1. Ice
Ice tightens the skin and shrinks pores. This remedy not only improves your skin’s appearance, but it also invigorates you.
Rub ice against your skin for 10 to 20 seconds. To make it less messy, you can wrap a few cubes in a clean cloth and hold it against your skin. Do this a few times daily.
Alternatively, you can wash your face with very cold water. Do this in the morning and evening, but don’t over-wash. More is not always better and too much washing can irritate the skin.
2. Plain Yogurt Mask
Natural yogurt contains probiotics and lactic bacteria, which help keep the bad bacteria that causes acne in check, therefore reducing the appearance of pore size. It’s also a good cleanser that will help clear and dissolve impurities in your pores.
Stir the yogurt well and then apply a thin layer on your face.
Leave on for a maximum of 10 minutes.
Rinse off with cool water.
Repeat this once or twice a week.
Yogurt is also one of the ingredients in my face mask recipe for glowing skin and is also one of the ingredients in my homemade facial cleansers.
3. Baking Soda Exfoliation
Baking soda will balance the pH of your skin and remove dirty particles from the surface of your face. If your skin is very sensitive, be careful when applying baking soda as it may cause irritation. Try a small area first and then proceed.
Mix two tablespoons of baking soda with 2 tablespoons of warm water, so you create a paste.
Apply the mixture on your face using circular motions and massage gently.
After 30 seconds, rinse the paste off with cool water.
Repeat the treatment every day for 7 days and then reduce the frequency to 3 to 5 times a week.
There are other 7 uses for baking soda as a kitchen medicine and you can also use it to fight cold and flu.
4. Egg Whites and Lemon Juice
Egg whites are known to tighten the skin and draw out excess oil, improving the condition of oily skin. Lemons are extremely versatile and can be used in many ways to enhance your health.
Whisk two egg whites.
Add the juice of half a lemon.
Apply the mix on your face and leave it on until it dries.
Rinse off with cool water.
Re-apply a few times a week.
You can also make a scrub by adding some oatmeal to the mix. Use an egg white and 2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice and oatmeal each. Leave it on your face for 15-20 minutes and then perform a gentle scrub.
5. Apple cider vinegar (ACV)
Take advantage of the ACV’s abundant health benefits. Apply this natural pH balancer and a potent anti-microbial and anti-bacterial remedy that will pick up your skin’s condition. Always dilute ACV before using it on your face.
Mix ACV and water in 1:1 ratio.
Apply the solution on your face using a cotton ball.
Leave for a few minutes and then rinse it off.
You can use this treatment every evening before going to bed. As ACV dries the skin, follow the soak with a gentle moisturizer.
You can find more information about the amazing health benefits of ACV and how to use it to treat skin problems in my article why you should use ACV to wash your face.
6. Cucumber juice
Cucumber is a natural astringent and shrinks open pores. It also refreshes the skin and gives it a new glow.
Extract the juice of one fresh cucumber (you can first grate it and squeeze out the juice or use a juicer).
Apply the juice on your skin with a cotton ball.
Let it work for 15 to 20 minutes and then wash it off with cold water.
Cucumber is also one of the ingredients in my recipe for soothing gel for tired eyes.
7. Clay mask
Clay is naturally occurring earthy substance has the ability to absorb impurities from fats and oils. There are several types of clay such as Fuller’s earth, green clay, white clay (kaolin) and bentonite clay, and you can read more about them in my article how to use clay for body detox and great skin.
Mix two tablespoons of clay of your choice with enough water or rose water to make a smooth mud mask.
Apply the paste on your face and leave it for 20 minutes, so it gets dry.
Scrub the mud off gently using cool water.
Repeat the mask once or twice weekly.
8. Sugar lemon scrub
This is another home scrub that will exfoliate your skin, remove dirt and make your pores smaller.
Mix two tablespoons of sugar and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice.
Apply it on your skin and gently massage for 20 to 30 seconds.
Wash off with cool water.
Apply once or twice a week.
More Tips for Minimizing Large Pores
Eat healthy and avoid processed foods that can inflame your skin and clog pores. Embrace a diet full of fruits and veggies and give unhealthy fats and oils a wide berth.
Always remove make-up before going to bed.
Don’t use oil-based skin products. Also, go for products that are ‘non-comedogenic’ (check the label), which means they won’t clog pores. If they contain zinc and magnesium, they’ll further reduce the size of your pores as these two act in a cleansing way.
Don’t overly expose yourself to the sun. Use a good quality sunscreen and wear a hat. The sun is also one of the top 10 causes for premature aging of your face.
Enjoy a home facial steam once a week to open the pores and sweat out impurities.
You can also rejuvenate your skin using oil cleansing method.
OIL CLEANSINGWhat is Oil Cleansing?
Oil cleansing uses specific combinations of natural oils to clean and balance your skin. It is usually used for your face and can be combined with gentle steaming.
How does Oil Cleansing Work?
Unlike commercial soaps and facial cleaners, natural oils don’t destroy the skin’s innate protection mechanisms, but promote self-healing and cleaning. When you apply mainstream skin care products, they aggressively strip the oil (sebum) out of your skin. Your skin – the body’s largest organ – tries to over-compensate for the loss and produces even more oil, making your skin look greasy. As a result, you use even more of the drying products, creating a vicious cycle. On top of that, cosmetic products come laden with all sorts of fragrances that often act as irritants and deepen the problem.
As strange as it might sound, when you apply natural oil to your skin, the skin actually becomes less oily. Oil dissolves oil. This follows one of chemistry’s basic principles: like dissolves like. If you use the right oils, you will help remove the dirty oils and cleanse your pores of dirt and bacteria.
The eliminated oils will be replaced by healthy oils, which will help nourish the skin. Natural oils also balance the skin’s pH, which makes this method so successful in the long run.
There might be an initial adjustment period when skin looks worse after using the oils. But this is just a part of the detox process and doesn’t mean that the oil treatment isn’t working. On the contrary.
Best Oils for Oil Cleansing
Different vegetable oils can be used, and some of them you probably stock in your kitchen or medicine cabinet.
The first oil is castor oil.
This oil is excellent at pulling impurities from the skin and for improving your hair as well. It needs to be diluted with some other oil or it will dry the skin. If your skin is already dry, you can still use castor oil, but you just use less of it. Some are concerned about the castor oil plants un-sustainable growing practices that expose workers to toxins. If that is the case, you can also use hazelnut oil as a replacement. You can also use hazelnut oil to naturally cure scars.
The secondary oil
The secondary oil (in which you dilute castor oil) can be your choice of a cold pressed vegetable oil. The best options include:
Olive oil (which is also one of my top 7 oils for skin care)
Sunflower seed oil
Safflower oil
Coconut oil (you can also use coconut oil to make a home-made body butter)
Oils are mixed in different ratios depending on your skin type. See below for details.
Different Skin Types
It will take a bit of experimenting to get the mixture right for you. Every person’s body is different. You can make smaller batches at first, and make necessary adjustments until you get your perfect formula.
These ratios have been suggested for different skin types:
Oily skin: 2/3 castor oil/hazelnut oil and 1/3 olive or other oil
Normal skin: 1/2 castor oil/hazelnut oil and 1/2 olive or other oil
Dry skin: 1/3 castor oil/hazelnut oil and 2/3 olive or other oil
You can also buy your oil. The ones sold in the shops are usually a combination of botanical oils (olive, sesame, sunflower, grape seed, almond, safflower), an extract (jasmine, green tea), and/or vitamins A and E. But that will of course make it a lot less personal, possibly less natural and more expensive.
How to do Facial Oil Cleansing
It’s most practical if you do this in the shower or at the bathroom sink. Also watch the video at the end of the article.
Pour a generous amount of the oil blend in your hand and massage into the skin. You don’t need to wet or clean the face first. The oil will remove all dirt (including makeup). Massage until you feel the skin is saturated with oil; you can even leave it on for 10 minutes as a mask.
Place clean washcloth under very hot water, soak it and wring it out.
Put the washcloth over your face and leave it there for a few minutes (until it cools). This will create a steaming effect and clean the pores. Wipe the oil gently away and repeat two to three times.
Don’t scrub, just let the steamy washcloth remove the oil. It’s OK for a thin layer of clean oil to remain on the skin.
If your skin feels slightly dry at the end, you can use a drop of your oil mixture as a soft moisturizer. Typically, no moisturizer is needed.
Your skin should glow now!
When and How Often Should You Do the Oil Cleanse
It is best to do your cleanse in the evening, before going to bed. Some suggest doing it daily, while others prefer to do it less frequently to give the skin a chance to react and balance itself.
Things to consider
It is very important for the health of your skin to drink enough pure water. Sometimes skin impurities will reduce if you just stay hydrated and flush the toxins out.
You won’t achieve perfect skin overnight and a few treatments will probably be needed before you see positive results.
Allow some time to create your personal oil blend.
Combine your oil cleansing with some gentle facial massage and relaxation time.