Recent studies are showing that your favorite morning waker-upper is good for more than just a giving you that much-needed boost of energy. It turns out that using coffee grounds for skin treatment can have incredible benefits!
While it may take some time to get used to, apply coffee grounds to your skin is certainly cheaper than all of the fancy creams and lotions sold in pharmacies. If you’re having trouble visualizing it, here’s how it’s done: mix three tablespoons of white sugar in a jar, a teaspoon of cinnamon for its antibacterial properties, three tablespoons of used coffee grounds, along with a tablespoon of coconut oil, olive oil, or aloe gel. These bind the grounds and sugar together while adding moisturizing effects.
Before you get in the shower, rub the mixture on your face and body, then let it sit for about 15 minutes. Now, get in the shower and carry on as usual. The mixture exfoliates dead skin cells, leaving new ones to make your skin glow. Here are a few more benefits to using your morning brew as a beauty treatment.
1. As A Treatment for Cellulite
Cellulite is the fatty tissue that collects around the connective tissue beneath the skin, causing a wrinkled dimpled look. It usually centers around the buttocks and thighs, especially in women.
To combat cellulite, make a mixture of grounds, sugar, and oil or aloe as described above. Using a circular motion, rub the mixture into the skin. The benefits are three-fold. First, the caffeine in the java dilates the blood vessels beneath the skin. Circulation increases in addition to water retention decreasing. This gives the skin a smoother look.
Secondly, the antioxidants in the grounds increase collagen production. Perhaps more important, thirdly, the antioxidants fight the fat cells in cellulite. The antioxidants in the coffee grounds also strengthen the immune system, helping rid your body of toxins.
Antioxidants are found in both pre-roasted and roasted beans. The antioxidants most involved in skin care beauty treatments are:
>Ferulic Acid. This is the antioxidant with the anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, and antiplatelet among other “anti’s” that best benefits skin care.
>Caffeine. Caffeine is itself an antioxidant. It’s responsible for shrinking blood vessels beneath the skin, with help to smooth it out.
>Magnesium. Magnesium helps give you a more even skin tone, clearer skin, as well as reducing hormonal skin problems, such as acne.
2. As A Treatment for Puffy Eyes
There are many reasons puffy eyes start appearing. Lack of sleep, drinking too much, smoking, crying, too much sun, the list goes on and on. But if you have bags under the eyes, coffee may be the remedy you need.
Try making coffee grounds into a paste by adding some black pepper and olive or coconut oil. Place beneath the eyes. Let it sit for a few minutes, then wash off. Do this twice per week. You should notice the puffiness begin to disappear, along with the dark circles.
How can coffee grounds cure bags under your eyes? Well, antioxidants help to slow down the aging of your skin, and the caffeine stops moisture from plumping up the skin beneath the eyes. Black pepper helps with the circulation, and the coconut oil releases the coffee and black pepper oils, so the skin can better absorb them. See? No surgery!
3. As A Treatment To Tighten Skin
The same anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties in coffee help tighten the skin. Since the skin is the largest organ in the human body, you should always make sure to protect it. After all, your skins constantly gets hit with toxins, pollution of every type, and can be harmed by UV rays from the sun.
Caffeine restricts blood vessels beneath the skin. The same property that depuffs eyes will tighten the skin elsewhere. And those antioxidants we mentioned? They fight wrinkles and fine lines. The same antioxidants also fight aging and sun damages. You’d be surprised how many commercial skin treatments include coffee grounds in their skin care recipes. So go raid that drip-pot in you kitchen!
4. As A Treatment For Dry Skin
Do you have skin spots that simply will not stop flaking and continue to embarrass you? Are you sentenced to long sleeves and long pants for life? Fear not, java to the rescue!
Caffeine, when ingested, helps rid the body of excess water, in addition to toxins. Applied to the skin topically, however, it traps the moisture.
Using the recipe described above, gently rub the mixture around the dry spots. Rinse off. The grounds will be abrasive, so don’t rub too vigorously or you could damage the skin.
Any way you look at it, your morning cup of java can benefit you from the inside out and from the outside in. You might feel a little strange at first, but when people start complimenting you, you’ll be a believer!
Author
Hey there, my name is Greg and I’m the creator and editor of Coffee or Bust. I’ve been in the coffee business for over a decade, and my goal is to help you make the best cup of coffee with recommended tips, tools, and tricks!