The short answer: A pore looks large because sebum has filled and stretched it. You cannot shrink it back — Nikol is blunt about that — but you can empty it, and an emptied pore reads as smaller. The routine that does it: a salicylic cleanser, a gentle acid pad, and then an ultrasonic skin scrubber used on wet skin, which vibrates the contents of the pore out instead of squeezing them out.
The honest part first
"Remember, you're not going to shrink your pores. Please don't let anyone tell you that."
The mechanism is simple. Sebum accumulates in the pore, the pore expands to hold it, and once it has expanded it does not spring back to nothing. Pore size is largely genetic to begin with. So every product promising to shrink or close a pore is selling you something that is not physically available.
What is available is emptying it, consistently, without trauma. That changes the appearance considerably, and it is the entire subject of this routine.
Why she made this video
Nikol has been a licensed esthetician for twenty years and a permanent makeup artist. When her studio closed during the pandemic — tattoo artists were not permitted to reopen in her city — she started offering free fifteen-minute Zoom consultations, and saw over 110 women in two months.
Pores came up again and again. Enlarged pores, foundation sinking into them, skin that would not look right no matter what went on top. So she filmed her own routine, bare-faced, and named every product regardless of who makes it. Her stated position: "it's not about Nikol Cosmetics, it's not about my line — I'm just here to guide you."
Step 1: A salicylic acid cleanser
Salicylic acid is oil-soluble, which is why it belongs in this specific routine — it gets into the pore rather than working only on the surface. Nikol uses a salicylic gel cleanser she has been on for four years, applied with a sonic cleansing brush.
A note on that brush: many have a swappable massage head. Used with a facial oil it is for circulation and puffiness rather than pores — a different job, worth knowing about, not part of this sequence.
Step 2: A gentle acid exfoliating pad
Not a granular scrub. A pre-soaked pad with a mild acid — hers is azelaic acid with caviar lime — wiped over the face, neck, and décolleté. She uses it on the backs of her hands too, for sun spots.
Two practical notes. It should tingle slightly and no more; if it is too much for your skin, drop to every other day. And keep the exfoliation mild deliberately, because the next step is where the actual clearing happens — aggressive scrubbing beforehand only leaves your skin raw for it.
Step 3: The skin scrubber — the step that does the work
This is what the video is really about, and it is missing from most pore advice entirely.
An ultrasonic skin scrubber is a small rechargeable handheld with a flat metal spatula head. It vibrates at high frequency, and on wet skin that vibration lifts sebum, dead skin and blackheads up out of the pore. They collect visibly on the back of the blade. Nikol describes hers as inexpensive, USB-charged, and widely available.
How she actually uses it
- The skin must be wet. This is not optional — the ultrasonic action needs water to work through. She spritzes with a hydrating mist and re-spritzes constantly.
- Work in sections. One side of the face at a time, re-wetting as you go.
- Pull the skin taut. Fold or hold the skin to the side of where you are working so the blade meets a flat, tensioned surface.
- Use the corner of the blade on the nose and T-zone. This is the detail that makes the difference. The corner concentrates the vibration where congestion is worst — the sides of the nose, the crease beside it, the area that gathers foundation by the end of every day.
- Use the flat of the blade on the forehead. Broader area, broader contact, then switch to the corner for the congested spots between the brows.
- Do not forget under the lower lip. Those small bumps on the chin that exfoliation never seems to shift — Nikol says this is what finally cleared them for her.
- Wipe the blade with an alcohol pad between passes and after use. What comes off it is what came out of your skin.
Many of these tools have three modes — cleansing on one side of the plate, and, with the plate flipped, a mode that drives serum into the skin and a lifting mode. The cleansing mode is the one that matters here.
Why this beats squeezing, especially on mature skin
This is the part that comes from twenty years in a treatment room rather than from a product page.
Squeezing and aggressive manual extraction cause broken capillaries, bruising, and post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation — and mature skin is already more fragile and more prone to all three. "We don't want to have more broken capillaries, we don't want to put any pressure on the skin. We already are dealing with that."
Nikol says extract-extract-extract was never her style in the treatment room, and she notes hearing from other estheticians about clients who left facials with bigger problems than they arrived with. The scrubber gets the same material out with no pressure at all.
Step 4: Feed the skin immediately
An emptied pore absorbs. That is the window, and skipping it wastes the whole routine.
Her sequence is a treatment serum first — vitamin C for brightening and dark spots, or a peptide serum formulated for menopausal skin — left to absorb for a minute or two. Then a facial oil if the skin is dull or dry. Then a moisturizer with antioxidants to seal everything in. Then an eye gel, a lip treatment, and a hydrating mist.
Her description of how the serum lands on a freshly cleared face is the tell that the middle step worked: "you can just feel now that your pores are clean — this is just soaking right into your skin."
The magnifying mirror: useful, and a trap
Nikol found her own enlarged pores in a magnifying mirror with a detachable 10x insert, and she used it to verify the scrubber was actually working — she was not convinced until she saw what was coming out. A 10x magnification mirror is the tool that turns "I think this is helping" into something you can see.
She also issues a warning in the same breath, and it is worth taking seriously: "I know new ladies out there will go to town on this. You just have to pace yourself." A 10x mirror shows you things nobody looking at your face will ever see. It is a diagnostic tool for confirming a routine works, not a mirror to get ready in.
Keeping pores from swallowing your foundation
The complaint underneath most pore questions is really about makeup. Foundation settling into pores, then looking cakey, then looking worse by mid-afternoon.
The order that fixes it is skin first, product second. On a face that has been properly cleared, a smoothing primer like Fiercely Smooth Face Primer has something to grip and something to blur, and base can go on with a lighter hand because there is less to cover. The same logic runs through Nikol's complete over-40 approach: fix the skin and the makeup gets easier.
How often, and what to call it
Nikol's own name for the routine is pore rehab, and the honest framing is this: unless you are getting regular professional facials, you almost never get a genuine deep clean. This is the at-home version of one, and doing it as a deliberate evening — rather than squeezed into a rushed morning — is part of why it works.
If you want the full spa version of the same idea, with steam, massage and masking built around it, that is the at-home facial.
Nikol Johnson is a licensed esthetician. This is general skincare education, not medical advice. Tools and products named other than Nikol Beauty's own are third-party brands.
Frequently asked questions
Can you shrink your pores?
No. Pore size is largely genetic, and a pore that has been stretched by accumulated sebum does not return to its original size. What changes the appearance is emptying it and keeping it empty — a clear pore reads as noticeably smaller than a full one.
What is an ultrasonic skin scrubber and does it work?
A small handheld tool with a metal spatula head that vibrates at high frequency. Used on wet skin, the vibration lifts sebum, dead skin and blackheads up out of the pore, where they collect on the blade. Nikol verified it under a 10x magnifying mirror before recommending it.
Does skin have to be wet to use a skin scrubber?
Yes. The ultrasonic action needs water to work through, so spritz with a mist and keep re-wetting as you work in sections. On dry skin the tool does very little and drags.
How do you use a skin scrubber on your nose?
Pull the skin taut to one side and use the corner of the blade rather than the flat, working along the sides of the nose and the crease beside it. The corner concentrates the vibration where congestion is heaviest.
Is a skin scrubber better than squeezing blackheads?
For most skin, and for mature skin especially, yes. Squeezing and aggressive extraction cause broken capillaries, bruising, and post-inflammatory pigmentation, and mature skin is more prone to all three. A scrubber removes the same material with no pressure on the skin.
What should you put on after using a skin scrubber?
A treatment serum straight away — vitamin C for brightness, or a peptide serum — then a facial oil if your skin is dry or dull, then a moisturizer to seal. Freshly cleared pores absorb well, and that window is the point of clearing them.
How do you stop foundation from sinking into pores?
Clear the pores first, then use a smoothing primer, then apply base with a light hand. Foundation sinks into pores that are full; on properly prepped skin it sits on top and needs less product.
Should you use a 10x magnifying mirror?
As a diagnostic tool, yes — it is how you confirm a routine is doing something. Not as the mirror you get ready in. Nikol's own caution is to pace yourself: magnification shows you things nobody looking at your face will ever notice.
Start here
Stop looking for a product that closes pores; there isn't one. Instead build the sequence: salicylic cleanser, a mild acid pad, then an inexpensive ultrasonic scrubber on wet skin, working in sections with the corner of the blade at the nose. Feed the skin immediately afterward. Then carry the same care past your jawline — the neck needs it more than the face does.
