Coffee, the secret skin remedy for your beauty routine*

*this is a collaborative post on www.icecreamandclara.co.uk

It seems like half the world is powered by coffee these days. It helps us get up in the morning and keeps us going throughout the day, but did you know that it’s also great for your skin? The health benefits of coffee have been well documented over the last few years and the latest research shows that a few cups a day is good for you. However, too much caffeine can be bad for you, so if you drink ten cups a day, you are probably doing more harm than good. 

 There is also evidence to suggest that your daily coffee intake could actually improve your skin in a lot of different ways. If you want to get the full benefit of coffee, it’s important that you drink high quality coffee. You can get an organic coffee subscription online, which is much better than drinking the cheap stuff from the supermarket. It will contain more of the active ingredients that help to improve your skin and it’ll be much nicer as well. 

 If you needed another reason to justify your excessive coffee drinking, these are some of the ways that it can help to improve your skin. 

 Antioxidants – you might have heard of antioxidants before because they’re very important if you want to get great skin. The reason that antioxidants are so important is that they protect from free radicals, which are small particles, like pollution etc. that cause damage to your cells. Exposure to free radicals can cause premature ageing of the skin, so it’s important that you have plenty of antioxidants in your diet. There are all sorts of ways to increase your antioxidant intake, but coffee is one of the best. It’s packed full of antioxidants so it protects your skin and boosts your natural defences. 

 Sun Protection – if you want to protect your skin and keep it looking radiant, it’s important that you invest in the right products. But many people don’t realise that sunscreen is the most important skin product there is because UV rays do so much damage to your skin. Unless you protect yourself, sun damage will cause premature ageing that is incredibly difficult to reverse. Wearing sunscreen is important and you should invest in moisturisers that offer UV protection, but drinking more coffee could help here as well. Studies show that caffeine interrupts the skin’s damage response, which protects it from sun damage. 

That doesn’t mean that you can use coffee as an alternative to sunscreen, but drinking a few cups of coffee a day gives you an added layer of protection against sun damage. 

It Boosts Circulation – improving circulation is important for your skin health because it helps to reduce swelling and puffiness in the skin. Better circulation also helps to give your skin a healthy glow, so finding ways to boost circulation is not only good for your overall health, but it’s great for your skin as well. Coffee is one of the easiest ways to increase your circulation. 

 Coffee Based Skin Remedies – drinking coffee is great, but you can also use coffee based skin remedies to get even more benefits.

You can make a great coffee skin scrub for use on the face and the body. Simply take some fresh coffee grounds and mix them with a little brown sugar and some coconut oil, with a bit of vanilla extract, and you’ve got a great exfoliating scrub. The texture of the coffee grounds is perfect for removing dead skin cells, and you will get all of the great benefits from the coffee as well, so it’s better than a normal exfoliator. 

 Coffee works as a great scalp exfoliator as well. All you need to do is take some old coffee grounds and massage them into your scalp for a few minutes before washing with your normal shampoo and conditioner. This will remove dead skin cells on the scalp and any build up of hair products. 

If you suffer from puffy eyes, coffee is a great way to deal with them. Try taking some old coffee grounds and rubbing them under the eyes. Leave them for a few minutes and then rinse off with cold water and you should notice a difference. People often use ice cubes to deal with puffy eyes as well, and you can increase the effectiveness if you make the cubes out of coffee. 

 These remedies are all great ways to use coffee to improve your skin. You can also get a lot of the benefits from drinking a few cups a day, so don’t worry too much about your coffee intake.