Blemishes

Blemishes come from a mix of oil, dead skin and blocked pores, and the useful interventions are unglamorous: keep the surface clear, absorb what is excess, and resist the urge to attack it.

The Clay Mask for Pores and Blackheads is the mainstay here — white and green clays that absorb excess oil and lift away dead skin, so pores and blackheads look less obvious. Used once or twice a week it does more than a daily treatment applied out of frustration.

What helps alongside it is restraint elsewhere in the routine. Over-cleansing and over-exfoliating both drive oil production up, so a mild cleanser such as the Cleansing Foam is a better partner to the mask than a stronger one. If uneven-looking marks are left behind after a blemish settles, that is a pigment question rather than a blemish one — uneven tone is the right place to start.