There’s nothing new about the use of caffeine in skincare products. In fact, caffeine has been used in health and beauty products for years; it’s an age-old remedy for wrinkles and cellulite. When you ingest caffeine, it boosts your energy and aides in your concentration. However, when you use caffeine topically, the effects are a little bit different.
Caffeine is a pretty controversial ingredient in the beauty industry. It does have some positive effects on your skin, like brightening it and reducing puffiness and inflammation, but its effects on the skin aren’t better than getting a good night’s rest. With the push for more natural products, it’s easy to see why caffeine has become very popular over the last few years as a skincare ingredient.
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Five Benefits of Caffeine for Skin
Studies on the positive qualities of caffeine have been a little hazy, but here are five of the reported benefits of using caffeine on your skin.
- It contains antioxidants. There is no dispute with this claim; caffeine is said to have antioxidants. Antioxidants, like the ones found in caffeine and other natural products, actively fight the free radicals that are inside your body. Your body produces free radicals as a waste product. When you use caffeine topically or by ingesting it, you get the positive benefit of reducing the number of free radicals in your body. This is important because free radicals are the cause of fine lines and wrinkles.
- It can decrease puffiness. Caffeine is a great topical ingredient when it comes to reducing puffiness. It also can improve circulation, so it’s a very useful ingredient in products that specialize in minimizing under-eye bags. However, it’s important to remember that the effects of caffeine will not last forever, so you have to use it daily for the best results. Increasing circulation has a second benefit, too. It makes your skin radiant and fresh, and it gives you a natural glow.
- It has the ability to dissolve fat. By converting fat to fatty acids, caffeine can dissolve the fat just below your skin. Once this fat has been converted to fatty acids, it can be removed by your body’s blood circulation and then metabolized into energy and carbon dioxide. This may sound like a quick fix for losing a couple of pounds, but topical applications of caffeine only reduce subdermal fat. Unfortunately, it does nothing for the fat around your organs.
- It is said to reduce cellulite. This is one of the more controversial benefits of caffeine. While some people disagree, studies have shown that caffeine can result in a decrease in cellulite when it’s used topically. The way it is said to work is by increasing blood flow and stimulating the removal of the fatty acids from the fatty layer. A very small study done in 2015 show the positive effects of caffeine on cellulite. For six weeks, a collection of 15 participants rubbed caffeine-containing cellulite cream on their body twice a day, and 12 of them reported an average of a 0.7 cm decrease in the circumference of their thighs and a 0.8 cm decrease in their upper arms.
- It assists with the production of collagen. Finally, there is the potential for caffeine to help in the production of collagen. Specifically, green coffee bean oil is said to aid in collagen and elastin production because of the amino acid contained in the oil
Adding caffeine to your beauty regime
When it comes to adding caffeine to your beauty regimen, you should go at it with an open mind. Plenty of products claim to help with cellulite and puffy eyes, but you should focus on the proven benefits of caffeine. Those proven benefits are its soothing properties and antioxidants. Caffeine is also great for tightening blood vessels under your eyes and reducing puffiness under them as well.
While these effects are temporary, there still some worth in using caffeine in your daily skincare routine. When you combine caffeine with things like ginseng, both products together can energize the skin and optimize cellular energy. This power combo will keep your skin hydrated, conditioned, and looking its best all day.
The major downside to caffeine is that when you stop using it topically, your blood vessels can have the same reaction as they do when you stop drinking it in the morning, and this increased circulation can cause redness. Despite these to downsides, caffeine plays well with most other beauty products and can still add value to your skincare routine.
Parts of the Article from cherie.com to keep this useful info available to all readers.
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