Watching my pores get bigger was a slow and quiet process

Seeing the texture change in the mirror

I don’t know exactly when it started, but one day I was staring at my reflection in the elevator mirror—the one with those unforgiving, bright overhead lights—and I just noticed it. My pores, which used to just be little dots, suddenly looked like they were pulling downward. They call it vertical pores, I think, but mostly it just looked like my skin had lost its grip. It wasn’t a sudden catastrophe, just a slow, annoying realization that the stuff I was doing in my early twenties wasn’t cutting it anymore. I started spending way too much time looking at skin apps like Bobby Talk, trying to see if I was the only one obsessing over this, but it seems like everyone in their thirties is doing the exact same thing.

The reality of trying to fix it at home

I bought a collagen pack that promised to tighten everything up. It was about 30,000 won for a box of five. The first time I used it, it felt cooling and nice, but honestly, after taking it off, my face just looked hydrated for about twenty minutes. The pores were still there, hanging out exactly where they had been. It’s frustrating because you read these things about how you need a routine, but even when you stick to a routine for a few months, the change is so subtle that you start wondering if you’re just staring too hard at your own face. I tried some exfoliation pads too, thinking maybe the texture was the problem, but my skin just ended up feeling a bit raw instead of smooth.

Walking into a clinic feels like a gamble

I finally looked into actual laser treatments. I found a clinic in Gangnam that seemed to focus on those tightening procedures everyone keeps talking about. When I checked the price list, it was honestly a bit of a shock—around 200,000 to 300,000 won for a single session of a pore-focused laser. I sat there in the waiting room, which smelled like expensive diffusers, and read a pamphlet about how it helps with elasticity. But then I remember reading about a court case involving a place in Daegu where someone got some plasma treatment that went totally wrong. It makes you hesitate. Is it worth the risk for a few less visible pores? I didn’t book the appointment that day. I just walked out and went to get an iced coffee instead, which probably isn’t great for my skin either.

The messiness of summer skin

Now that it’s getting hotter, it’s even worse. My skin gets oily, the sebum collects, and everything feels clogged. I see these ‘pad-free’ makeup trends where everyone is supposed to have perfect, clean skin, but mine just looks shiny in a way that highlights every single pore. I’ve started using a basic toner and skipping the heavy creams, which helps a little, but it doesn’t solve the structural issue. I think I’m just waiting for the weather to cool down so my skin stops acting so erratic. Sometimes I get these little bumps on my legs too, like a weird honeycomb pattern if I wear tights that are too tight, and it just reminds me that skin is honestly just a very sensitive, annoying organ that reacts to everything.

Still uncertain if anything really works

I’m still not convinced that any of these ‘miracle’ solutions actually do what they say in the long term. I’m currently back to just using a basic moisturizer and trying not to zoom in on my phone camera. It’s hard to tell if the ‘management’ people talk about is actually preventing anything or if we’re all just spending money to feel like we have some control over a process that’s just going to happen anyway. I’ll probably end up going back to the clinic website in a few weeks, checking the prices again, and convincing myself that a laser session won’t be that bad. Or maybe I’ll just buy another pack of masks that don’t do much. It feels like a cycle that doesn’t really have a clear exit.