u/Deep-Try-2103

Spent the last two years throwing everything at my skin texture like chemical exfoliants, enzyme masks, peels, different moisturizers and they all help in the moment but nothing has actually changed the baseline. The thing that finally got me to really think about this is that the texture im dealing with isn't a surface issue. In photos especially in natural light my pores look huge and everything looks bumpy and uneven even though my skin feels fine to touch and looks okay in the mirror because like i have no active acne, its not dry, just this persistent rough quality underneath. So i started researching what actually drives long term texture improvement and kept coming back to collagen density and skin structure rather than just exfoliation, which made me realize i've been treating the surface of a problem that lives deeper. Has anyone else had this realization and found something that worked at that level? Not looking for more product recommendations, genuinely curious what approaches actually changed your skin structure rather than just temporarily smoothing the surface?