Wake your skin up with Caffeine

I, like so many others, wake up with a cuppa java every morning. Living in New England it is a necessity especially in the cooler months.Research has shown that your morning cup can have excellent health benefits like elevating mood and to get you going for the day. But, do you know what the caffeine in your morning cup can do externally for your skin? Caffeine can have amazing benefits topically on your skin.Primarily, coffee and caffeine are finding their way into skin lotions and creams because of antioxidant properties and tightening and firming qualities. Caffeine applied to the skin operates in three ways - as an antioxidant, a diuretic and a vaso-constrictor. For many years many products have sold coffee in their skin care as a cellulite reducer. It somehow dehydrates fat cells and causes sodium/potassium component of the cells to vacate. It's vaso-constricting properties are also used to reduce puffiness, improve tightening, and relief of dark circles. It does not eliminate completely but will improve the overall appearance for at least a few hours.
Caffeine is also a very potent antioxidant and that’s probably its most important role. With regards to its antioxidant capabilities, we have seen studies in both mice and humans demonstrate that caffeine enhances the death of pre-cancerous cells (Journal of Investigative Dermatology 2009, Volume 129, 1805 – 1815). Caffeine is also an amazing sun screen, it is packed full of antioxidants that selflessly take a hit so that your DNA,proteins, and cell membranes don't get destroyed by free radicals. For this reason, coffee is so much more important in the role of external than internal skin care. You get much higher levels of caffeine when applied topically because your gorgeous skin needs antioxidants much more than any other organ!Caffeine in skincare could potentially work against both wrinkles and sun damaged skin, not to mention its possible effectiveness in treating and ultimately preventing skin cancer.

Along with coffee, the cacao bean also does amazing wonders for your skin! Studies have shown that plain ol milk chocolate will just not do.The dairy in milk chocolate will actually reduce your skins antioxidant intake, so be sure to look for cacao(dark chocolate) with 50% or more! You can also make a rich drink out of this special chocolate to work wonders internally. so next time you order cocoa, see if your specialty shop offers anything with pure cacao.

Here at The Dirty Housewife we offer a few products packed with coffee and cacao! I believe in protecting your skin as well as making it smell incredible!

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