Caffeine: Pros and Cons for your skin
Caffeine is best known as a stimulant, as the "pick me up" you need when you're tired and in most cases- when you haven't gotten enough rest. It's come to be known that caffeine has a few other unspoken properties that can be both harmful and beneficial to the skin. The key to minimizing caffeine's cons, is to find a healthy balance that your skin can navigate so to not do too much damage!
Cons of too much caffeine
Because caffeine is a diuretic, it can cause moisture and water loss to the skin, even resulting in dehydration. Each time the body consumes caffeine, this results in the loss of water, depleting your body (and skin!) of moisture. As a stimulant; though you get immediate stimulating benefits, in the long term it can affect sleep patterns.
It's an unknown fact that caffeine can impact your body's ability to reach R.E.M sleep, which inhibits the body (and skin) of it's necessary repair function of cell turnover and rejuvenation. Caffeine can also stimulate the body's production of the stress hormone, cortisol. This can cause us to gain weight and increase acne as cortisol stimulates the production of sebum.
Pros of caffeine
Caffeine is an antioxidant with vaso-constrictive properties which encourages blood circulation. Caffeine revives and brightens your mood and makes you feel less tired while even eliminating the "puffy eye" look that can also come with being tired.
If excess caffeine must be consumed...
Make sure to try and maintain a heathy balance of caffeine and water intake. The water should balance out the caffeine, and replenish your cells with water, to avoid dehydration or the depletion of moisture. If using caffeine based products, it's likely best to avid using them daily as they can cause dehydration to the area, and you may not need them! Something to consider; is to lower the intake of caffeine, if it's not necessary to eliminate caffeine consumption altogether. Instead of 3 cups of coffee per day for example, maybe just sticking to 2 instead!