Dr Brandt Pores No More Vacuum Cleaner
Hello friendos, I hope you’re feeling fine and dandy on this lovely Wednesday. I’m buried –
buried
– under work this week so this is all a bit rushed, but I wanted to
quickly mention a product that’s been nobly soldiering on to give me
lovely summer skin:
Dr Brandt Pores No More Vacuum Cleaner.
Before I go any further, let’s quickly go over what a blackhead actually is. The pores in your skin secrete
sebum,
a natural oil that keeps your skin soft and supple and maintains your
skin’s acid mantle to protect against bacteria, viruses and the
day-to-day contaminants of everyday living. A blackhead is formed when
the oil produced by your pores isn’t efficiently cycled move out of the
pore itself, and this oil eventually oxidises and solidifies. Not all
blackheads are black and not all blackheads are solid. The blackheads
you get on your nose are oxidised to a dark colour but still relatively
fluid (albeit a sticky, stubborn fluid), whereas the blackheads along
your jawline tend to be waxy pale but have a very solid density.
Gross, I know, but blackheads are completely normal and every skin
type can and will get them. I’ve got normal-dry skin and I get the
occasional little dark dot on my nose, and I’m prone to getting blocked
pores on my jawline every now and then. So don’t freak out! Blackheads
are completely normal and a few spots here and there is not worth
stressing over.
Just because they’re normal, however, doesn’t mean you can’t dislodge
those suckers with extreme prejudice. Which brings me right back to
Pores No More Vacuum Cleaner, one of the most low intensity/high results
blackhead treatments I’ve used.
Dr Brandt Pores No More Vacuum Cleaner
Pores No More Vacuum Cleaner is a thick gel that I apply to any
blackheads or congested pores. After a few minutes the gel dries and
turns to a dry and powdery whiteish blue, and I leave this set powder on
for around ten minutes before washing it off and cleansing as normal.
The instructions advise that at some point I should feel a cooling
sensation on my skin, but to be totally honest I’ve not felt it. Your
mileage may vary!
Despite its name, Vacuum Cleaner isn’t going to magically whisk away
blackheads from my pores. Instead it works by applying salicylic acid to
gently break down the blackhead congestion bit by bit, while glycolic
acid gives spot exfoliation and loosens any dead skin cells in the area
that may be contributing to the blackhead itself. When the gel dries to a
powder, that powder itself ‘grips’ onto the congestion and encourages
the mass to further break apart (or, in the case of more fluid
blackheads on your nose, the dry powder will slowly draw the viscous oil
up).
Pores No More Vacuum Cleaner is like a next generation version of
another blackhead treatment/maintenance product that I’ve used for a
long time, the venerable Mario Badescu Silver Powder. Silver Powder also
works by applying a wet mix and letting it dry to physically break
apart congestion, but without the AHA and BHA ingredients of Vacuum
Cleaner..
Pores No More Vacuum Cleaner has a few distinct advantages over Silver
Powder though, the most obvious one being convenience – Silver Powder
feels like an alchemical process and takes a while to master, whereas
Vacuum Cleaner can be messily slopped on and left to to do its thing
while I read my morning emails. The addition of AHA and BHA ingredients
also makes Vacuum Cleaner a more multi-directional yet targeted product,
whereas Silver Powder relies more on basic material physics than
anything else.
I think the key thing to remember with Pores No More Vacuum Cleaner
is that it’s a slow and steady process, and is best used in tandem with
more physical extraction methods. I don’t advocate picking at your skin
or trying to force out a blackhead by squeezing it, but it
will make things like pore strips more effective, and boost the efficacy of things like a Clarisonic or AHA-based face cleansers.
Between Pores No More Vacuum Cleaner and the occasional dash of
Mario Badescu Glycolic Foaming Cleanser to
really
get everything squeaky clean, I’ve made a significant reduction in dark
spots on my nose, as well as almost completely eradicating any
congestion on my chin. It just took a little time and care, and a little
extra patience.
I only have one real complaint with this product, and it’s that my
tube is unfortunately full of air bubbles. It was still sealed with its
tamper cap in place when I purchased it, so I know it wasn’t already
used or fooled with, but the amount of air in the tube means that it’s a
pain in the butt to get enough product out to apply to my spots, and
the tube almost immediately felt barely half full. Huh.
