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Coffee is something we’re all familiar with. It’s a delicious beverage made from roasted and ground seeds obtained from the coffee plant. Consumed orally, it can act as a powerful stimulant and can help you stay awake. But did you know that your craved coffee grounds have a lot of other uses – including uses in skincare?
Topical application of coffee can have a lot of benefits. First, coffee grounds are excellent for exfoliation, as the granular texture can rub off dead skin cells. Additionally, the caffeine of coffee can stimulate blood flow by dilating the vessels. This can actually reduce the appearance of dark circles under eyes and puffy eyes, making it an excellent ingredient in anti-aging products.
Another positive benefit of coffee as an anti-aging product is that it acts as an antioxidant, protecting the skin from the damage of free radicals and UV damage.
Chlorogenic acid within coffee is also known to reduce inflammation, which allows coffee to help reduce the appearance of redness and inflammation from eczema, rosacea, and acne.
Coffee even has skin lightening effects, so it can also be used to treat dark spots and improve the overall consistency of skin tone.
There seem to be no adverse effects of applying coffee topically in the form of a face mask. However, drinking coffee may cause you to have acne breakouts, as caffeine can lead to increased production of stress hormones, and these hormones can increase the amount of oil your sebaceous glands produce.
Oily skin occurs when the sebaceous glands in the pores are producing more oil, or sebum, than necessary. Sebum is natural in all skin as it keeps the skin moist and healthy. Over production of sebum can be caused by hormones, genetics or could even be a result of dry skin over-compensating by producing extra oil, in order to retain some measure of moisture.
Oily skin can also be caused by using the wrong products for your skin type. For example, if you are using overly drying soaps and astringents for your skin type, your skin may respond by over producing oil to compensate, as mentioned above. This can create an unfortunate cycle of using harsh soaps to eliminate oils, but instead exacerbating the problem.
On the other hand, overly oily makeup and products can also cause oily skin.
Ingredients that help exfoliate dead skin cells to keep pores unclogged and increase new skin cell production, such as Vitamin A/Retinol, glycolic acid, and salicylic acid, are good for treating acne as well. Benzoyl peroxide is a topical agent for fighting bacteria and unclogging pores. It is one of the longest-used medications to keep oily pores clean and healthy. Jojoba oil is also good for fighting bacteria trapped in oily skin and maintaining a moisture barrier to prevent over-production of sebum.
Coffee may be effective for oily skin, but there are many other factors that may affect whether this ingredient would work on your skin or if there are better ingredients that may work for you. Take this skin quiz to find the best ingredients for your skin and build your skincare routine.
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