Enlarged Pores on Your Face: What Causes Them and How to Minimise Them

Published: 19.10.2026 | Reading time approx. 7 min.

Pores have no muscles. They don’t open with warm water, and they don’t close when you rub an ice cube over your face. Yet ‘closing pores’ is one of the most common promises on skincare labels.

Enlarged pores on your face aren’t a skin condition or a skincare mistake. They’re the visible result of several processes: sebum production, the way skin cells shed inside the pore, loss of firmness and genetics. Some of these you can’t change, but most you can influence – often with simpler steps than the beauty aisle suggests. Below I explain what causes large pores on the face, which home remedies do more harm than good, and what actually helps to minimise them.

Tried product after product and your pores still look the same? Scroll to the end of this article – I’m happy to advise you by email.

What are pores?

A pore is the opening of a hair follicle. Picture a funnel: the sebaceous gland sits at the bottom and produces sebum, and the neck of the funnel carries it up to the surface of your skin. Sebum is part of the hydrolipid film that helps stop your skin losing water (more on the skin barrier). That’s why the goal of skincare isn’t to ‘get rid of’ pores, but to make them less visible.

Most of your large sebaceous glands sit in the T-zone and on the inner part of the cheeks. I often read that pores let the skin ‘breathe’ or flush out toxins. That’s not true – oxygen reaches the skin through the blood, and toxins are removed by the liver and kidneys.

What causes enlarged pores?

A review in Dermatologic Surgery points to three main factors behind large pores on the face: high sebum production, loss of elasticity in the skin around the pore and a larger follicle volume. Source: Lee et al., 2016

Sebum and hormones

The more sebum your glands produce, the more the pore opening is stretched. In a study by Roh et al., pore size was linked to sebum output, age and sex – men had larger pores. Source: Roh et al., 2006. Sebaceous glands are driven mainly by androgens, which is why pores grow larger during puberty and can look temporarily bigger at certain points in the menstrual cycle or in summer.

Clogged pores and blackheads

When the skin lining the pore opening doesn’t shed properly, dead cells mix with sebum and form a plug. Clogged pores are stretched from the inside (more on pores clogged by skincare). When the plug is exposed to air, it oxidises and darkens – that’s how blackheads form.

Loss of firmness

Each pore is supported by a scaffold of collagen and elastic fibres. With age and UV exposure, this support weakens and the pore opening loses its structure. That’s why mature skin with enlarged pores often isn’t oily at all – the problem is laxity, not sebum. Daily sun protection is therefore part of caring for your pores (how to choose your SPF).

Genetics and acne

Pore size varies from person to person depending on ethnic background and age. Source: Flament et al., 2015. After years of acne, pores can also stay permanently larger, because inflammation damages the tissue around the follicle. No skincare product will change that.

What do enlarged pores look like?

The shape of a pore hints at its cause. Large pores on the nose are usually round and filled with grey or black dots. Often these aren’t blackheads but sebaceous filaments – the follicle’s natural lining, which comes back a few days after a ‘deep clean’. Pores on the cheeks are more often teardrop-shaped and line up in rows. That’s the typical picture of lost firmness, so supporting collagen and protecting your skin from UV will do more here than controlling sebum.

Remember! Squeezing and pore strips stretch the pore opening and irritate the skin – pores on your nose can look worse afterwards. If you want to clear blackheads without squeezing, try an ultrasonic skin scrubber – it loosens sebum plugs with sound waves and water rather than pressure.

Do pores open and close? The ‘open pores’ myth

Heat melts sebum and softens the outer layer of the skin, so it makes cleansing easier. Cold constricts blood vessels and tightens the skin for a few minutes. Neither changes the size of the pore opening – so if you’re searching for how to close pores on your face, the honest answer is that you can’t. Open pores aren’t ‘open’ in the sense of a door you can shut. Skin often feels smoother after cooler water for a different reason: hot water strips more lipids from the skin barrier. Skin cells overlap like roof tiles bound together with lipids – when the lipids run short, the edges lift and the skin feels rough. Lukewarm water is best for washing your face.

Alcohol-based toners that promise to ‘close pores’ give a brief feeling of tightness, but used often they dry the skin out. And that matters. Dehydrated skin often defends itself by producing more sebum – it ends up tight, shiny and dull all at once, with more visible pores. The mechanism isn’t yet well described in research, but I see it in practice very often. When the glands are underactive, for example for hormonal reasons, the skin has nothing to defend itself with and becomes dry and reactive (more on rosacea-prone skin). Either way, the conclusion is the same: don’t dry your skin out.

Home remedies for large pores: what does more harm than good?

Lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, bicarbonate of soda, toothpaste and sugar scrubs often top the lists of ways to shrink pores naturally. Each of them disrupts the skin’s hydrolipid barrier: they have an extreme pH, make the skin more sensitive to the sun or physically damage its outer layer. Tea tree oil added to a cream ‘by eye’ can trigger an allergy. Clay masks absorb sebum from the surface and the pore openings, so your skin looks matte for a few hours – but they don’t draw plugs out from deep inside the pore, and they don’t shrink pores. Neither does drinking two litres of water a day – there’s no research linking it to pore size.

A note for sensitive skin! ‘Natural’ doesn’t mean ‘safe’. Plant ingredients in DIY mixes are a common source of allergens.

How to minimise pores on your face

You can’t shrink pores permanently with skincare alone, but you can make them noticeably less visible. If you’re wondering how to minimise pores, the key is cleansing, exfoliating inside the pore opening and supporting your skin’s firmness.

Gentle cleansing

Washing gently twice a day removes sebum before it can form a plug. In the evening, when you’re wearing make-up and sunscreen, a double cleanse works well: an oil-based product first, then a mild gel. If you live in a hard-water area, choose a gel with a chelating agent, which binds calcium and magnesium ions.

Ingredients that help with large pores

Salicylic acid (INCI: Salicylic Acid) is oil-soluble, so it gets into the follicle and loosens plugs – it works well for pores on the nose. Niacinamide (INCI: Niacinamide) at 2% reduced the rate of sebum production in a clinical study. Source: Draelos et al., 2006. Retinoids normalise the way skin cells shed and support collagen. For sensitive skin, PHAs such as gluconolactone are a gentler option.

A moisturiser for large pores doesn’t need to contain everything at once. It’s better to pick one active ingredient and use it consistently than to layer five products (the correct order for applying skincare).

Treat comedogenicity lists – and the ‘non-comedogenic’ claims built on them – with caution. They were based on rabbit ear tests using pure, concentrated raw materials. Rabbit skin reacts far more strongly than human skin, and a finished product contains an ingredient at a different concentration and in a different formula. The amount you apply matters too – the thicker the layer, the higher the risk of clogged pores.

Tip: You’ll see the effect of cleansing within a few days. Ingredients that work on sebum and collagen need 8–12 weeks.

What does ‘fewer pores’ mean in an instrumental test?

In an instrumental test, a device takes a magnified photo of the skin, and software marks as a pore any dip that is large and dark enough against the surrounding skin. The number of follicle openings doesn’t change – what changes is how many of them cross the visibility threshold.

Let me show you with our Smoothing Cleanser. It was tested by an independent laboratory on a group of 10 people (8 women and 2 men) aged 26–48 with combination and oily skin. Measurements were taken before the test and after 7 days of daily use. The number of pores detected by the device (VisioFaceQuick) fell by an average of 39.4%, skin smoothness rose by an average of 16.8% and skin tone improved by 20.9%.

The pores didn’t get anatomically smaller – a week is far too short to change collagen or how the glands work. The oils dissolved the sebum plugs, and an empty, lighter pore has less contrast with the skin around it. Rice starch microparticles smaller than 100 microns polished the skin at the edges of the pores, so they cast less shadow. That’s why the accurate way to describe a result like this is ‘reduces the visibility of pores’, not ‘shrinks pores’. When you read claims on packaging, ask: how many people were tested, what was used to measure the result, and when.

Large pores treatment: when is a clinic worth it?

When pores are clearly enlarged, especially after acne or because of skin laxity, skincare alone isn’t enough. Clinics offer chemical peels, fractional laser, radiofrequency microneedling, IPL and intradermal botulinum toxin, which temporarily reduces sebum production. Sources: 2023 review, 2024 meta-analysis. If your enlarged pores come with active acne, see a doctor or dermatologist – prescription acne treatments can also reduce oiliness. Always discuss any large pores treatment or open pores treatment with a dermatologist first.

Magnifying mirrors and filters

A magnifying mirror shows your pores at a scale no one else ever sees them. Photos on social media go through filters that erase skin texture. If you study your pores up close every day and compare them with smoothed-out images, it’s easy to start seeing healthy skin as a problem. Everyone has pores.

Summary

Enlarged pores on your face are the result of sebum, the way skin cells shed, loss of firmness and genetics – not dirt or poor hygiene. You can’t close them with ice or toner, but gentle cleansing, one well-chosen active ingredient and daily UV protection really do make them less visible. Fewer products, more consistency.

Aleksandra Kubas-Maliszewska

Frequently asked questions (FAQ)