Take this skin quiz to find the best ingredients for your skin and build your skin care routine.
Take The Skin Quiz
Grown in tropical areas worldwide, aloe vera is a beautiful succulent plant with medicinal properties. You can grow it indoors as a low-maintenance houseplant which does double-duty as natural burn cream. It’s often used as an ingredient in lotions and ointments, and is also available in gel form for topical application.
Aloe vera can be used to treat burns (including sunburn), minor cuts, and to clear acne. You can use the gel from the plant directly, applying it to affected areas. It also contains enzymes and vitamins that treat dry skin.
Some people are allergic to aloe vera, and this can cause redness, itching, swelling, and difficulty in breathing. Test the product in a small area before using it for the first time. Additionally, aloe vera can sometimes make skin rashes worse, and ingesting aloe can lead to stomach pain, cramps, and other negative side-effects.
Pores are itsy-bitsy openings in the skin—and there are millions covering every millimeter of skin. There are two types of pores with different functions: sweat pores and oil pores. The sweat pore allows moisture, produced by sweat glands, to exude out to the surface of the skin, where it helps to cool the body in response to heat, exertion or fever. Sweat pores are so tiny, they are mostly invisible to the human eye.
The oil pore, on the other hand, is a bit larger. Oil pores are also known as hair follicles because these pores produce oil from the sebaceous glands, but they are also the openings from which hair emerges. The oils help to keep our skin and hair healthy. It is the oil pores that can get clogged with sweat, debris and other gunk, causing acne, blackheads and whiteheads. Sweat pores rarely get clogged, as they are so tiny.
Benzoyl peroxide is a topical agent for fighting bacteria and unclogging pores. It is one of the longest-used medications to keep pores clean and healthy. Jojoba oil and rosehip oil are also good for reducing inflammation, fighting bacteria, and keeping in moisture for healthier skin. Ingredients that help exfoliate dead skin cells and increase new skin cell production, such as Vitamin A/Retinol, glycolic acid, and salicylic acid, are good for keeping pores unclogged as well.
aloe vera may be effective for clogged pores, but there are many other factors that may affect whether this ingredient would work on your skin or if there are better ingredients that may work for you. Take this skin quiz to find the best ingredients for your skin and build your skincare routine.
Next: Does antioxidants work on pigmentation ?