Coffee is one of the best natural ingredients to help reduce the appearance of dark circles and calm skin inflammation. This post explores all the benefits of coffee soap for the skin.
Coffee is one of the most popular drinks in the world. It contains high levels of antioxidants and nutrients such as vitamin B2 (riboflavin), vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid), vitamin B3 (niacin), magnesium, manganese and potassium.
When consumed as a drink coffee is thought to provide a number of health benefits including lowering your risk of developing type 2 diabetes or heart failure. This is great news for coffee lovers!
Coffee has additional benefits when it’s applied topically to the skin. This can be in the form of lotions or creams, a coffee scrub or coffee soap bar. It is suitable for any skin type and is often a key ingredient in beauty products that aim to reduce dark circles or eye bags.
This post is all about the benefits of coffee soap
Coffee Soap Benefits
What is Coffee Soap?
Coffee soap is made using either ground coffee beans or coffee seed oil. It usually has a brown colour and often contains flecks from the finely ground grains. It’s a very environmentally friendly soap since you can use the leftover coffee grounds from your coffee maker rather than throwing them into the waste disposal.
Since coffee is excellent at absorbing odours it is a popular soap in kitchens to help remove food smells from the hands. It’s also frequently used as a natural remedy to promote skin exfoliation and increase healthy blood flow.
Coffee Soap Benefits for Skin
Coffee contains a high amount of anti-oxidants which help to protect the skin from the damaging effects of free radicals. It also works as an anti-ageing remedy since it helps to increase collagen production in the skin, and reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles.
A study published in 2013 suggests that the ferulic and caffeic acid found in coffee help to promote overall skin health. Caffeic acid can also help to protect the skin from harmful bacteria.
Here are some of the main ways coffee soap can benefit the skin.
- Exfoliates the Skin
- Reduces puffiness around the eyes
- Reduces dark circles around the eyes
- Helps to reduce cellulite
- Prevents acne
- Reduces skin inflammation
- Helps to eliminate fine lines and age spots
- Brightens the skin
- Removes odours from the skin
- Makes the skin firmer and more elastic
Some of the main reasons people use coffee soap is to reduce cellulite, prevent wrinkles, reduce redness or inflammation, or moisturise dry skin. Let’s look in a little more detail at how coffee soap can help these skin concerns.
Benefits of Coffee Soap in Reducing Cellulite
In a study from 2011, 78 women applied either a product containing caffeine, or a placebo to their skin for 12 weeks. After only 4 weeks a significant reduction was seen in the amount of cellulite on the skin of the women applying the caffeine compared to the placebo group.
It is believed that the caffeine helped to dilate the blood vessels and improve blood flow in the skin, and this in turn helped to reduce the appearance of cellulite on the skin.
Benefits of Coffee Soap in Preventing Wrinkles
There have been several studies which have shown that coffee extract may protect the skin from the damage caused by UVB rays. This means when applied to the skin it could help prevent wrinkles from forming. It’s not however a substitute for using sunscreen.
Interestingly, consuming coffee can also help to prevent sun damage to the skin. In a 2015 study, healthy Japanese women aged between 30–60 years were found to have fewer sun spots on their faces if they drank coffee.
Coffee Soap Benefits for Eczema
Coffee is able to keep the skin hydrated by preventing moisture loss. In a study it was shown to help strengthen the skin barrier and reduce clinical scores for dryness. Coffee soaps designed for eczema prone skin tend to contain other moisturising ingredients such as olive oil, castor oil and cocoa butter.
Coffee soap can not only help to hydrate and soothe dry skin but also gently exfoliate dead skin cells and reduce inflammation in sensitive skin. Coffee is a popular ingredient for eczema prone skin due to its natural anti-inflammatory properties. Both the caffeine and chlorogenic acids in coffee help to reduce the inflammation caused by eczema.
How to Make Coffee Soap
You can easily make a coffee soap at home using a melt and pour soap base. For my coffee soap I like to use a goats milk base or a shea butter base. You can then add natural oils such as palm oil, sweet almond oil or organic coconut oil for extra moisture.
You may also wish to choose an essential oil to add to your soap. The following essential oils work well in coffee soap depending on the skin condition you wish to treat.
- To Reduce Cellulite: Geranium, grapefruit, lavender, or lemon essential oils
- For Anti-ageing Benefits: Sandalwood or rosemary essential oils
- To Reduce Eczema: Chamomile or tea tree oils
You will also need coffee grounds and a soap mould. I prefer to use fresh coffee grounds rather than coffee oil since the grains provide gentle exfoliation and leave me with smoother skin.
Instructions
- Cut up your chosen soap base into small pieces and place in a microwavable bowl
- Heat in the microwave for 30 seconds until the soap base has melted
- Mix in the coffee grounds and stir until the mixture starts to thicken
- Add in a few drops of your chosen essential oils
- If you wish add some extra oils or natural butters to the mixture
- Pour the liquid into a soap mould
- Put the mould into the fridge for 30 minutes
- Once the soap has hardened, wrap it in plastic to keep it fresh
Coffee Soap Recipes
I have tested out a number of different coffee soap recipes. These are my favourite recipes that I’ve discovered from other beauty bloggers:
- Coffee and Cocoa Soap Recipe
- Vanilla Coffee Soap Recipe
- Peppermint Coffee Soap Recipe
- Coffee and Shea Butter Soap
How to Use Coffee Soap
How often you use your coffee soap will depend on your skin type, and the ingredients you have put in it. If you want to use your coffee soap for exfoliation, and it has a lot of coffee grinds, you may find that using it once or twice week is enough.
You can use your coffee soap either as a face wash or a body wash. It works well if you want to use it to reduce stretch marks and improve the appearance of the skin. If you have made a more gentle coffee soap with less abrasive coffee grounds and more oils and butters then it should be gentle enough for everyday use.
You may want to use your coffee soap as your main body wash since it helps to eliminate body odor, clean oily skin and reduce dark spots. It’s also excellent for cellulite reduction and leaving you with smooth skin.
Side Effects of Applying Coffee to Your Face
There aren’t actually any skincare ingredients that coffee doesn’t work well with. If you have highly reactive skin that gets easily flushed, caffeine may end up causing redness.
If you have used caffeine on your skin for some time and then suddenly stop, this can cause something called “rebound redness”. This happens because the blood vessels have become used to being constricted from caffeine. If they don’t get the caffeine that they have become used to, they dilate causing redness. This is the same reason why you get a headache if you don’t have your regular coffee in the morning.
It is unlikely that coffee soap will cause “rebound redness” however, since it’s only on the skin for a short time before being washed off.
FAQs on Using Coffee on the Skin
Can we use coffee soap daily?
Yes. Coffee is a safe ingredient to include in your daily skin care routine.
Does coffee whiten your skin?
Coffee doesn’t whiten the skin but it can help to exfoliate dead skin cells and reduce dark marks. It will leave the skin looking brighter and healthier, but doesn’t lighten skin colour in the way ingredients such as licorice does.
Is coffee soap good for oily skin?
Yes. Using coffee soap on your skin can help to remove excess oil, unclog the pores and help to fight the bacteria that causes acne.
SOURCES USED IN THIS POST
- Royal Society of Chemistry – Caffeic Acid: a review of its potential use for medications and cosmetics
- PubMed – Evaluation of the efficacy of a topical cosmetic slimming product combining tetrahydroxypropyl ethylenediamine, caffeine, carnitine, forskolin and retinol, In vitro, ex vivo and in vivo studies
- Oxford Acadmic – Coffee polyphenols extracted from green coffee beans improve skin properties and microcirculatory function
- PubAg – The green generation of sunscreens: Using coffee industrial sub-products
- PubMed – Skin photoprotection and consumption of coffee and polyphenols in healthy middle-aged Japanese females
OTHER POSTS ON NATURAL INGREDIENTS USED IN SKINCARE
- Strawberry Benefits for Skin
- Rosemary Oil Benefits for Skin
- Salt Water Benefits for Skin
- Mango Butter Benefits for Skin
- Potato Juice Benefits for Skin
- Turmeric Soap Benefits for Skin
POSTS FROM OTHER BEAUTY BLOGGERS
If you found this article about the benefits of coffee soap helpful, you may enjoy the following posts from beauty bloggers that I follow and trust.
REALLY REE
- Optiat Coffee Scrub Pick Me Up Lemongrass Lifter Review
- Bean Body Coffee Bean Scrub Review
- Cinnamon Soap
BRITISH BEAUTY BLOGGER
- Grums Raw Coffee Hand Scrub Review
- L’Oreal Paris Smooth Sugars Coffee Wake-Up Scrub
- L’Occitane Art of Soap
RUTH CRILLY
CAROLINE HIRONS
This post was about Coffee Soap Benefits
Thank you for reading my post about the benefits of coffee soap. If you have tried coffee soap, please leave me a comment below and let me know how you got on. Coffee soap can help with a range of skin problems, and make the skin look healthier and brighter. Coffee is also an excellent exfoliant and a rich source of vitamin b3, so it helps to smooth the skin and keep it hydrated.