What “Matte” Means For Your Pores

If you are currently in a place that's experiencing summer, chances are, your face is or will be shiny at some point today. Sure, there are a ton of products out there that claim to help with that. But, should you use them?

The first step to answering this question is to tackle why our skin is oilier in the warmer months. According to skin care expert Sheri Poe, if you're experiencing summertime shine, it might be the sun's fault. "The sun triggers an injury response in your skin, which causes your sebaceous glands to produce additional oil to guard the skin's surface," she explains. So, oil is there for a reason — which gives us pause about whether or not we should be trying to prevent it.

To our relief, Poe says that mattifying products are actually great if you find that your skin is becoming oily within just a few hours of washing it. The key, though, is to make sure you avoid products with polymers or plastics, like silicone.

Makeup artist Liliana Pennington agrees. "Most primers and anti-shine products use silicone, which fills in uneven skin texture and traps moisture beneath the skin." But, she says, that means it also traps in sebum, dirt, and bacteria. "That can clog pores and cause irritation, and once the skin is irritated, it'll break out. "

Pennington likes Youngblood's Anti-Shine Mattifier, which is non-comedogenic and non-acnegenic, and uses silica instead of silicone. That's an important difference to note — the two ingredients do the same thing, but silica isn't irritating. "In fact, our body naturally produces silica in order to create and maintain collagen," says Pennington.

So, there you have it. We can have our matte-finish cake and eat it, too (just kidding, please don't literally eat this product).