Using Medicube Zero Pore Pads and seeing no results? You are probably using them wrong

Short answer: flip the pad over. There is a textured side and a smooth side, and the textured side is the one doing the work. If you have been using the smooth side, you have been wiping product around your face for three weeks. That is the whole video, and I am putting it in writing because the comments were full of people who had the same jar and the same nothing.

These pads have AHA and BHA in them. Those are chemical exfoliants, and they are not gentle ones. Used the right way, on the right spots, they are how I cleared the closed comedones on my forehead. Used the wrong way, they either do nothing or they wreck your barrier. There is not a lot of middle ground, which is why the how matters more than the what here.

Which side of the Zero Pore Pad goes on your skin?

The textured side. Run your thumb over a pad and you will feel it: one side is smooth, one side has a raised weave. The weave is where the physical lift happens while the acids do the chemical part. Smooth side on skin means the acids barely touch the texture you are trying to fix and the pad slides right over it.

I use the textured side on the spot, with light pressure, in small circles. Not scrubbing. The acids are strong enough that you do not need force.

Should you use Zero Pore Pads all over your face every night?

No, and this is the part nobody tells you before you buy them. They are a spot treatment. I use them on the areas that actually have texture or clogged pores, my forehead and the sides of my nose, and I leave the rest of my face alone. Everywhere else gets a plain toner.

Frequency is one to two times a week. That is it. AHA and BHA together are a lot for skin to process, and using them nightly is how people end up with a red, tight, flaky forehead and then blame the product. Think of them like a treatment you schedule, not a step you repeat.

How do you make a jar of toner pads last longer?

Fold them in half. A whole pad on one spot is more product than the spot needs, and half a pad has plenty of liquid in it. I was down to my last two before I figured this out, so learn from my mistake. Folded pads also give you a cleaner edge for the sides of the nose.

How long until you see results?

Mine took about three weeks, spot treating twice a week on my forehead. The texture went down first, then the closed comedones stopped forming. Results vary, and if you have been doing it wrong for three weeks you are basically starting over from today, not from the day you opened the jar.

My exact routine on pad nights

• Double cleanse, oil first, then a gentle foaming cleanser.
• Pat dry. Damp skin makes acids sting more.
• Half a pad, textured side, on the forehead and the sides of the nose only.
• Plain hydrating toner on the rest of the face.
• Moisturizer over everything. No retinol, no vitamin C, no other acid that night.
• SPF the next morning without fail. Exfoliated skin burns faster.

Who this is not for

Skip these, or at least wait, if your barrier is already irritated: stinging when you apply plain moisturizer, redness that does not fade, flaking. Calm that down first with a bland routine and come back in two weeks.

If you are on a prescription retinoid or tretinoin, talk to whoever prescribed it before adding an AHA and BHA pad. If you already use another exfoliant, pick one. Stacking acids is the fastest way to a wrecked barrier I know of.

And if your forehead bumps are painful, deep, or leave marks, that is not texture, that is something a dermatologist should look at. Pads will not fix cystic acne and I do not want you spending three weeks finding that out.

The pads I use are the Medicube Zero Pore Pad 2.0. Same jar in the video, same jar on my counter now. No brand deal, no PR obligation, just the way I actually use them.