Packaging and pore geekery...
...featuring some genuinely consumer-focused packaging brilliance, and a deep dive into pores, and what really works if you're unhealthily obsessed with the size of yours...
Very few people notice packaging when it comes to products, unless it’s particularly problematic. We can all talk about the frustration of the pump we had that didn’t pump properly, the serum foundation that came in a dropper which meant you wasted more than you used — and ruined more than one white t-shirt (just me?) And when new packaging innovation pops up, it can get traction — you’ll undoubtedly have seen the recent vogue for “grinding” cleansing balms delivered in what appear to be giant pencil sharpeners that you twist to shave off the exact amount of product required. Clever. Everyone knows nobody can resist sharpening a pencil.
And when I was first introduced to the Skin & Me doser that you twist until it clicks so you get exactly the right amount of your prescription formula, I thought it was genius. I thought it was even more genius when they used a similar design (and research that included measuring the average size of a person’s face, which I loved for its dedication to geekery) with their Daily Moisturiser with SPF50 to ensure that you’re getting the amount of product you need to get the SPF 50 protection stated on the label — forget two fingers, or a teaspoon, they’ve done all the work for you.
But mostly we don’t think about packaging in the way that brands do. Because beauty packaging is more than just a container. It has to have space for essential information as well keeping the product free from contamination. It has to protect the product in every day use, and dispense it in a way that makes sense — a great mascara is only great if the wand and package are also great; changing the packaging of a sun protection product can potentially change it’s efficacy. And a product has to work from a transport point of view — it’s why bottles with a round footprint are so often packed in square boxes — and from a point of sale perspective.
But aside from the actual container, how much notice do you take of what is printed on it? In my case I pretty much always squint at the ingredients listing when I first get it, but I rarely read the instructions and you’ve got to be a proper geek to look at the registered addresses (although I admit I sometimes do). That’s why some of what I think as the cleverest packaging innovation I’ve seen in recent years has come from reimagining how that existing packaging could be used. This is the stuff that’s made me think “that’s BRILLIANT, and so obvious, why has nobody ever done this before?”
One of the first brands that I had this reaction to was Skin Rocks. (If you haven’t tried it, well where have you been? But my favourites are The Hyperpigmentation Serum and The Gel Cleanser.) On the top of every product is a circle telling you how much to use. Sure, with pumps you can calibrate it more easily — I like Dr Sam’s cleanser (it’s a really great, simple but effective formula and one of the few products I have to re-purchase because my husband steals it) which tells you use one pump in the morning and two pumps at night — and we’ve all read “a pea-sized amount” or whatever, but how much easier is it to have a little circle drawn out telling you “use this much”? Like I said, so simple yet so damn clever.
I felt the same when I went to the launch of The Numbers last week, Michael Douglas’ new haircare range. The man is, I believe, an underrated genius — and a secret geek. Expect to see more from him in this newsletter in a few weeks time. I can’t report back in any great detail about the efficacy of the products just yet as I haven’t properly road-tested them. Although I tried The 5 Voluminous Texture, the volumising spray the other day and it was so impressive that I actually had to brush a bit out because my hair was SO big.
But what really wowed me was the QR code on the front. I know, I know, QR codes on beauty products aren’t new, but very often they’re hidden on the back of the product and they just take you to a website. This is different. The QR codes on these products are par tof the design, front and centre: zap it with your phone and it takes you to a WhatsApp chat where you can learn about the ingredients in the product and how to use it. You can describe your hair and ask how to use the product in a routine and, eventually, you’ll be able to upload an image of your hair. Yes, it’s a chatbot, or AI or whatever you want to call it, but it’s powered by Michael’s knowledge, in his voice, and it’s done in a really intuitive and user-friendly way. So simple, so clever, so obvious, but nobody’s done it before. More brilliant consumer-focused thinking like this, please, beauty brands, thanks.
Not sure if you saw — because I banged on about it *quite* a lot on social media — but I was speaking at The Ordinary pop-up last week. I made a little video about it if you’re interested...
But one of the things that I loved was how engaged the audience were with the subject of skincare and what it can and can’t do. Afterwards I was talking to someone in the audience and the subject of pores came up. Pores fascinate me — 20 years ago they just weren’t a thing. But now they most definitely are. At a certain point in time, people started to worry about them and they haven’t stopped. And guess what? Beauty brands are only too happy for you to worry about them so they can sell you a problem to fix them.
Just last month Benefit released a new product the Porefessional Degunker (which personally I’m a little bit upset about because I’ve been using “degunk” for years to describe what salicylic acid does to pores and now it sounds like I stole it from them). It’s a clay mask that’s meant to soften skin before you use the attached palette knife — sorry, extraction tool — to scrape over the skin. The idea is that you remove blackheads and clear out pores. I haven’t tried it but the reviews are mixed to say the least. I think the temptation is to scrape too hard damaging the skin. Then there’s the super-pricey Shark FacialPro Glow multi-tasking gadget that launched at the end of last year which promises to give you — among many other things — some form of pore extraction that “minimise pores for a clear, smooth skin texture.” Personally I don’t have time for this kind of shenanigans (10.47pm and I’m editing the newsletter that will be in your inbox at 7.30am) but I can see the appeal of all these things — that visible stuff is very satisfying.
My concern is that you’re actually removing sebaceous filaments rather than blackheads and the dirt, and sebaceous filaments are an essential part of your skin and critical to its function and health. (They basically line the pore and provide a way for oil to get out. I recently saw an analogy that I really liked that said you should think of sebaceous filaments as the motorway and blackheads as a traffic jam.) My other concern is that we’re all human and the temptation to do it more aggressively and more frequently than the makers ever intended means that even if tools like this might be effective, we’ll probably overdo it.
Back in 2021, I wrote about pores for my Patreon and, given that conversation at the weekend, and these (I don’t want to say gimmicky but you get the vibe) launches, it felt like a good opportunity to revisit that piece because honestly, five years on, nothing has changed. People still want to talk to me about pores, making pores smaller — or at least appear smaller — so if you’re one of those people, here’s what you need to know.
I think there are two very distinct demographics obsessing about their pores, for very different reasons. At the younger end of the market, there are women preoccupied by filtered images on social media and trends like “glass skin” that airbrush out pores entirely, and at the other end, are older women who can become obsessed with pores for a very different reason, as I discovered when I interviewed Dr Galyna Selezneva, a for a piece about midlife body dysmorphia (which never actually saw the light of day).
“As women get older, they worry about having hairs on their chin or upper lip, and many buy magnifying mirrors specifically for the purpose of being able to see these hairs and pluck them out,” she told me. “But when you’re looking for a hair, you cannot avoid looking at your wrinkles and pores, and certain women can find themselves obsessing about these things in a way that is unhealthy.”
Sound familiar? I know it totally does to me. I’m 100% guilty of seeing something in a magnifying mirror that looks ginormous but is actually imperceptible to the human eye. So what is the truth about pores?
Well, (apart from the fact that you’re probably worrying unnecessarily), to a certain extent, you get what you’re given. The dryer your skin, the smaller your pores are likely to appear, and keeping your pores (and your skin) clean means the eye isn’t drawn to them, so they can appear smaller.
So yes, you can try Benefit’s Degunker combo, or the Shark skin vacuum, or those old school Bioré Pore Strips. You know the ones — you wet them and glue them to your nose and then rip them off taking with them a layer of dead skin, and any gunk blocking the pores. But the alternative, and the one most dermatologists will recommend is regular use of salicylic acid to stop sebum building up in your pores and oxidising, or forming blackheads. (I like the Paula’s Choice one and it comes in a little 30ml bottle so you can see if you like it before buying the big one.)
This is all about appearance because, realistically, there isn’t a huge amount you can do to functionally change the size of your pores. Back in 2021 I was on a Zoom with dermatologist Dr Andrew Markey when he was asked about pores. At the time he said:
“Pores are a structural component of skin, with grease glands and follicles all together. They’re supported by collagen and elastin and, as we age these structures start to break down so pores can look more open as we get older.” So, sorry older women with magnifying mirrors I did you a bit of a disservice, you might be obsessing about your pores for a reason.
His suggestion for skincare that helps?
“What’s great for pores is preventing the breakdown of the structures that support them and, as we know that sun damage damages collagen and elastin, broad spectrum sun protection is a must-have. The ingredients that are best for promoting production of collagen and elastin are retinoids, and niacinamide has some ability to clean out pores a bit and improve skin optics, so retinoids at night, niacinamide in the morning, and SPF every day.”
I know, I know, it’s not flashy, it’s not exciting, it’s not a wonder product that is going to transform your skin overnight, but it’s science-based, and it will work, and that’s what you come here for right?
Oh, alright then, if you want an instant miracle, use a primer — primers won’t physically change the shape of your pores, but they will temporarily fill them in to give you a smooth canvas so that foundation will sit in an even layer across the top of your skin. L’Oreal Paris have a 24HR Pore Minimiser Primer that I quite like because not only does it do all those filling / blurring things that most primers do, but it also has an acid complex in it so that over time it’s gently resurfacing the skin and degunking the pores. Just a flag that like many primers, the ingredients that are doing the work are silicones — personally I don’t have an issue with silicones in skincare and for stuff like this I think they’re mega efficient. But I know that some people aren’t fans. My one caveat is that if you are going to use a primer, make sure you cleanse well in the evenings — after all they are designed to stick to your skin.
Until next time…
Note: I only enthuse about products I really rate, but I can earn commission on products I mention here. If you hate the idea of this, please let me know, as this is very much a work in progress and nothing is set in stone.
Love this read.. a really helpful overview and interesting POV!!
Absolutely love this!! The depth of thought that goes into packaging is so often overlooked, but it’s just as critical as the formula itself. When design genuinely meets user needs, like with Skin & Me or The Numbers QR system, it has the power to transform the overall experience from “use” to “understand and enjoy.” Clever, human-focused touches like these are exactly what make beauty feel thoughtful and smart.