Love your morning cup of Joe? Well, get ready to become obsessed with it … because you’re about to learn that it can brighten more than just your mornings. Save the grounds, and let your coffee pull double duty on your cellulite, under-eye bags, and more with these amazing skincare secrets:
1. As an exfoliant for minimizing cellulite
In a medium-sized bowl, mix a cup of your morning coffee grounds (yup, you can grab them right out of the filter you just used) with half a cup of sugar (white or brown are both great) and one cup of coconut oil. The result? You now have an excellent body scrub for fighting that dreaded cellulite. The reason your grounds are essential to this potion is because coffee has antioxidant properties that help tighten the skin, whereas you’ll need the coconut oil to give you the necessary hydration.
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A quick word to the wise: If you’re going to use your homemade cellulite scrub in the shower, first put something down to protect the drain so it doesn’t get clogged. And don’t forget to apply a little bit on your face while you’re at it: you’ll step out of the bathroom feeling fresher than ever.
2. To add deeper brilliance to dyed hair
It’s a pretty well known fact that blondes sometimes use chamomile tea to lighten any brassy tones in their dyed hair. But if you’re brunette we’ve got a trick for you, too: coffee grounds will give your beautiful cocoa-colored tresses deeper color and shine. Just mix a handful of ground coffee and a little bit of espresso with the usual amount of your regular conditioner.
The mixture should be paste-like in texture. Apply it on your hair just after washing it well with your regular shampoo, and then clean it off with abundant water (to make sure you don’t have any coffee grains falling out at work later). This doesn’t just revitalize your hair color; the coffee’s natural acidity will soften the hair cuticle and make it look especially lustrous. Again, use a drain filter to keep from clogging your sink or shower.
3. Get rid of bags under your eyes
Leftover drip coffee? Use it to make ice cubes, and keep them available in your freezer at all times. In the morning or evening, take one and rub it on the area around your eyes to increase circulation, reduce swelling, and make your skin healthier and brighter. Of course, to see the best results, you should make this a daily routine.
4. To reset your sense of smell
Have you ever gone to a store to buy a new perfume, and they give you so many samples to smell that, in the end, you feel like you can’t tell the difference between lavender and wet garbage anymore? It’s called olfactory fatigue, and according to neurologist Noam Sobel, the best way to avoid it is to smell ground coffee between different samples (that’s why you often see coffee grains on the counter of some luxury boutiques).
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So, the next time you’re ready to buy a new fragrance from a department store, don’t hesitate to bring a ziplock bag with a little bit of ground coffee.
5. As a yummy lip scrub
Matte lipsticks were in vogue for a long time, and although the finish is gorgeous, the truth is that—as good as the formula may be—they make your lips extremely dry. If that has happened to you (or if you simply suffer from dry lips, and the situation gets worse in deep winter and hot summer), mix half a teaspoon of coffee grounds with half a teaspoon of honey and rub it on your lips for about 30 seconds. It’s both effective and delicious. And won’t cost you even half as much as one of those expensive store-bought lip scrubs.
This article was originally published in the Spanish edition of Aleteia.
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