This is How Caffeine Benefits the Skin

When you purchase a natural skin care product, there are certain ingredients that you want to see on the list. There should be plenty of antioxidants, anti-inflammatory agents, and substances that increase hydration. Another ingredient you definitely want to add to your list is caffeine for skin care. It may sound strange that your daily cup of coffee is actually good for your sensitive skin, but it has tremendous benefits.

What Is Caffeine?

Caffeine is a central nervous system stimulant that can give you a lot of extra energy. In addition, it’s actually the most used psychoactive drug worldwide. Many people drink coffee on a daily basis as a means of staving off fatigue and promoting alertness. The drug is safe in moderate amounts. However, there is an upper limit after which there are health risks.

A safe daily intake is about 400 milligrams or 4 medium cups of coffee. After that, you can begin to experience side effects like feeling jittery and irritable, and you may have trouble sleeping at night. In addition, you could experience fast heartbeat, muscle tremors, or frequent urination (1).

However, caffeine for the skin as an ingredient in a cream affects the body a little differently. The cream penetrates into your skin instead of being injected directly, and the amount of the substance is much less than 4 cups of coffee daily. Not only is it safe, but caffeine for skin care has a long list of advantages.

caffeine for skin
Caffeine is a great topical ingredient to improve puffiness and improve circulation in skin. Image/Shutterstock

What Caffeine Does for Your Skin

Still don’t believe that caffeine is good for your skin? You will once you read through this list of amazing caffeine benefits for skin.

Improves Circulation – Caffeine enhances blood flow all over the body, and this contributes greatly to the health of the skin. In addition, it gives your complexion a rosy glow. It can narrow the blood vessels, which can lessen facial redness and calm the skin.

Repairs Skin Damage – Caffeine contains antioxidants called polyphenols, which improve the immunity of the skin and repair any damage. They do this by killing any harmful free radicals on the skin and lessening the oxidative stress. Therefore, caffeine has anti-aging benefits, as it can help to lessen under eye wrinkles and fine lines on the skin.

Helps to Burn Fat – It can burn fat by converting it to fatty acids. However, it is apparently only able to get rid of subdermal fat, while leaving the fat surrounding your inner organs untouched. The finding that caffeine can burn fat when included in topical creams is still the subject of debate, but there are studies which support it (2).

Eliminates Cellulite – Directly connected to the fat-burning properties of caffeine, there’s evidence that it can eliminate cellulite from the body. This is also a result of the antioxidant properties, which lead to repair of damage to the skin barrier. This includes the dimples and pockets which are typical of cellulite (2).

Initiates Collagen Production – It initiates collagen production, which replaces the amount that has been lost with age. This makes skin that was sagging suddenly firmer and more elastic, smoothing out wrinkles, fine lines, and cellulite.

Reduces Wrinkles and Lines – The production of extra collagen makes the skin firmer and more elastic. This causes the lines and wrinkles on the face and body to smooth out. Antioxidants also help lessen wrinkles by repairing skin damage.

Has Anti-Inflammatory Properties – It has the ability to reduce inflammation, and that includes the skin. Therefore, it can diminish redness and swelling. In addition, caffeine can lessen puffiness and bags under the eyes with its anti-inflammatory effects (3).

Caffeine in Skin Care Products

You’ll find caffeine on the ingredient list for many skin care products, because of what it can do for your skin. You have a selection of different items which include:

Face Moisturizer – Caffeine is particularly added to anti-aging face creams for their ability to eliminate forehead wrinkles and fine lines.

Face Serum – A serum is a more liquid formula which may be more potent. You can get best serums for face with just caffeine, or ones that also include other ingredients.

Eye Cream/Serum – An eye cream with caffeine can help to diminish the appearance of bags, puffiness, and dark circles under the eyes. It can also smooth out lines like crow’s feet.

Cellulite Cream – All over body creams which contain caffeine are great for eliminating cellulite in common areas like the legs and thighs, as well as lines and stretch marks. Included in the caffeine effects, top cellulite creams will also give the skin an overall brighter appearance.

Makeup – Caffeine is an ingredient in some makeup for its skin care benefits. Therefore, that’s double the caffeine if you also have it as an ingredient in your cream.

Cleansing Products – Cleansing products often add caffeine for its skin brightening effects. As it improves circulation, it gives the skin a radiant look.

People Also Ask

Q: Can I Apply Coffee on my Face Daily?

A: You shouldn’t apply coffee grounds to your face daily, no. It’s too abrasive and may damage your skin. You can do a coffee scrub on your face no more than 2-3 times a week. It will help exfoliate the dead skin cells and give your skin a glow.

If the caffeine is inside a cream or other similar beauty product, you can use the product on a daily basis. Most products recommend twice daily but look at the individual instructions.

Q: Does Caffeine Make Your Skin Dry?

A: Caffeine can dry out your skin. This is because it’s a diuretic, which promotes frequent urination. Caffeine dehydrates the skin. That’s why it’s important to remember to make sure your skin products also include some very hydrating ingredients. This will make sure the skin doesn’t get dry.

Q: Does Coffee Brighten Skin?

A: There’s some speculation that caffeine for skin care could lighten the skin, helping to get rid of areas of pigmentation. However, this finding is not certain. It does brighten the skin in the sense that the improved circulation gives the body a radiant appearance of health.

Q: Is Caffeine Safe for Your Skin?

A: Yes, caffeine on the skin is perfectly safe for the skin and it has numerous benefits. The amount of caffeine that absorbs into your skin would not be enough to do any harm.

Q: Can Caffeine Cause Skin Itching?

A: Caffeine for skin care can cause itching for people who have an allergy. When they consume caffeine, their bodies make an antibody called immunoglobin E, which leads to the release of histamine. The result is itchy, red, swollen skin. People with a caffeine allergy have to take particular care to avoid this ingredient when selecting skin products.

Q: Can I Use Caffeine for Skin Care During Pregnancy?

A: You really should stay away from caffeine in skincare during pregnancy. The product absorbs into the skin and could affect both you and the baby. You may not get the same amount of caffeine as drinking coffee, but you will get some. Fortunately, there are great skin care products on the market such as Miami MD, DRMTLGY, and Genucel which use other effective organic ingredients.

Q: Is Caffeine Good for your Skin?

A: Coffee may help reduce the appearance of cellulite on the skin. The caffeine content in coffee is the key to cellulite reduction by dilating blood vessels beneath the skin and improving overall blood flow. In turn, this may help decrease the appearance of cellulite.

Q: Does Caffeine Age your Skin?

A: Drinking a lot of tea or coffee can also dehydrate the skin. This causes inflammation and collagen loss which in turn leads to sagging skin and wrinkles.

Conclusion

When it comes to skin care ingredients, caffeine is among the best. There’s a long list of caffeine benefits for skin including improving circulation, eliminating cellulite, smoothing out frown lines and wrinkles, helping to burn fat, and initiating collagen production.

Caffeine for skin is high in antioxidants which can repair damage to the epidermal barrier, and anti-inflammatory agents that reduce swelling and redness. As such, it’s the ideal substance for use in skin care.

You have a number of products to choose from when it comes to caffeine, from serum to body lotion to eye cream such as La Roche-Posay Pigmentclar Eyes, and Kylie Skin Eye Cream. In addition to caffeine, make sure the other ingredients are potent skin care substances which will also be effective. From now on, you’ll have caffeine for skin care along with your morning coffee.

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Michelle May, MS, RD, LD

By Michelle May, MS, RD, LD

Experienced Clinical Dietitian with a demonstrated history of working in the food & beverage industry.

References

[1] https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/caffeine/art-20045678
[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4466275/
[3] https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2017/01/caffeine-may-counter-age-related-inflammation-study-finds.html