Large Pores? Zits? Red Spots? Need an Alternative or Cheap Solution?

Have you gotten older and notice the glow and translucency of your baby soft face is dulled? Is your nose and chin marred by crater-like pores that look more like your nose and chin has been peppered? Does the skin on your face look like a dull mask, dimming the joy you feel and belying your youthful feeling? Are you frowning at these age-related (or not) problems? Do you want to know how to stop a zit or just a red spot in its tracks, even if it shows up as you rush about to go out to an important party? Do you want the solutions to be cheap as well as effective? What would you do if you could not find your favorite solutions in the drug store? Can you ditch the apricot scrub, skin toner, or Clearasil?

1-Exfoliate

Clear the pores by putting a tsp or less of plain cornmeal in the palm of your hand. Put one drop of shampoo on the cornmeal. Drip just one drop of water from fingers of the other hand into the palm with the cornmeal and shampoo. Make a paste then gently exfoliate your face. Do this gently! I get a little rougher on my nose and chin, the places where pores became large. Then, just use a wash cloth to wipe this off, rinsing the wash cloth over and over. Lastly, stick your face in the sink and rinse by splashing lots of water on your face. Set up your own schedule as for how often you do this according to how your face reacts. Too often and too rough may make your face red. After awhile, do it on the nose and chin only if that is where the pores are large.

2-Beta Hydroxy or egg whites from shell

On my nose and chin I use Oil of Olay Age Defying Daily Renewal Cream with beta hydroxy complex. The beta hydroxy is the key. So, I am sure your choice of brand with this would work. I did this every day at first. Then, I just did it when I thought of it. Use a pea-sized bit for the whole face if you like every once in awhile. I do the whole face once every two weeks and my nose and chin most days. I buy a pot of this once a year. It was about $10 last time I bought it. With the exfoliation, this is only a once a week O of O moment.

If the drugstores close, egg white on the nose and chin will do the same thing. Just rub your finger in the freshly broken egg and smear it on your nose tip and chin...whereever the pores are large. You do not have to whip the white from a whole egg, just get the white (moisture) in the egg.

3-Aspirin

For the breakouts: I take two aspirin and crush them in a coffee cup with the end of a dinner knife. Then, I transfer them to something small with a lid for the bathroom shelf. When I see the first red spot, I wet a finger tip at the sink, put water only on the red spot. Then, I wet the finger tip again and dip into the aspirin powder and dab it on the red spot. Use a cold wet wash cloth to get it off your face. Don't scrub it off; soak it off with the soppy washcloth.  Two aspirin last me for almost a year. Just a little bit works, just a smidgen.

I don't mean to brag, but my skin is perfection for a 66 yr old. Lots of that is good genes, and lots is paying attention and taking care of problems as they occur. The pores get larger as you become older if you don't take care of it early. Summer heat heats me up and my skin, even  my chest can start its own red places. I walk around the house often with little white dots of aspirin on my chest and cheeks...cheeks of my face. The heat causes these. They are different than zit starts. Even on an advanced zit, a bit of aspirin powdered stops it dead in its track.

Cut down on salt, fat, and sweating...lol. The summer makes my skin try to break out. I stop it. I am seriously convinced that even a granola bar will make my skin start to act up. All kidding aside, sweating is good for your skin in a way, but on me it does increase the little red spots that try to become full blown problems. I am allergic to my sweat.

I told my dermatologist while she was removing a growth on my face about using the Oil of Olay. She scoffed. Then, she gave me a dozen minute samples of Tazorac and said it would work better on my nose and chin. I used it once and my nose looked like I had been in the sun for about 10 hours. I probably won't get a prescription. I may use it even more lightly on the tip of my nose and not at the sides of my nostrils where it looked like I had suffered a mild chemical burn. Besides, the pores become large only on the tip of my nose and a quarter-sized spot on my chin--lucky me.

(Removal of the growth was not just vanity. The growth was getting larger and looked dangerous.)

The worst part of all this is that friends know I use the Oil of Olay, Age Defying Daily Renewal Cream and laugh at me and say the only reason I look so young it what I use on my face. Not smoking, not drinking, no makeup, eating lots of fresh fruits and vegetables and choosing the right parents and adopting a good skin care system might help. Notice that all the habits in the previous sentence are also very thrifty. I avoid the sun like a vampire. Okay, it is not that bad, but I quit sun-bathing when I was 35. All Daddy's brothers were dying from undetected skin cancer that led to further fatal complications.

Sadly, one friend will not meet me after 35 years because she said I look too young, that she has to get a vat of O of O first.  I did not get the beauty luck, just skin luck. And, really, I don't look that young.

While I never had acne or zits as a teen, my mother and siblings did. Daddy did not. So, I won the lottery with Mendel's laws of segregation. independent assortment, and dominance. I am a lucky little pea plant. I have always taken care of my skin with good habits, and only after the age of 45 started using cornmeal scrubs, aspirin, and O of O.  Before that, my skin was subjected only to Dove, lots of water, and an inordinate amount of sun! Yay for winning the genetic skin lottery. Okay, once a month I had a zit or two that immediately went away, but not the continuous zits my siblings had.

My friend said to me, "I don't mind being 65, I just mind looking 65." So true!

Your turn
Have you suffered any of these skin indignities? Have you ever tried my solutions? Since we women are supposed to, by society's standards be dewy-faced, do you ever use or have ever used expensive solutions and then found that something cheap and ordinary did the trick better? At least more cheaply?