How Does Caffeine Help Your Skin Health?

If you’d never dream of starting the day without your morning latte, imagine the kick start that topical caffeine can give your skin cells. What if the benefits of caffeine could actually help you look younger and more refreshed?

You see, caffeine belongs to an incredible group of age-fighters known as antioxidants. It also has a natural ability to constrict blood vessels. And there’s evidence that a topical application of caffeine may help with a wide range of skin care issues – including those dreaded morning under-eye circles!

Let’s take a closer look at some of the skin care benefits of caffeine, including its potential ability to help lessen the appearance of dark circles.

1. It May Help Reduce Puffy Eyes and Dark Circles

One of the most popular ways to embrace caffeine skin care is in the fight against puffy eyes and dark circles.

Because the skin is the thinnest around your delicate eye area, blood vessels easily show through the skin as dark circles. And when you haven’t had enough sleep, they can become especially puffy.

But caffeine is a natural vasoconstrictor – which means it can constrict blood vessels. So, eye creams containing caffeine have an ability to temporarily shrink the puffiness of these blood vessels.¹ This is great news when you wake up to a set of unexpected under-eye circles!

2. It May Help to Reduce the Appearance of Cellulite

Coffee scrubs have long been a favorite choice of exfoliator (mostly due to their delicious texture and fragrance). But a coffee scrub could also assist in fighting cellulite.
Several small studies have found that a topical, caffeine-based skin care product was effective at reducing cellulite.^2,3

As it turns out, caffeine is naturally dehydrating. This is one reason not to drink too much of it. But this means that caffeine may help reduce the build-up of fatty fluids in cellulite tissue – at least temporarily.⁴

Another bonus of exfoliating with coffee is that the very mechanism of massage also helps to smooth skin and stimulate blood flow. Both may help improve the appearance of cellulite.⁵

3. It May Help Fight the Visible Signs of Aging

Antioxidants are your best weapon in the fight against free radicals in the environment. These free radicals can hasten the effects of aging, both inside and outside your body.⁶ On the skin, this can mean wrinkles appearing before their time.

But antioxidants like caffeine may offer some protection against the damage of free radicals.⁷ And as a bonus, caffeine has also shown photoprotective effects. That is, it can help protect against skin damage caused by UV radiation.⁸

Caffeine is usually most effective as a topical application in eye creams,

Caffeine antioxidants may indeed help to stave off wrinkles around the eye area a little longer.

While antioxidants like vitamin C are generally best for the face. But you’ll still need to wear sunscreen, of course!

Note: Remember, caffeine is dehydrating. You should only use a caffeine face product once a day, especially if you have dry skin.

The Skin Care Benefits of Caffeine

The beneficial effects of caffeine when incorporated into your skin care routine are exciting – though more studies are needed.

And, coffee isn’t the only way to harness caffeine in your skin care. Green tea is also known for its caffeine content. You’ll often find green tea in topical applications.

Caffeine consumption doesn’t need to stop at just one cup each day when you’re armed with an arsenal of caffeinated skin care. Puffy eyes and dark circles, be gone!

Learn More:
6 Surprising Things That Make You Look Older
How to Apply Eye Cream for the Best Results
7 Ways to Brighten Eyes (simple tricks to banish tired eyes!)

Sources
1.https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijvm/2010/834060/
2.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21564138
3.https://snucm.elsevierpure.com/en/publications/efficacy-of-slimming-cream-containing-35-water-soluble-caffeine-a
4.https://www.researchgate.net/publication/276945240_Caffeines_Mechanisms_of_Action_and_Its_Cosmetic_Use
5.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27333491
6.https://www.livescience.com/54901-free-radicals.html
7.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8679661
8.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphys.2019.00519/full