Coffee: it fuels millions of people around the world and makes coming back to work on Monday a little less painful. Aside from its power to deliver us the caffeine we need, coffee has some other amazing properties as well, and is a popular ingredient in homemade and commercial skin products. “Coffee scrubs” are one of the most popular ways to use the beans in skincare, but as most savvy consumers know, it’s important to do your own research and not just follow the trends in health and beauty blindly.
So, are coffee face scrubs good for your skin? Let’s take a look at the potential benefits and downsides of putting grounds on your face instead of in your cup.
COFFEE SCRUB BENEFITS
Read a lot of beauty blogs, and you’ll find a common theme: most of them love to recommend coffee scrubs. So what’s all the hype about? Here are some of the benefits that have been connected with these powerful scrubs:
1. Exfoliation
Exfoliating your skin is an important part of any skincare routine. Though all it is essentially doing is gently removing dead and damaged skin cells, leaving smoother, brighter skin underneath, it’s important for avoiding a dull complexion, acne, and other skin problems. Many scrubs are made from sugar or other ingredients, but coffee is gaining recognition as a great exfoliating ingredient, especially with its other benefits.
2. Skin Tightening
Caffeine has been used in many products to tone and tighten skin, and the coffee in caffeine is a cost-effective way to accomplish this. Puffy skin becomes tighter, fine lines become less noticeable, and can yield a more toned overall appearance.
3. Redness Reduction
Another benefit of caffeine is that it has anti-inflammatory properties. Since inflammation contributes to skin redness, coffee can be an effective treatment for this issue.
4. Improves Cellulite
Cellulite is one of the most difficult problems to treat, because it’s simply caused by normal fat cells pressing up against connective tissue in the skin. Most women have at least some cellulite, but it’s a cause of frustration for nearly everyone. While caffeine can’t fix cellulite, it can help improve it when used externally to tighten the skin and reduce inflammation.
5. Contains Antioxidants
Every day, the skin is attacked by free radicals, which cause damage and mutations to the skin cells. Antioxidants are essential for fighting these free radicals and keeping the skin youthful and healthy. Coffee contains range of antioxidants, which is why it is so often an ingredient in skin products.
DRINKING COFFEE VS. COFFEE FOR SKINCARE
With all these known benefits of coffee for your skin, there are many good reasons to give a coffee body scrub a try. However, you won’t get the same skin-boosting benefits from drinking coffee as you do from using scrubs. In fact, some people find that drinking coffee makes their a little more skin more sensitive, due to the acidity and diuretic properties of coffee.