Pores look bigger with age for a structural reason. A pore is an opening, and what holds its shape is the collagen and elastin in the skin around it. As that support thins, the opening slackens and widens — most obviously on the nose, the inner cheeks and sometimes the chin. Nothing in a makeup bag reverses that, and a product sold on the claim that it will is spending its money in the wrong place.
What makeup can do is change how light behaves at the edge of the opening. A pore reads as a dark dot because it casts a tiny shadow. Blurring products work by scattering light across that edge so the shadow softens — that is what a silicone-elastomer primer does, and it is genuinely effective for a few hours.
What does not work is filling. Pressing a thick foundation into an open pore packs pigment into it, which looks fine for an hour and then — as your skin warms and produces oil — lifts and gathers at the rim, making a ring that is more visible than the original shadow. This is the most common self-inflicted pore problem there is, and it comes from using more product with more pressure.
Pores and oil usually travel together, so read this alongside the oily mature skin picks. And if you also have texture beyond pores — crepiness, bumps, uneven surface — the blurring primer page goes further on that.
