5 Benefits of Mattifying Treatments

You have as many as 1 million pores per square inch of your face. These tiny openings allow your skin to cool and provide it with oils to protect and lubricate its surface. But when pores become enlarged they can create unattractive blemishes. Mattifying treatments can reduce the appearance of pores to leave your skin looking flawless.

Mattifiers provide your skin with an oil-absorbing treatment that minimizes the appearance of pores while at the same time giving skin a smooth and matted finish that will last throughout the day. Mattifiers typically contain light-deflecting ingredients such as silica spheres and titanium dioxide, which can give a blurred appearance to enlarged pores. These ingredients brush on over pores rather than seeping into them to achieve an air-brushed look.

Mattifying treatments, often included in foundations, help to even out your skin tone. Rather than give your face a pale and dull look, mattifying treatments will make your skin appear fresh and translucent.

Some mattifiers contain silicone gel or dimethicone which fills in pitted areas of the skin and large pores to create a smooth canvas. However, this gel-like substance can become lodged into pores, and, therefore, is not recommended for acne-prone skin. Those who are acne prone should choose a dry powder mattifier that will give an even air-brushed finish without the risk of clogged pores. If you have tan or dark skin, rotate the brush with which you apply your mattifier in circles on your face to properly blend the product into your skin tone.

Mattifying treatments will allow your make-up to adhere to your skin for longer durations of time to give you a shine-free finish all day long. You can use a mattifying moisturizer as a base for your concealer and foundation.

According to Colleen Lindstrom, owner of Mattify! Cosmetics, oil is the culprit that causes makeup to disintegrate. When your face is overly oily, makeup fades fast and looks like it is melting and sticky. When a mattifier is applied prior to foundation, it absorbs the oil so that the oil cannot dissolve makeup. Oil causes all types of makeup including eye makeup and even mascara to dissolve, causing eye shadow to have a creased appearance on oily skin. Mattify! eye shadows have built-in mattifiers to prevent a creased look.

When oil is allowed to pool on the skin's surface, it lodges into pores. When the pores are suffocated with oil, they cannot obtain oxygen. This causes bacteria to multiply and leads to acne breakouts. When a mattifier is applied, the product helps absorb oily buildup and prevents acne as well.

A mattifying powder can be worn underneath makeup to ensure that skin oils and liquid foundation do not plug pores. Lindstrom notes that many of her customers have remarked that they experienced a drastic decrease in acne breakouts after using the company's Mattify! Powder for a few weeks.

The most obvious and important benefit of a mattifying treatment is that it helps your skin appear less oily. Mattifying treatments soak up the excess sebum produced by your sebaceous glands that causes your skin to look greasy. Most mattifiers include ingredients that can hold several times their weight in oil, according to Lindstrom. When the skin begins to produce oil, rather than sinking into pores and causing an oily appearance on the face, the oil becomes trapped in the mattifier. Some mattifying powders contain ingredients that soak up oil and trap it inside of microscopic spheres, leaving you with a matte complexion and fresh makeup.