I know y’all know what this is.  It’s only been talked about ten billion times by beauty gurus, magazines, experts and nobodies like me.  It’s a product that’s destined for cult classic status, if it’s not officially already there.  It’s a must have, a bestseller, probably an award-winner (or should be).

But for those who hang out under rocks, this is what I’m talking about:

Benefit’s POREfessional.  Otherwise known as Miracle in a Tube.  First of all, I’ve never bought a full size of this; I’m working on my second sample tube as we speak.  But once that’s gone, I am no doubt, 100% certain I am repurchasing.  How can I not?  It creates a magic-like situation upon my face, and without it I would be a facsimile of a sham of a person with a face.

Let me explain.

I have pores.  Massive, crater-y, sinkhole-y pores.  It is hideous.  I never really noticed them before, back when I hardly used makeup, and could barely manage a half-hearted swipe of powder that was probably 2 shades too light for me anyway.  But now that I stare at my face for at least an hour and 20 minutes every morning (don’t judge; it takes 30 minutes just to do eyeshadow), I’ve been noticing some unseemly incidents and I no likee.  Face skin like the texture of an orange rind.  That’s not even an exaggeration.  Sound lovely?  It is not.

So what does one do to rectify this situation?  Buy all the pore-shrinking, minimizing, blurring, filling, and/or scraping off products in existence.  Then have at it.  Turns out, not much helps.  Not in an instant gratification kind of way, which is the only way I like to do things.  Serious, if you can’t make me beautiful and perfect RIGHT THIS SECOND then I have no use for you.

Received a small tube of the POREfessional in one of the many sample kits I purchased at Ulta.  I’ve been told people apply it as a primer, so that was honestly my intention first time I used it.  The color was nude and quickly disappeared into my skin.  The texture was very silicone-y, like powder or velvet or something equally luxurious and soft.  But the pore-filling power was … eh.  I didn’t think it did much other than maybe some psychological brain trickery.  Sometimes I feel I want a product to work so badly that I almost convince myself it does.  The POREfessional was one of those products.

I stopped using it briefly and kept up my search for that Holy Grail.  Nothing seemed to help.  I was greeted every morning by my gaping pores, who I swear were laughing all the way to the bank.  My face, in return, looked like this:

-_-

Are you feeling sorry for me yet?

About a month ago, I was watching a You Tube video (as I am wont to do), and one of my gurus told me the secret to the POREfessional is to tap the product on your skin instead of smoothing it on like lotion.  Tapping it on will fill in the holes, as smoothing it on merely smears it around haphazardly.  And I do not have time for haphazard when I have a pore emergency, trust me.  So I thought I’d give the POREfessional one more try.

Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap … and lo and behold.  The clouds parted, the sun came out, and angels began to sing.  It worked.  I present to you, before and after:

Photo taken no more than 15 seconds apart, no filter, same lighting.  See?  Flat-out miracle.  That’s all I can say about that.

The whole point of my post is to teach  you what I’ve learned.  If you’ve been  having not so much success with the efficacy of the POREfessional, try the tapping thing.  It made a world of difference.  Granted, my pores do not disappear completely, but they are much less pronounced and manageable.  I can handle that.

Who’s laughing now?