Hello and welcome to another mailbag Friday! I’m Dr. Ryan Shelton and, just like last week, I’ll be answering two skincare questions from South Beach Skin Lab customers who are committed to taking care of their skin, just like you! Our first question comes from Sarah in Boston, MA.
Q: Hi Dr. Ryan! Someone told me recently that it’s not possible to shrink your pores, but I’ve seen so many articles saying the opposite. Is it true? Are you able to actually shrink your pores?
A: This is a great question because so many people have the wrong idea about this topic. The truth is you can’t actually shrink your pores, but you can keep them tight and make them appear smaller. Let me explain…
Your pores change size throughout the day depending on a few things. For example - warm temperatures make them larger, and cold temperatures make them smaller.
Keeping consistent with your cleansing routine is another way to make your pores smaller, so it goes without saying that you never want to skip this step in your daily routine!
To keep your pores as tight as possible, I’d suggest using an antibacterial and anti-aging product like my Lavender Oil Cleanser.
Cleansing your skin with a product that’s gentle on your skin but strong enough to get rid of harmful impurities is going to make sure your pores stay unclogged and you’re able to enjoy a cleaner and fresher complexion.
It’s also going to fight signs of aging like wrinkles and fine lines with its powerful anti-wrinkle ingredients.
By using a product like my Lavender Oil Cleanser, you’re also giving yourself the best chance at keeping your skin healthy and preventing your pores from getting larger.
So in short, no you can’t change the size of your pores - that’s decided by your skin type and will never change - but you can use products that will make them appear smaller throughout the day!
I hope this helped, Sarah!
My next question about changing skincare products comes from Betty in Ossining, NY
Q: Hello Dr. Ryan. I’ve heard that you need to change your moisturizer often or your skin will get used to it and it won’t help get rid of your wrinkles anymore. Is this true?
A: Hello Betty! To answer your question - no, this isn’t completely true. No matter what moisturizer you’re using, you shouldn’t have to worry about your skin getting used to it, and I’ll tell you why that is.
When you first start using a product is usually when you’ll see the most results. It usually takes your skin about 14-30 days for you to see a change in your complexion, and you might find that the change is quite a big one.
After this, your results may start to slow down - but that doesn’t mean your skin is used to your moisturizer.
In these situations, it’s important to manage your expectations of what kind of results you’ll get.
Everyone reacts to skincare ingredients differently and some may see more results than others, but there really isn’t a product on the market that will completely erase signs of aging like wrinkles and fine lines.
Another important thing to remember is that if your results start to slow down, your moisturizer is still doing a lot of work to prevent these problems from coming back.
As long as you’re using a product like my Repair and Release Cream, you can be sure that it’s working overtime to help decrease your wrinkles as much as possible while preventing new ones from forming.
In my professional opinion, any moisturizer worth your hard-earned money needs to be able to help smooth fine lines and wrinkles and also prevent more signs of aging from showing up.
You can tell that your moisturizer will do exactly that by paying close attention to the ingredients.
If you see peptides like Reproage and Matrixyl, you know that you’ll get some pretty great results!
Whatever you do, don’t give up on your moisturizer - it’s helping you avoid more signs of aging and keeping your skin healthy and youthful for as long as possible!
