Mass market body scrubs are often loaded with potential skin irritants, contrary to what they advertise. If you have been looking for a natural, holistic approach to skincare, you might not need to look any further than your kitchen pantry. All natural coffee-based scrubs are becoming increasingly popular in the natural skin care world, and for good reason. Read on for more information about the benefits of coffee and caffeine scrubs for skin detoxification.
Beware of Mass Market Lotions and Scrubs
If you have used an off-the-shelf exfoliating product in the past decade, it has probably contained tiny microbeads that serve as mechanical exfoliators. While they may have exfoliating properties, microbeads are actually tiny pieces of plastic, and have simultaneously become a huge problem for the environment by trickling through water filtration systems and into lakes and oceans. Use of these microbeads has even been banned by the United Kingdom, and in Canada they are considered a “toxic substance.”
These mass market products all claim to make your skin soft and healthy, but the use of chemical exfoliates can be very harmful to your health. Most mass market products contain parabens, to increase the shelf life and keep products fresh, however, parabens are potent endocrine system disruptors which mimic the hormone estrogen and in turn promote the growth of tumors in breast tissue. Research from the University of California, Berkeley has found that parabens can also cause reproductive problems in both men and women.
Fertility Issues
Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has found that reproductive and developmental issues in men, such as undescended testicles and hypospadias, have doubled between 1970 and 1993 due to the increased use of phthalates in soaps and cosmetic products. It is a wonder how these products still remain on the shelves of every drug store and supermarket in America. Harvard University recently published an article indicating that a typical person is exposed to over 100 chemicals before leaving their home in the morning, with some of them being known carcinogens and parabens as described above. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a better, safer option?
Benefits of Coffee
Coffee contains loads of polyphenols, which are also found in berries, wine, chocolate and tea. This naturally occurring antioxidant helps to battle free radicals, and in turn can slow down the aging process of the skin. Polyphenols can also help prevent damage from UV exposure while spending time in the sun – though by no means should you substitute sunscreen for coffee scrub!
With so much marketing and acceptance of mass market beauty products in our stores and online, it is hard to tell what is beneficial and what is harmful. With innumerable studies from highly respected universities like UC Berkeley, Harvard, Yale and more, it just makes sense to ditch the chemical-ridden lotions and scrubs that fill our shelves for a safer, natural alternative.
Wake Up and Smell The Coffee
Luckily, scrubs made from coffee beans serve the same exfoliating, and softening purpose as those destructive microbeads, and happens to be 100% compostable and free of parabens and phthalates.
A good cup of mud can really wake you up in the morning, and it turns out that coffee (and more specifically, caffeine) has other eye-opening benefits. Coffee has been widely studied for its antioxidant profile. Scientific research has shown that the use of a topical coffee-based cream, soap or scrub can reduce swelling and inflammation around puffy eyes.
Drinking coffee can also have similar anti-inflammatory effects, but most dermatologists recommend some type of topical application which will directly target the skin. The coarseness of ground coffee serves to scrub off dead skin cells and leave you with rejuvenated, clean skin without the use of any other potential skin irritants.
