If I have one goal as a beauty crusader, it’s to help people break the naughty habit of removing blackheads from their noses and cheeks on a daily basis. But what’s a dazed face to do? I’m glad you asked. Before you reach out to those clogged pores with your hands ready to remove blackheads, which could exacerbate the problem, let’s learn how these seemingly never-dying bugs work.

Blackheads are the result of oils coming out of the pores that harden and oxidize within the skin. Imagine the pores in your skin as a pipe that allows oils to flow freely. When oils crystallize into hardened blackheads, this limits the flow of much-needed oil into the skin. With this blockage, the glands continue to pump out oils that simply accumulate below the skin’s surface, giving you a rough, uneven skin texture.

And so, with blackheads, your skin’s problem is not oiliness or even blackheads, but the need to maintain what I call the “ecology of your skin.” Your face needs oil to lift from the pores, coat the skin, and protect your face from bacterial and environmental damage and premature aging. Not having properly lubricated skin makes your face vulnerable.

Now, to end the cycle of seeing a new crop of blackheads on your skin, you want to remove the embedded blackheads. Then, remove the wax buildup in your pores daily so blackhead-inducing oils don’t build up in your pores. You can run blackhead prevention treatment in five easy steps

Step 1: Clean the skin

First, wash your face with a basic soap like a mild glycerin soap.

Step 2 – Steam your face

To help “melt” blackheads and make it easier to remove trapped blackheads, use “blackhead melter.” To do this, dampen a clean cotton cloth and place it in the microwave for 45-60 seconds. This will create a steaming cloth. Carefully smooth steamed cloth over face and let sit on skin for 60 seconds to help remove and “melt” deep blackheads. Steam again and apply the cloth to congested skin.

(Note: Make sure the cloth is not too hot or you could burn your skin.)

Step 3: Dissolve blackheads

There is more than one way to remove blackheads. You can squeeze them or dissolve them. One trick I like to use to dissolve blackheads is earwax removers. But before using a wax remover, put protective gloves on your hands. The gloves will prevent the wax remover from getting between your fingers and irritating your skin.

Only apply earwax remover to areas plagued by blackheads. Allow the wax remover to remain on the skin for a minute or two. Rinse the wax remover off with lukewarm water.

What you should see after removing the earwax remover are tiny yellowish-white threads of oil rising from your skin. This happens because the “lid” of the pores has been removed and now the oils from the skin begin to flow again. This is what you want, natural oil flow on your skin.

Step 4 – Draw any remaining oils from the skin and moisten the skin

To deeply cleanse excess oil, give your skin a warm moisture treatment. Get a heavy, thick face cream like Ponds cold cream or a generic thick moisturizer at your local drugstore. Apply a thick layer of the cream on your skin. Be sure to cover your lips (or apply a layer of lip balm) to protect them from the heat.

Now, take your hair dryer, set it to low heat, and heat the cream on your face for a minute or two. The heat from the blow dryer helps the cream attract excess oil that is floating in the pores. Also, this heat treatment deeply hydrates your skin so that your pores do not produce more oil simply because you have removed excess oil.

Remove the heavy cream with a warm washcloth.

Step 5 – Remove Oil Buildup Daily

Here is the key. To stop the accumulation of blackheads, every day you must rid your skin of excess oil. Repeat steps one through four daily for one week. This should get your blackheads under control. Then, use this treatment as needed to keep blackheads that way.

In short, using natural skin care to remove blackheads means working with the laws of physics: items under pressure tend to move from high-pressure areas to low-pressure areas. Remove hardened oils from your skin and the trapped oils will flow to the top layers of your skin where they belong, making blackheads history.