The Pore Therapy Guide
The Pore Therapy Guide
Cleanse, polish, tone, then feed it. Four steps that empty a pore and keep it empty, and the serums that rebuild the support around it. Everything here is on sale through Monday at midnight.
Your codes for this weekend
PORES10
10% off everything on this page
PORES15
15% off when your order is over $300
Add the code at checkout. It is not applied automatically. One code per order, and it runs through Monday, October 19.
A pore looks smaller when it is empty
The opening you can see is the top of a tube. Oil made further down travels up it, the cells lining it shed along the way, and the two together make a soft plug. A plug takes up room. The wall of that tube is elastic, so it gives, and the opening widens around whatever is held inside it.
Two things about your pores you cannot change: how many you have, and the caliber they were built at. What you can change is what is sitting inside them, and how well the skin around them is holding its shape. Between those two you have nearly all of the visible difference.
Empty is the part you can do something about. Gentle and regular beats strong and occasional every time, and it is not close. Four steps, none of them long, and your skin comes into fall clear and bright.
Keeping it empty is the work. The appearance follows from that.
Step one. Break the oil down.
F82 Blue Tansy Clarifying Cleanser
Sebum is a lipid, and water does not touch a lipid. A cleanser has to be built to dissolve it rather than to foam at you. Blue tansy clears without stripping, which matters when you are doing it twice a day.
Step two. Take off the compacted surface.
A gentle polish clears the lid of dead cells that keeps everything sealed in. Three routes to the same job, so pick the one you like the feel of. You do not need more than one.
F34 Rose Resurfacing Facial Polish
From $65
Rose and fine botanical grains. The softest of the three on the face.
Shop F34
F35 Sandalwood Renewal Polish
From $45
Warm sandalwood, and the easiest place to start if you are new to polishing.
Shop F35
F144 Dermaglow Resurfacing Polish
From $65
The brightest finish of the three, built for texture and fall radiance.
Shop F144Once or twice a week is plenty. Force is what damages skin, not exfoliation, so let the polish do the lifting and keep your hand light.
Step three. Keep the duct clear between washes.
This is the step people drop first and it is the one doing the maintenance. A toner after each cleanse keeps the opening clear in the hours when the plug would otherwise be compacting. Both of ours are built on organic rose hydrosol instead of water, so your face feels fresh and still comfortable an hour later.
F81 Clear Skin Clarifying Toner
From $45
The clearing one. Built for skin that congests, with the clarifying botanicals doing the between-washes work.
Shop F81
F88 Rose Gold Radiance Toner
From $48
Calm, hydrate, illuminate. Colloidal gold with chamomile and hibiscus, and it works beautifully on this routine.
Shop F88Step four. Feed it, and keep the support strong.
A pore sits in a collar of dermis, and that collar is what holds its shape. As density falls, the support softens and the opening slackens, often lengthening into a teardrop across the cheeks rather than staying round. That half is firmness work, it is slower, and it is where the real fall radiance comes from.
F8 Angel Face Fast Recovery Serum
From $69
Start here if your skin is blemish-prone. Calming the reactivity makes everything else easier to keep up.
Shop F8
F107 Peptide Power Lift Serum
From $102
Peptides for visible density, and the gentler way into the structural half.
Shop F107
F12 Structural Lift + Renewal Serum
From $92
1% bakuchiol in a lighter serum that stands on its own. Never retinol.
Shop F12
F108 The Renewal Accelerator Bio-Serum
The treatment serum for firmness and density, made with bakuchiol, never retinol. It goes on first, straight onto clean skin, with a serum or a cream over it. That layer on top is part of how it works, and together they are the full protocol.
The packs, if you want it all in one go
Every one of these is built around F108, and four of them pair it with F34, so the polishing step and the structural step arrive together and in the right order. All of them are in the sale.
F108 Structural Renewal System
From $379
F108 + your choice of F3, F8, F19 or F107
The simplest way to do it properly. F108 underneath, and the one layer it needs on top, chosen for what your skin is working on.
Build the system
The Tone Shift System
From $449
F34 + F108 + F19 + F22
Polish, structure, antioxidant protection and the eye area. For tone that has stopped looking even.
Shop Tone Shift
Dermal Architecture: Density + Contour
From $459
F34 + F108 + F3 + F22
A sixty day protocol for the point where hydration alone stops being enough.
Shop Density + Contour
Rose 4-Step Dermal Renewal System
From $489
F34 + F108 + F18 + F20
The rose route. Resurface, rebuild, hydrate deeply, then seal it with ceramides.
Shop Rose 4-Step
The Dermal Architecture Protocol: Complete System
From $695
F34 + F108 + F3 + F22 + F109
The most complete thing we make. Every step across the full renewal cycle, night cream included.
Shop the Complete SystemThe two that finish the job
F46 Detox Charcoal Mask
From $65
Once a plug has been there a while it needs lifting rather than dissolving. F46 pulls the fill up and out. Use it on a different night from your polish.
Shop F46
F65 Smooth & Bright Body Polish
From $45
Your back, chest and shoulders run more oil glands per square inch than your face. Same mechanism, same answer.
Shop F65Cleanse twice a day. Toner after each cleanse. Mask once or twice a week. Polish once or twice a week, on a different night. Deliberately unexciting, because you can do it for a year without your skin objecting.
The questions I get most
Can I actually make a pore smaller?
There is no muscle around a pore and nothing there to contract, so anything promising to close one permanently is promising something the anatomy does not allow. What a good product does is empty it and keep it empty, and the appearance follows from that.
What is the dark speck at the top?
That is the plug meeting air and oxidizing. It is not dirt sitting on your face, which is why washing harder was never going to shift it.
Does cold water or ice help?
Cold constricts the tissue around the opening for a few minutes, so it does something real, just not the thing it gets credit for. The opening itself is unchanged and everything returns as soon as your face is warm.
Which polish should I choose?
F34, F35 and F144 are three routes to the same job, so pick the one you like the feel of. You do not need more than one, and one or two nights a week is plenty.
F81 or F88?
F81 is the clearing one, built for skin that congests. F88 is calm, hydration and radiance, with colloidal gold, chamomile and hibiscus. Both do the between-washes work, and both are built on organic rose hydrosol rather than water.
Where does F108 go in the routine?
First, straight onto clean skin, even though it is an oil. It works in direct contact with the skin and draws on whatever you layer over the top of it, so it always needs one thing above it: a serum, or a cream, or both for the full protocol.
How long before I see a difference?
The clearing half shows up quickly, within days of keeping the routine. The structural half is slower. Your skin rebuilds on roughly a thirty day cycle, so visible change in density is several cycles of work rather than one.
Does any of this apply below the neck?
Your back, chest and shoulders run more oil glands per square inch than most of your face, and the mechanism is identical. F65 once or twice a week clears the surface the same way.
Clear it for fall
Everything on this page is on sale through Monday at midnight. PORES10 for 10% off, or PORES15 for 15% off when your order is over $300. Add it at checkout before you pay.