GET THIS!! here's what i've experienced with this item for the past week, and what i understand about about how well this item is working and will work based on what i've previously learned/experienced after heavy use of clay masks (successfully) in the past. THIS WILL RESTORE YOUR SKIN TO PERFECT TEXTURE (no 'large pores' at all). I'M SO EXCITED. i've been using used the kojic orange bar for a long while to try to even out damaged skin tone after overuse of clinique's face brush, which bar worked until it kinda didn't (even tho i can still leave it on til it burns a bit), so now am doing the lavender bar for morning/shower + this red tube before bed. i've used them both for a week and i am beyond excited about this red tube. this creamy product eats a ton of oil out of your pores. you'll still have the same texture of clogged pores afterward but only the color of skin instead of dark dots (since the dirt is only on top, as clean oil is always coming up from the bottom of your pores). eventually, deeply cleaning our your pores WILL eliminate 'large pores' and smooth out the texture of your skin (explained below). first, getting out so much oil that the dark dots are gone after a couple of nightly uses is definitive evidence that it's getting MORE OIL than other products. some other products MAY be getting out MORE than our daily accumulation, and so will also work EVENTUALLY -- but this is FASTER. specifically, my cheeks get clean but my nose still has dots - but i'm confident this'll catch up to digging out all the dirty oil in my nose as well. SO -- i'm sure that deep-cleaning all the dirt out of pores so there are no colored dots anymore is what they mean by 'brightening'... BUT... thoroughly cleaning out clogged pores (so deep that there's no dirt) will eventually smooth out skin texture cos the pores will eventually empty completely and then just shrink small/closed/smooth (like a baby again!). i previously experienced this progress after heavy use of queen helene's clay mask. my chinks literally shrank within 2 weeks. my pores looked the same, but the curve of my cheeks just flattened into my face. it was completely wild to see. when i applied mask mud, the oil in the pores of my nose and cheeks would actually soak dots into the otherwise dry & cracked mask so i had to pack the clay on so thick that it'd take so long to dry that i'd just take a nap for a over an hour, like every night for no more than 2 weeks. i was house/dog-sitting and had nothing better to do. and then my cheeks shrank. anyway, masks are boring and time consuming (and i did them so much that i still never feel any itchiness anymore) so i satisfied myself with progress without actually finishing my skin to perfectly smooth again -- given that actors in movies do close-ups that show terribly clogged pores anyway. THIS STUFF is way easier and quicker and less uncomfortable than a mask. you only need a small amount, maybe the size of two peas, and when you rub it on your cheeks it expands into a thickness that looks like clown makeup. no joke. the more you rub it, the thicker it gets - so i just keep going til i'm super white (and rubbing it up into my forehead) and then just rinse it off with my hands. my cheek pores look like SKIN. no colored dots at all, just texture. my nose still has dark dots but i'm sure that will also clean out eventually, too. HERE'S HOW IT WILL SMOOTH OUT YOUR SKIN -- after this cleaner, i use a toner (clinique) to tighten my pores to help narrow their newly emptied space against just filling back up again. without toner, i think the pores will still naturally close somewhat on their own. i think the closing of emptied pores (with or without toner) must also press the remaining oil closer to the surface into the empty space (given that it doesn't want it there in the first place) cos there's pressure where there's oil, and no pressure where there's no oil... i mean, using clay masks caused my cheeks to shrink altogether instead of, like, ending up with deep permanent empty needle tunnels into pores that stayed wide after the oil was eaten. my cheeks shrank cos the remaining oil moved up to the top (so my pores looked the same). forreal, your pores really don't want to be so swollen with oil that the skin in your face between the pores is literally pressed up into squishy pillows on the surface of your face. so this product with 'brighten' your face by removing the dark dots of dirt at the top of your pores, which is SO MUCH OIL that your face will press oil up to the top to be deep-cleaned again -- til eventually your pores close entirely and you have baby skin again. use an effective skin-tightening toner for even faster results. so my plan is to just keep deeply cleaning out the top oil with this stuff, tightening the empty skin with toner, and letting my skin keep pushing more oil up to be deep-cleaned by this great stuff the next night. i'm sure eventually it'll get to my nose, i might even start doing...
