 

For regular exfoliating, try this mask for a spa-like solution, or this facial bar for a quick shower scrub.

For an oil-based moisturizer, try this buttery and earthy balm, or this exotic concentrated balm/serum for graceful aging