The Chronic Consumer

I have terrible skin, and am always looking for new products to improve my appearance. One of the issues I’m constantly dealing with is enlarged pores on my face. Seriously, you can see my pores from several feet away, which is totally disgusting. I’d heard about people getting good results from Burt’s Bees Pore-Refining Mask, so I decided to try the product for myself.

Burt’s Bees Pore-Refining Mask comes in powder form. You have to add water to it yourself in order to make it the consistency of paste (this just takes a tiny bit of water; don’t overdo it), and then apply it to your face and leave it on for 10-15 minutes before washing off completely. The packaging says it’s made with French green clay (I guess that’s supposed to be a good thing), and the directions indicate that you can substitute carrot juice, tomato juice, grapefruit juice, or green tea in place of water to help with troubled skin, mature skin, etc. I just used water.

Burt’s Bees Pore-Refining Mask is supposed to “[cleanse] pores and [draw] out impurities while remineralizing and refining the skin’s texture.” Sounds great and is just what I need, but does it actually work?

Unfortunately, it didn’t make much of a difference for me. I’ve been using Burt’s Bees once weekly for approximately two months now, but haven’t noticed any positive changes to my pores or skin texture. In other words, my pores are just as large and obvious as ever.

To be fair, Burt’s Bees actually does do a terrific job of tightening skin and there’s a marked difference immediately after rinsing off the mask. Unfortunately, this change only lasts for about an hour, and then my skin returns to the way it was before.

I had really hoped that with continued use, my pores would start to diminish in size, but that hasn’t happened, so I probably won’t be buying Burt’s Bees Pore-Refining Mask again. It was a good bargain at $6 for a 1-oz jar of powder, but there’s really no reason to keep spending that money for short-lived results.