Caffeine Based Products and Your Skin

We all know that a coffee in the morning can give you that bit of additional energy you require in order to get through your morning routine, but did you know that skin care products incorporating coffee or caffeine may just be able to do the same for your skin? More and more skin care products are making use of caffeine to give your skin a tighter and smoother appearance.

Caffeine has been employed for years in products such as wrinkle repair and cellulite creams. These days you can find facial creams and even body scrubs which are making use of coffee and caffeine in their ingredient lists. The issue is, does caffeine actually have a beneficial effect on the skin?


Caffeine works on your skin in 3 different ways. The first is as a diuretic, meaning that it dehydrates your cells. It is this effect which makes it so effective in cellulite creams. The caffeine does not really free you of your cellulite. However , by dehydrating the fat cells it gives the skin a smoother appearance.

The second way in which caffeine works is as a vasoconstrictor, meaning that it causes your blood vessels to contract. When the blood vessels contract it can give the skin a tighter appearance. It is this effect which makes caffeine useful in products like creams to reduce dark circles and puffing around the eyes.

Finally, caffeine also works as an antioxidant. Recent studies indicate the antioxidant power of caffeine is extremely effective in protecting your skin from sun induced skin cancer. This doesn't mean that you can use a facial cream which has caffeine in the place of your usual sun lotion products but adding this product to your current sunscreen routine can help give you additional protection.

In addition to the use of caffeine in these products, a few of these products are also using ground coffee beans as a scrub. Utilising the coffee beans allows the user to enjoy the fragrance of coffee along with smoother and tighter looking skin. Studies do not indicate any adverse effects from utilizing these products. Using caffeine products topically also doesn't have the same addictive effect that consuming coffee and energy drinks has.