Why do pores appear larger than life? Anything that attracts attention or expands their natural architecture magnifies their appearance. These can be dealt with. However, the closer you look in the mirror, the larger those pores are going to appear. If you have a habit of examining your skin in the magnifying side of your beauty mirror, perhaps it isn't really your best friend. So put it aside and address these factors that really do play havoc with your pores.

• Genetics may certainly be to blame. Barely visible on those prone to drier skin, individuals with oily, thicker (glabrous) skin tend to have larger looking, more noticeable pores. This is often hereditary.

• Sun damage is another cause. As we age, one of the ways sun damage affects the skin is through the enlargement of the pores. Sun damage and aging cause the epidermis to thicken and a rim of cells are more likely to collect around individual pores. While microscopic, these rings exaggerate pore diameter.

• Pores may be more visible simply due to lack of good skin grooming and poor exfoliation. Too much surface oil and remnant naturally shed skin cells can collect around the edges of pores, creating the illusion of the pores being larger than they really are.

• Blackheads and enlarged pores often go hand-in-hand. Blackheads can either expand pores or simply focus attention on them. But pores can appear larger than life for many reasons, blackheads being but one of them.

Pores are a natural part of the skin; blackheads are the superficial plugs that may form within them. Pore dilatation begins with faulty exfoliation of cells lining the interior gland - cells are too "sticky" leading to microscopic plugs.

Sebaceous glands continue to produce sebum that accumulates behind the plug. Protracted pooling of skin oils serves to both nourishes bacteria (like P. acnes and S. epidermidis).

Dead skin cells, oils and bacteria choke the follicular opening, expanding the diameter of the pore. Blackheads medically termed "open comedones" - are an all too common outcome. Plugs within the pores composed of sebum, cellular debris and bacteria congest the gland and expand the pore.

Contact with air allows oxygenation to take place, turning the plugs black, further heightening visibility.

Recommended Treatments:

Pearl Fusion - Single Treatment

Laser Genesis

Skin Peels