For licensed skincare professionals
Congestion and visible pores protocol
50 minutes. Every 10 to 14 days, four to six sessions.
For the appearance of congested texture across the central panel, and for openings that read as visible at normal conversational distance.
Who this is for
Rough or uneven-looking texture on the nose, inner cheeks, chin and center forehead. Openings visible in side light. Surface oil back within a few hours of cleansing. Makeup separating across the nose by lunchtime.
Say this in the consultation, before you touch the skin. Pore size is genetic. No topical product, no facial and no device changes it. What changes is how visible an opening is, and visibility is a separate variable from size. An opening reads as visible for four reasons: it holds sebum and cell debris that darkens on contact with air, the surface around it is rough enough to scatter light, there is enough surface oil to make the area shine, and the skin around the opening has lost enough firmness to hold it open. This protocol works on all four. It does not work on size, because nothing does.
A client who is told this at session one is a client who is satisfied at session six. A client who is promised smaller pores is not.
Who this is not for
- Any inflamed, raised, painful or fluid-filled lesion in the treatment area. Congested texture is a facial. Lesions are not, and that difference is the whole of this section.
- Broken skin, or any weeping or crusted area.
- Sunburn or windburn within the last 72 hours.
- A professional resurfacing treatment within the last 14 days.
- Current prescription oral or topical retinoid use, or a course finished in the last six months. The prescribing physician answers that, not the treatment room.
- Known sensitivity to any ingredient used. Check the full INCI, not the marketing copy.
Before you begin
Assess under magnification and in side light, and note which areas are texture and which are surface oil only. They respond on different timescales, and it decides where you concentrate in steps 4 and 7.
Take the home routine in full, by product name and frequency. Skin that arrives tight, shiny and rough at once is being stripped daily: run session one without step 4.
The protocol
| Step | Product | Amount | Dwell | Technique |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bright Micro Bubble Cleanser | 1 pump | 60 sec | Work into damp skin, let the foam do the work. No scrubbing, no brush. Remove with warm damp cotton. |
| 2 | Bright Micro Bubble Cleanser, second cleanse | 1 pump | 60 sec | Repeat on damp skin, concentrating on the central panel. Remove and leave damp. |
| 3 | Warm damp towel | Two towels | 3 min | Surface softening before any resurfacing step. Warm, not hot: test it on the inside of your own wrist. |
| 4 | Resurfacing Cleansing Peel | 3 to 5 ml | 2 to 4 min | Damp skin, central panel first. Keep the hands moving. Avoid the eye contour and the lips. First session: 2 minutes and no more. Remove completely with cool water. Once per session, never twice. |
| 5 | Marine Balancing Toner | Saturate 2 cotton rounds | Leave damp | Press over the face. Do not wipe. Skin should stay visibly damp into step 6. |
| 6 | Clarifying NanoSerum, sealed vial | 1.0 ml, drawn through the stopper | 5 min | Apply to damp skin. Press in with flat palms. Full face, not the central panel only. |
| 7 | Clarifying NanoSerum, second layer | 0.5 ml | 3 min | Central panel only, onto still-damp skin. |
| 8 | AquaCell Moisturizer | Pea-sized | Leave on | Press and roll. Do not skip this because the skin looks oily. Skin that is left without a moisturizer produces more surface shine by the afternoon, not less. |
Manual work. If manual extraction is within your scope and permitted where you practice, it belongs between step 4 and step 5, while the surface is still warm and soft. We do not specify a technique, a tool, a pressure or a time limit for it. The protocol is the treating professional's clinical decision.
The one thing that determines whether this protocol works: the total exfoliation load, in the room and at home, added together. Visible texture invites stacking, and stacking is what ruins this protocol. One resurfacing step per session, never two, and no home acid, scrub, enzyme or retinoid in the 48 hours either side of the appointment. A stripped surface produces more oil, scatters more light and sits rougher around every opening, which makes each opening read larger: the exact outcome the client came in to avoid.
Total product time is about 25 minutes. The remaining 25 is consultation, assessment, massage during the dwell periods, and the home routine conversation.
Frequency and course
Every 10 to 14 days, four to six sessions. Not weekly: the resurfacing step needs the interval. Reassess at session four against a side-lit photograph from session one, same light, same angle, same distance. Without it you and the client will disagree about the result, because what you are both judging is shadow.
Aftercare
- No acid, scrub, enzyme, brush or retinoid at home for 48 hours.
- Daily broad-spectrum sun protection, any brand. Vegalab does not sell an SPF.
- No picking, pressing or squeezing between sessions. It undoes more than the protocol does.
- No heavy occlusive makeup for 12 hours. Warm water, never hot, for the next week.
What to expect, and when
Immediately after: the central panel looks smoother, shows less shadow, and holds makeup flatter. Openings refill. This is maintenance, not a one-way change.
By session three: less rough texture under the fingertips, and less surface shine by mid-afternoon, which is the marker the client reports without being prompted.
By session six: a more even-looking central panel, and openings that read as less obvious in normal light.
Scope: this protocol addresses the look of texture and visible pores. Pore size is genetic, so the realistic result is pores that look clearer and less prominent. If the presenting concern is inflamed lesions rather than the look of texture, stop and refer: the next step is a physician.
Home maintenance
The treatment holds for about a week. The home routine carries it to the next session.
Morning: Bright Micro Bubble Cleanser, press in Marine Balancing Toner, AquaCell Moisturizer, sun protection.
Evening: cleanse, tone, Clarifying ProSerum, AquaCell Moisturizer.
Twice weekly: Resurfacing Cleansing Peel at home, 60 seconds maximum, on its own. Not on the same evening as anything else, and not within 48 hours of an appointment.
Twice weekly, on the other evenings: one 1.5 ml application of Clarifying NanoSerum from a sealed vial as an intensive step, drawn through the stopper. Each vial covers three applications, so a ten-vial box is about fifteen weeks of twice-weekly use.
Show the vial mechanics once: cap off, syringe through the stopper, stopper stays in place. Clients who pull the stopper out lose the reason the format exists.
When to refer
Refer to a physician, and do not continue the protocol, if:
- There are inflamed, painful, raised or fluid-filled lesions, or lesions under the skin that do not come to a head. Inflammatory and cystic lesions are a dermatologist's question, not a facial. Say that plainly and book nothing further until it is answered.
- Lesions are leaving marks or depressions in the skin.
- The pattern appeared suddenly, over weeks, in an adult with no previous history.
- The pattern followed a new oral medication, or a change in one.
- There is pain, heat or spreading redness in the area.
- Nothing has changed after six sessions with a consistent home routine.
Knowing where the cosmetic answer stops is what makes the rest of it worth taking.
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