Your skin is covered with pores. These are small holes that contain the roots of the hair or hair (follicles).
They allow perspiration to come out of your skin to refresh your body. And they also let sebum, an oily substance that protects the skin, flow out. It forms a thin layer that helps both regulate body temperature and make it harder for bacteria to try to settle on your skin.
Sebum is made by your sebaceous glands, which you find everywhere on your body except under the soles of your feet and on the palms of your hands. If your fingers leave traces of grease, it is not the fault of your sebum but more probably because you have rubbed yourself in a place where your skin was oily, for example, your face or your back, or that you put in the butter🙂
Pore size
The size of the pores varies greatly from person to person. To be frank, people generally prefer small pores (it's cuter than big pores!). When your pores are small, your skin looks firmer, tighter, less hanging.
In children, the pores are small and this gives them that peach skin that we all envy them, and that we had ourselves not so long ago!
But the size of the pores is also determined by your inheritance. There are people who tend to have larger pores, which causes several problems:
* they naturally have oily skin;
* when they get older and when they are in the sun, the loss of collagen in the skin enlarges the pores;
* finally, their pores tend to become clogged with dead cells and other debris, which makes them appear even larger.
Hormones also play an important role: they activate the production of sebum and this is why adolescents have oily skin. Women, whose hormone production varies during cycles, may have oily skin during ovulation and during pregnancy.
When the oil is blocked in the pores
When you produce too much oil (sebum) and your pores are clogged, dead skin can cause bacteria to proliferate in this warm bath and cause mini-infection. Your skin is blushing, it's acne.
When the oil still can't get out, acne gets bigger, spreads. Appears on your skin the dreaded red button, possibly even with a white head, filled with a yellowish liquid which is, therefore, a mixture of sebum, dead skin cells, and bacteria.
Clean sweat and dirty sweat
The other liquid produced by our body, sweat, comes from two different types of glands.
The eccrine glands, which are the most numerous and are found everywhere on the body. The sweat then comes out through the pores, it is very liquid and does not stick. It is made up of 99% water and a little salt (sodium chloride, potassium, magnesium). The eccrine glands are particularly numerous in the palm of the hand and the soles of the feet. Hence our ability to have sweaty hands and wet our socks. This sweat in itself does not smell bad, and, if we are clean, dries without a trace. It's "clean" sweat.
But there is another type of sweat, sticky and loaded with fats, proteins, and pheromones.
Pheromones are chemical messengers that, in animals, are used to send messages, including sexual messages, to other individuals. In humans, the action of pheromones is more mysterious, but certainly real too.
This sticky sweat is produced by the apocrine glands, which are located under the armpits, groin, around the nipples and anus. This sweat comes out of the hair follicles (the hair roots).
The apocrine glands only develop at puberty and IT IS THEY, THE BIG CULPRITS OF THE SMELL OF PERSPIRATION which makes our charming toddlers, who always smelled so good even after a whole afternoon of play in the sun, start to smell like wild beasts early in the morning if they don't get into the habit of washing and putting on deodorant.
How to tighten large pores
To cleanse the pores and get rid of their oil and their waste and dead cells, the first measure is to sweat regularly, doing intense physical activity, and supplementing if possible with a sauna.
However, you should lose the habit of overly hot and too long showers, which dilate the pores of the skin and cause redness. Cold showers and cold baths are great for contracting capillaries (small blood vessels in the skin) and firming the skin.
On the face, you can even use an ice cube to shrink your pores even more. Wrap it in a cotton towel and apply it on the enlarged pores with light pressure for about 30 seconds to 1 minute, no more to avoid irritating the skin.
Natural beauty
Putting your health at risk in the name of beauty is a mistake many people make without knowing it. Silhouette, skin, hair, and state of mind: discover our tips for naturally feeling good in your head and body, without making yourself sick.
Lotions and masks
You can also apply on your skin, with a cotton pad, witch hazel floral water (or "witch hazel"). It is a plant that comes from Amazonia and which has astringent virtues, that is to say, that it produces a tension of the mucous membranes. On the skin, it tightens large pores.
Hazelnut oil and aloe vera lotions are also helpful.
For the most motivated (e) s, you can also, of course, make masks.
* Ultra-known, the cucumber mask can be replaced by a simple cucumber juice. Mix the cucumber juice with a little salt then apply to the face and let it sit for a few minutes. Even better, mash a half-peeled cucumber, add a few drops of lemon juice and a teaspoon of rose water. Apply the mixture on your face and let it sit for 15 to 20 minutes, then rinse off with cold water.
* You can also apply tomato juice to your face. Let sit down for 20 minutes then rinse with warm water. Perform this treatment 3 times a week to have healthy skin without enlarged pores. It is also beneficial for regulating sebum production.
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