[By Natasha Brown]

If you grab any girl by the road and ask them for their top 3 beauty wishes, I’m dead sure that smaller sized pores will make it to the list. Big pores can be a frustrating beauty nemesis that even the best makeup products and skills fail to hide, to give your skin that coveted, smooth flawless finish on IG sans filters and photo-editing. Pores are more prominent to the naked eye when they are dilated, infected, or clogged with oil and debris, making them appear larger than they really are. A good skincare regime is hence without a doubt a good starting point to deal with them, by using the right products to make them “appear smaller”. But for permanent salvation towards absolute “pore-fect” skin no less, tried and tester non-ablative laser treatments are what you should be gunning for to physically shrink down those pesky looking pores while increasing collagen production for overall skin rejuvenation!

Regular Exfoliation

If this is not already part of your regular skincare regime, it’s about time to make it so! Exfoliating your skin regularly helps to remove dry skin cells that may be clogging up your pores. In addition, it will also help to make the openings of those pesky pores appear a little more shallow compared to those coated with a layer of dead skin cells. There are a myriad of beneficial natural and chemical exfoliants, so pick one suited for your skin type and budget and start scrubbing your mien to a radiant luminosity before summer’s party season hits town.

CHAI CRYSTAL HEALING Oxygenating Facial Scruban exfoliator extraordinaire aimed to uncover your skin’s true inner brilliance by leaving no pores “un-preened”. The closest home experience you can get to a professional skin polishing Microdermabrasion therapy at any upscale spa downtown, this is an insider’s secret of doctor-inspired, and scientifically formulated skincare gem favored by those in the know. A dual-phasic mask+scrub combo getting twice the work done at half the time, it exfoliates and moisturizes concurrently to improve your skin texture in a jiffy. Harnessing the cell renewal power from champagne extracts which uses active polyphenols with protective and antioxidant properties together with trace elements extracted from grapes, it magically transforms into a fine crystal scrub for effective exfoliation. Micro-ionized pearls stimulate microcirculation at the same time, with a special oxygen-releasing formulation giving neglected winter complexions a much needed O2 boost for enhanced radiance. Gear up for a refreshing overhaul to reveal a fresher, silky smooth and more youthful-looking skin without the need to hide under layers of foundation or BB cream.

Follow up with CHAI SAPPHIRE Balancing Facial Oil, an awesome skin hydrator that comes packaged in a slick pen with a rollerball tip for convenient storage and easy application. Formulated with 100% natural and pure plant oils including Azulene, which makes perfect sense as this blue stuff is extracted from Chamomile, a flower known for soothing the mind and body. Hydrating stressed-out skins without clogging pores, SAPPHIRE creates a harmonious skin environment so that skin can stop producing excess oil, and find the balance it needs when subjected to both internal stress and environmental aggressors for smaller, less visible pores.

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Shun the Sun

One of the worst things that you can do to damage your skin and make your pores look more worn than ever is to expose them to prolonged hours of unprotected UV rays. When your face is subjected to too much radiation, the top layers of the skin can thicken and become leathery in appearance, making your pores visibly bigger than what they really are. So before you step outdoors in broad daylight, you must get the sequence to how you prep and paint your face right.

To begin with, if your skin is textured by enlarged pores, fine lines, wrinkles and bumps, preparing your cleansed skin with a good silicone-based primer is a good idea to smooth and blur out imperfections, and can greatly affect the outcome of how smooth your makeup look. Use a natural, lightweight, non-comedogenic moisturizer such as SW1 HOLOGRAM Pore Minimizing Skin Primer which allows your foundation to hold to your skin better for a fresh and touchable look. With optimal amounts of vitamins A, C and E in its freshest and most absorbable forms for superb hydration, added illuminating skin primers which deflect light to lend skin a diffuse soft focus effect make HOLOGRAM an excellent makeup primer, giving you a polished, matte finish against the dreaded mid-day shine.

Make sure you follow up with a broad spectrum sunscreen with SPF 30 or more before you reach out for your foundation or BB cream, and finally finishing off with a dusting of loose powder. Even in the thick of winter, don’t ignore adequate sun protection as clouds allow more UV to penetrate them compare to infrared and visible light. In other words, even when the temperatures are lower and the skies are grey, the amount of UV we are getting aren’t any less!

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Sponge on Retinoids

Despite the fact that you might not be worrying about lines and wrinkles at this point in time, do take note of the dermatological prowess of retinoids. Besides its more well-known anti-aging benefits, this vitamin A derivative helps unclog pores effectively by decreasing the cohesiveness of your facial skin cells and increasing their rate of turnover. Consequently, oils and other surface impurities find it harder to nest in your pores and can be removed much more readily. An effective albeit gentle preparation that can be incorporated into your nightly skincare regime to minimize pore signs and fight visible signs of aging is the aptly named, SW1 AGE DEFY. A rejuvenating and anti-aging lotion which combines retinol with a powerful, natural moisturizing agent packed full of hyaluronic acid and vital collagen. Not only does it fight wrinkles as you drift off into slumberland, AGE DEFY effectively tones, lifts and firms skin while tackling enlarged pores to make them appear smaller.

Layer on CHAI BLUE ORCHID Balancing Moisturizer with Detoxifying Orchids, a lightweight, non-comedogenic formulation especially suitable for those with oily skin to instantly replenish cellular water.Enhanced with Natural Moisturizing Factor to boost skin hydration to optimal levels, BLUE ORCHID delivers long-lasting moisturization to restore both glow and youth to skins from 25 to 80, while calming inflamed, irritated skins without leaving a trace of shine or feeling of grease.

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Say Yes to Spa

Remember the wonky mullet you ended up with when you thought trimming your own fringe is going to be an easy peasy 5 minute job? Although there are many good skincare products and tools that one can buy over the counter for a round of DIY home spa, things are best left in the hands of those in the know. Besides, every girl deserves to be pampered like a princess once in a while! The SW1 Spa offers a comprehensive menu that caters to all skin woes, and one of the most requested are facials for pores.

CLEAN SLATE is a well put together SEXTEXT ideally suited for those troubled by oily, clogged skins keen for a pore-size downgrade and an upgrade in skin clarity.Combining the purification benefits of both DEEP DEEP CLEAN and CLEAR BLUE facials, Aqua.dermabrasion is one of the key feature with an ever enlarging fan base.Working differently from your traditional microdermabrasion, a spiral shaped tip with multiple abrasive edges replaces the usual flat ones, allowing better exfoliation several times over as the tip is moved on skin’s surface in a planning motion. The gentle jet of accompany fluid containing a potent blend of AHA/BHAs, infusing treated skins with acne busting agents while continuous moisture application ensures maximal comfort level, reducing friction and softening the skin and sebum to extract impurities and blast them away with ease. Aqua.dermabrasion immediately leaves the skin clearer and brighter, with no complicated special post treatment care to take note of nor any significant downtime that will hinder your daily routine.Regular sessions do much more than keeping your pores squeaky clean, multi-tasking to help with fine lines, wrinkles, surface blemishes, uneven skin tone and possibly mild pigmentation all at one go.

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Seek Professional Advice

Plagued by gaping, open pores the size of craters that do not respond to run of the mill beauty treatments? Now, science has mercifully come up with effective medical aesthetics solutions to give you “closure” to your “porous” woes. While our pore size is genetically determined, there is something we can do to fight our genetic imperfections. Pioneered by the Koreans well known for their exceedingly high benchmark for Beauty, as a standalone treatment or as part of the comprehensive Pore Perfection Program, the Laser Peel is the ideal way to slough off dead cells and shrink down pores without the use of harsh chemicals. This state of the art approach to skin rejuvenation resurfaces and replenishes the skin at the same time with the use of gentle yet deep penetrating laser energy to exfoliate the rough and damaged outer layer of dead skin cells to reveal younger, softer, and fairer skin underneath. It refines skin texture by reducing oiliness and minimizing pore size as it renews environmentally and sun-damaged skin with improved skin tone and density.

While traditional skin re-surfacing techniques for “pore-fect” skin are both tedious and painful with a protracted period of downtime, beauty prayers are being answered in the form of SmartX Lite, a complexion-transforming carbon dioxide laser that comes in a fractionated airbrush micro-spray set to deliver deep dermal, skin-transforming benefits but without the dreaded tell-tale downtime. This revolutionary resurfacing treatment with the stamp of approval from FDA causes immediate stimulation of skin’s natural cell renewal cycle, enhances skin texture and elasticity as well as erases mild skin imperfections and fine lines. There’s improvement with every single session but consecutive treatments of 4 to 6 sessions will bring forth an accumulative effect, resulting in a flawless mien that you’ll be dying to flaunt sans makeup this summer.

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