We used a pore vacuum with a built-in microscope to suck out our blackheads—here's what happened

• Pore vacuums claim to extract blackheads and clogged pores.
• Insider producer Celia Skvaril decided to try out the AsperX Blackhead Vacuum with a built-in microscope.
• Despite their popularity, pore vacuums are known to cause bruising.
• Celia spoke to licensed esthetician and YouTuber Nayamka Roberts-Smith about the causes and consequences of the bruising.

Following is a transcript of the video.

Celia Skvaril: We are going to be trying this blackhead-remover vacuum. I have tried one of these in the past, and let's just say... it didn't turn out very well. [tense music] But you all have been asking me to try one, and I thought this one was super special because it has a built-in microscope. Obviously, I love seeing things get pulled out of the pores, or I would not be here right now. So, I'm very interested to see how and if this version works. It comes with one, two, three, four, five, six different heads. So, I think I'm gonna use the elliptical tip with large suction and the middle round tip, but I might switch them out as I see fit. First off, before I do anything else, I am going to steam my skin because it says to start with that.

I'm so gonna be so excited if some of these suckers get pulled out. Bye-bye! Oh! That one's gotta go. The instructions say, they're pretty strict, "Stay no more than two seconds on one area." And I think that's probably where I messed up last time, because I was holding it in one area for a really long time.

Oh. I think I went on that area too hard. Ah! Ow! OK, that hurt. [laughs] It sucked it in like an actual vacuum cleaner, like a Dyson! Ah! Oh, my God! Oh, my God, oh, my God. It was stuck! [gasps] Move it around. If I learned anything in high school. It does say your face might be red afterwards for a few minutes. I think I gave myself some hickeys on accident. It's really easy to do. You have to be super careful. Honestly, it's a good thing we're in quarantine right now, because no one's gonna see me like this. Besides the obvious, you know, hickeys, I'm actually very happy with how I saw it working. I saw it pulling out a lot of stuff.

Hello. So, I wanted to come back once my bruising was completely gone, and it's been five days, and it finally went away. Now, I don't think that seems too healthy for you, but I really wanna get the opinion of an expert on if pore vacuums actually work and if you should be using them.

Nayamka Roberts-Smith: My name is Nayamka Roberts-Smith. I am an esthetician out of Los Angeles. I have a studio here. I also do virtual consultations, and sometimes I tour when I'm not, when, you know, there's no pandemic.

Celia: As you know, we're talking about pore vacuums, which, I just tried this one a few days ago, and I wanted to get your thoughts on them, because I thought... I got some bruises, and I thought maybe it was my fault, and of course I don't want it to be my fault. So I wanted to ask you about them and get your thoughts.

Nayamka: Any handheld pore vacuum, I'm a very strong, it's a very strong no for me. [laughs] Pore vacuums, it's not your fault why you got bruised. That's just how they work. Even, so, what pore vacuums are, they're a at-home version of, like, a microdermabrasion machine that you'd use in a spa. But at-home ones don't really have any of that. It's just suction. [laughs] So it's very, very easy to get bruising and, you know, irritation on the skin, because, I mean, there's a lot of reasons, but one is just that it's difficult, like, to do yourself. If you have enough suction to, like, remove a blackhead, you probably also have enough suction to bruise and give yourself, like, hickeys. With a pore vacuum, because of the suction, you have a likelihood of bruising.

So, bruising is just, like, blood vessels in the area... I don't wanna say, like, breaking. Sometimes, you know, they break, but oftentimes they're really just dilated. So, like, they swell up, and they look red. You know, they look really irritated. On people of color, that can sometimes cause hyperpigmentation. It's not uncommon that bruising leads to hyperpigmentation. So anyone with more melanin in their skin, that's really something that they wanna be careful about, because, you know, those marks may not go away for a while. You know, few months, sometimes up to a year.

Well, you definitely have some, you know, your skin's congested. And it seems a little bit dehydrated. Like, you can tell by the way, like, you have some areas where it's flaking, but then you'll also see, like, the shiny areas where it's, like, oil being produced. You also have a little bit of redness. So that kinda lets me know that it's possible that your moisture barrier is a little bit impaired, meaning that, you know, your skin may be a little bit oily. So, I'm watching the suction. It is causing, you know, some of them to come out a little bit. But your breakout, the congestion in your skin is going a lot deeper than these are able to reach. For them to be able to even come out, you'd really have to leave the suction on there for a really long time or do, like, a very intense level. And that would absolutely cause way worse, way worse bruising than, you know, even that you have right now.

So, after, I actually see some that are, like, more above the surface, like, it lifted them slightly, but not all the way. Overall, it mostly looks the same. You know, overall, it's not worth the risk. Like, you're not doing a huge benefit. And there are some areas where it did lift, but the skin around it is really red. [laughs] And, you know, I think it's important to note that the areas where it's bruised are likely areas that you had the pore suction tool on for a little bit longer, and it's not clearer. You know, like, the blackheads are still there. So, I don't think pore vacuums are, you know, something that people should be using at home. It's a tricky tool to master, and it's really important that it's left up to the professionals. So, the damage that you do with it is not worth just trying to get out, like, four blackheads. [laughs] It's really, like, overall, it's more of a loss than it is a win.

Celia: My chin is too small. Oh, no! I have a hickey.