Most people don’t think of an astringent as a cream.  But from what I have heard and read about astringents they are important and despite the fact that they appear to be more of a water base chemically speaking, I think that since there is no “water base face product” category in life, I will mention here how important astringents seem to be.  So as I understand it, astringents actually close you pores up.  How cool is that? If your pores are closed, then junk can’t get in them and if junk can’t get in them then you don’t have to worry as much about acne. 

Clean pores appear to be key in preventing and maintaining healthy skin and reducing acne.  What I have learned from the internet is that if you have just cleaned out your pores, you really need to close them back up.  If you don’t close your pores after you opened them to clean them out then even though you have nice clean pores, you will still get them clogged again because open pores are like lint traps that will gather every particle from the air and food bit that fly’s from your mouth… yuck! So what I learned was that astringents are key.  However I picked up an astringent that had aloe in it.  I don’t think this was a good idea because my face feels very oily after I put it on.  I think that I should have stuck to the plain astringent.