Smearing old coffee grounds on your face might seem at best pointless and at worst really, really strange. But coffee doesn’t have the same effect on our skin as it does our bodies; in fact, putting coffee on skin provides a powerhouse of beauty benefits.
Stayed up late last night finishing that essay and now you have bags you could carry your shopping in? Coffee is your friend.
Want a shine to your hair that will blind your enemies in battle? Coffee’s got you.
Ran out of hair dye and need to keep the color up until you can buy more? Tint to your heart’s content with coffee grounds!
And that’s not all – there’s a huge range of beauty uses for coffee grounds (and just straight up coffee). Such as…
8 Surprisingly Effective Beauty Uses for Coffee Grounds
1. Coffee Facial Masks
The range of coffee benefits for skin make it the perfect face mask – you can use it to reduce puffiness around your eye area. It’ll tighten your skin and provide anti-aging benefits. Coffee even aids in sun protection! Not to mention that once your facial mask is done, you can use the coffee grounds to gently exfoliate your face. Coffee facial masks can be pre-bought, but if you’re up for the challenge, you can make one yourself.
Probably one of the best things about coffee masks isn’t just the coffee itself, but all the extra goodness you can add to it. With some basic natural beauty know-how, you can serve up a cocktail of pure skin benefits. We definitely suggest adding in cacao powder, which is a known superfood carrying a wealth of anti-oxidants that can be used to repair skin damage caused by the elements.
Additionally, coffee masks gel extremely well with coconut, olive, and various other natural facial oils, so you can add on soothing, moisturizing benefits on top of the coffee skin benefits you’ll be getting!
2. Use Coffee to ‘Poo It Up
Coffee has lots to offer for hair; caffeine is actually a stimulant for hair follicles, so it can be used as a natural hair growth treatment. It also helps to clear the gunk out of your hair and leave an undisturbed shine. It’s a good thing those clever cogs in the beauty industry decided to put it in a shampoo!
Because it’s a relatively new market, there isn’t really a lot of competition for coffee shampoo, which means it’ll be a lot easier to figure out what’s best for you.
Alternatively, you can actually make your own coffee shampoo if you want to get a little crafty; or, more accurately, you can turn your regular shampoo into coffee shampoo. Just take the bottle you normally use and add 1-4 tablespoons of coffee powder. Voila! You’re on your way to healthier, stronger hair.
NOTE: If you have lighter hair and prefer to keep it that way, we’d suggest you skip this one for now. Coffee gives a natural dark tint, so if you’re not looking to go brunette, then save your precious locks. At the same time, if you’re trying to cover up some grey hairs, coffee shampoo is a beautiful way to gift yourself with subtle “highlights.”
3. Coffee Grounds for an Instant Dandruff Cure
Dandruff – it’s one of those crappy but common things that just happens to people. Like camel toe. And cellulite. But just ’cause you have it doesn’t mean to have to put up with it. Especially when there are coffee grounds around.
There are coffee aficionados who maintain that scrubbing the scalp with coffee grounds will cure dandruff and even help regrow hair and while there is no clinical data to prove this – there have been personal experiments.
Is it abrasive? Yes. Will it be a PITA to get the grounds out of your hair. YES. But this scalp exfoliation actually comes with more than dandruff-removing benefits – scalp exfoliation helps remove buildup on your scalp that may be clogging your pores and causing your scalp to itch. Result? A cleaner, healthier, flake-free scalp more conducive to happier, healthier hair growth.
4. Coffee…Soap?
We don’t really notice how much chemical gloop really goes into our soaps- which is why it’s always better to go natural and organic. Coffee soap in particular gives you all of the benefits of caffeine in an easy-to-use bar, perfect for you hand care fanatics out there.
You can also use it as a body soap- it’s completely safe and is actually really good for the rest of your body as well. In particular, caffeine is commonly used in the treatment of cellulite, working to tighten blood vessels and therefore skin (that sounds really painful- it’s not, trust me).
Also, coffee soap is excellent at getting those awful, stubborn smells from your hands. Use it after a long day shopping garlic or otherwise preparing smelly foods that you definitely do not want to taste on your dinner plate.
Coffee soap can also be topically applied to your face to bring a bit of color to your cheeks and even to exfoliate. Coffee grounds are great at scrubbing off all of that dead skin and making the way for younger cells, so coffee soaps work wonders on your face.
5. Coffee Grounds Exfoliating Scrub
Speaking of scrubbing off dead skin, coffee grounds make the perfect natural exfoliant. And if you have some coffee grounds left over from your morning cup, you can easily repurpose them into a DIY coffee scrub for free. Coffee scrubs are particularly good at exfoliating since, as mentioned before, coffee’s exfoliating qualities comes from its ability to scrub away those worn out, dead skin cells. As always, get a little creative with it.
Definitely add olive oil just to give yourself that extra umph, but aside from that it’s really up to you what you add in. Read up on the natural ingredients that are perfect for your skin type and make a medley of skin health that you can use on your face and body.
6. Give Yourself The Ice Treatment
Caffeine is known to improve circulation, so if your skin is looking a little dull, coffee might be your answer. Of course it can be applied in other ways to achieve this effect, but nothing really works better than coffee ice cubes.
You can make them easily by pouring some coffee into an ice tray, essentially the same as you would normal ice cubes. Once they’re done, just take the ice cubes and go around the line of your eye as well as your cheekbones. That should get the blood flowing right to your cheeks.
7. Coffee Grounds Foot Scrub
Coffee is obviously ideal to treat the whole body, but it offers particular benefits to your feet. The range of anti-oxidants in coffee help to repair and revitalize damaged skin cells (which, let’s face it, your feet is a breeding ground for) whilst also getting rid of all that nasty, rough dead skin that comes from walking around all day.
Coconut oil is perfect to include in your DIY homemade foot scrub, since it gives that extra moisturizing effect that lends itself to soft and supple skin.
8. Caffeine Spray
Caffeine also comes in spray form. It’s perfect of those wanting to utilize caffeine’s cellulite-busting properties since it’s a lot easier to spray your yellow creases away than to go over them with a cream or a scrub.
Caffeine spray is sometimes also marketed as ‘sprayable energy’ since apparently it has the same effects as coffee for rejuvenating you, without making you twitchy or distracted. The jury’s still out on that one and all we really have are testimonials which say that it does work, but can hardly be used as a substitute for coffee.
Most of us just drink our daily cup (or three) of coffee and move on with our lives, but this energy staple is surprisingly versatile! Though before anybody gets any funny ideas, we really should note that these benefits only come with applying the grounds topically. You’re not going to get the same effects by downing three cups of coffee every day, I can assure you.
Even though caffeine itself contains a good number of anti-oxidants, the other ill effects you’ll get from drinking too much coffee largely outweigh the benefits. Obviously, everything is fine in moderation and we all have a little trouble dragging ourselves out of bed on Monday, but try not to overdo it if you can, alright? Instead, channel your coffee cravings into DIY coffee beauty treatments!
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