lare pores on nose, please help

Dear Dr.
I have large pores on my nose and my skin gets oily.  I use Neutrogena pore refining mattifier to help decrease oil and appearance or pores. When I wash my face at night, I see that my pores on my nose are clogged and some of it feels hard, so I tend to gently squeeze white things out of them, some are hard and some are soft.  I am guessing that these are the result of oil and dead skin buildup, but I am not sure?  They are possibly blacheads, but they are white.  I really
really need your help because my pores on my nose seem to be getting larger as time goes by?  Is there anything I can do to get rid of things appearing in my pores and decrease the pore size, is the mattifier adding to the problem? -- I am really embarassed about this problem. Please help. I dont know what to do.  PS by the way, does Xathan gum which is used by most skin products, high in wax, which cause clogged pores?  Please, please help, I'm very depressed about this problem.
Thanks so much.

[Alan Rockoff, MD]

Pores are normal.  The white stuff you squeeze out is sebum, or oil, and that is normal too.  Pores do get a bit larger over the years.  People hate large, oily pores, even though they are normal anatomy.  Estheticians perform facials and exfoliation and so-called deep-pore cleansing to address these concerns.  That, plus makeup, are your best bets.

Take care.

Dr. Rockoff

[0JayKay0]

I get this same problem, except my skin also goes red and stays red easily if touched or rubbed.  I get the same large pores plugged with a kind of waxy substance, their not really like spots. The pores sometimes look black, but what comes out is white.  If I clean wash the skin it goes red and produces more oil, if I don't then it feels rough with lots of little hard waxy bits coming out of the pores.  Any help would be really appreciated.

[fishbread]

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