Visible pores are normal skin, not a flaw. Every face has them — the poreless-skin filter you’re chasing is fiction. So before you pay for another bottle that promises to shrink them, let’s talk about what pores actually are.
You’re not unusual.
Nose, forehead, the folds beside your nose — exactly the spots you zoom in on in a bad bathroom mirror are the spots with the highest pore density on your whole body. If this bothers you, congratulations, you’re a normal adult human. The marketing just convinced you it’s rare.
What a pore is
Pores are small depressions in the skin surface that contain openings to the ducts carrying sweat and oil from your eccrine and sebaceous glands.1 The sebaceous glands make sebum, the oil that travels up through the pore to the surface.
A blackhead is something different. It’s an open comedo, which means a plugged follicular opening with keratin material in it that has darkened at the surface.2 A pore can be perfectly clear and still look large, and it can look small and still be blocked.
Several things set how big a pore looks: genetics, how much sebum your skin makes, the size of the hair follicle, sun damage, acne and inflammation, and age.1 Some of those you can influence and some you can’t.
Treatments are not very effective at permanently shrinking pores, though various options may reduce how noticeable they are.1
What sets the size
Genetics and gland size wrote the baseline — you can’t argue with that one. But here’s what you can control: a pore looks bigger, darker and rougher the moment it clogs with keratin and sebum. Same pore, more junk, worse mirror moment. That’s the lever that’s actually in your hands.
Light matters too. Bright, angled bathroom lighting and a magnifying mirror show pores in detail that nobody sees from a normal conversation distance. If you only ever check your skin up close, it’s worth stepping back before deciding it’s a problem.
The sun is quietly making it worse
Years of UV don’t just cause spots — they break down collagen and thicken the skin’s surface, a process with an actual name: solar elastosis.3 Thicker, sun-damaged skin makes every pore look more obvious. On the Gold Coast, that’s not a someday problem. It’s a today problem.
Why pores look different with age
Pores often appear larger with age, and loss of skin elasticity is one of the recognised reasons.1 As collagen and elastin fibres are lost, skin has less structure around each pore. Our collagen and skin firmness guide explains that side of the story.
Long-term sun exposure adds to it. UV radiation breaks down collagen and elastin fibres in the dermis, and chronically sun-damaged skin can become dry, thick and yellowish with a bumpy surface.3 Thicker, rougher skin makes texture of all kinds easier to see.
UV is present every day of the year in Australia, and it can be as high on a cool day as a hot one.4 That’s why sun protection sits at the centre of any texture plan.
Uneven texture can also come from several causes at once. Sun damage, acne and inflammation, age-related changes and ordinary congestion can all be in the mix.1 Working out which ones apply to you is what an assessment is for.
What works
Gentle, consistent exfoliation. A routine that supports your barrier instead of attacking it. Sun protection, every single day, no exceptions. A skin assessment beats another guess-and-hope purchase.
The temptation with pores is to scrub harder and use stronger products. We’d steer you the other way, towards a calm and consistent routine.
- Cleanse gently morning and night.
- Moisturise. Moisturisers help with dry and flaky skin, which can make texture look more obvious.5
- Protect from UV every morning. Protection from solar UV is described as essential at all ages.5
- Add anything new slowly, one product at a time, so you can tell what helps and what irritates.
Keep in mind that a routine change needs weeks to judge, not days. A product that promises a poreless finish is promising something the science doesn’t support.
Avoiding smoking is also on the list of things that protect ageing skin.5 It’s a small piece of a larger picture, but it belongs there.
Skin needling for pores and texture
Skin needling is the treatment we use most for enlarged pores and uneven texture. It is a one-hour session at our Robina clinic, and a course of three to four sessions, about six weeks apart, is typical. Skin needling with exosomes is also offered. The skin needling guide covers the session, the first 72 hours and when results show.
Other treatments for skin texture
Skin boosters work on hydration and glow, and collagen support on firmness. New clients start with a 30-minute First Consultation, where we look at your skin, go through the products you use and give you a plan and a price. Bring your current products, or photos of them.
When to see your GP
See your GP or a dermatologist about a new lump, a bump that changes fast or hurts, or a spot that grows, changes colour or shape, becomes raised or rough, itches, bleeds or weeps.6 Sun-damaged skin carries a higher risk of skin cancer, so check your skin regularly for new spots and changes to existing freckles or moles.3,6
Visible pores are normal. Pore size doesn’t budge — but what’s clogging it does. Clear the debris, protect from the sun, get an assessment, and skip the next wonder serum.
- DermNet. Enlarged pores. DermNet; 2017.
- DermNet. Comedo. DermNet; 2017.
- DermNet. Solar elastosis. DermNet; 2023.
- Cancer Council Australia. UV Index. Accessed 2026.
- DermNet. Skin ageing. DermNet; 2018.
- Cancer Council Australia. Check for signs of skin cancer. Accessed 2026.