If you want skin that glows with a capital “G,” it comes down to one thing: exfoliation, exfoliation, exfoliation. You’ve got options here: You could slather on an at-home peel with glycolic or lactic acids, pop the top on one of your favorite face scrubs, or whip up ascrubat home with a gentle exfoliant you’ve probably already got in your kitchen cabinet: coffee grounds.
Sure, there are other things you could use to make a DIY face scrub—sugar granules, baking soda, etc—but Java offers some pretty unique benefits. Coffee is excellent for the skin because it’s packed with antioxidants, which help to fight damage caused by free radicals. The caffeine also helps to tighten skin and reduce the appearance of fine lines.
Down below are coffee scrub recipe that can easily be done at home which uses finely ground (“Exfoliation should never hurt!” can’t stress this enough) Kenyan Coffee—a variety that has a note of citrus, making it less bitter than other kinds. But, you can use any type of grounds you like or have—including instant coffee.
What I love about this simple take is that it can be adapted to address almost every skin type and concern. Add a few ingredients to optimize it for oily skin or super-dry complexions, swap out the coconut oil to make it work for acne-prone skin, or get an assist from some spices to help tighten and tone.
Here’s how to make a DIY coffee face scrub at home.
1. Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl. 2. Apply in circular motions to face and neck, scrubbing for three minutes. 3. Rinse with lukewarm water and then rinse again with cool water. Pat dry.
For Oily Skin
Add three tablespoons of grated cucumber and the juice from half a lemon to the recipe. Cucumber helps to remove excess oil while lemon juice brightens the skin.
For Dry Skin
Add ¼ cup of organic plain yogurt and a few drops of your favorite face oil to the mixture. After massaging into the skin, leave on for an additional 5-10 minutes before rinsing.
For Puffiness
Add one tablespoon of turmeric powder to the recipe. “The coffee and turmeric work together to help calm skin inflammation.
For Acne
Omit coconut oil and add 1 tablespoon of honey. Packed with antibacterial properties, honey helps to keep breakouts in check.
If you’re constantly washing your hands and using sanitizer around the clock, your hands are probably dry AF. While it’s important to wash your hands as often as possible, it can wreak havoc on your skin. Your skin is your body’s first defense against bacteria, so you need to ensure you keep your hands hydrated. Cracked, dry hands and damaged skin means a weakened skin barrier, which makes it easier for germs to enter.
Fortunately, we’ve got some easy solutions so you can say goodbye to dry hands, for good!
Find a Nourishing Hand Wash
Many celebrity dermatologists recommends avoiding bars of soap as they can seriously dry out your skin. They explains, “Soaps have a special molecule that finds oils and strips them from the skin. We need our natural oils for retaining moisture.” Therefore, trade-in your traditional soaps for a nourishing hand wash instead. We’re currently using the Bath & Body Works Gentle Foaming Hand Soaps, $8.50, as they’re infused with essential oils, as well as vitamin E to nourish and clean the skin. Plus, they foam into a rich lather that smells so good – it makes washing your hands feel luxurious! Another hydrating soap that’s a little more boujee is the Aesop Resurrection Aromatique Hand Wash, $52. The formula boasts orange, rosemary, and lavender essential oils to cleanse and restore the skin.
If you already have a liquid handwash, you can try adding in a tablespoon of coconut, olive or grapeseed oil, which will help to lock in moisture while you wash. After you wash your hands, try to follow with a moisturizer almost immediately.
If you don’t have any hand creams use oil instead and massage it into your hands. Our favorite oil to use is extra virgin olive oil, a recommendation we got from Julia Roberts. It’s super-hydrating and packed with vitamins, antioxidants, and fatty acids that help hydrate while repairing damaged skin. It’s also suitable for all skin types and is anti-microbial. If you don’t have olive oil in your cabinet, you can use coconut oil (our go-to DIY oil), or any other oil.
If your hands are super dry, create a DIY hand mask by massaging oil into your hands, then put on a pair of plastic gloves. If you don’t have gloves, you can wrap your hands in clingwrap. Try to leave them covered for up to an hour for super soft, hydrated skin.
Apply a Rich Cream or Balm
As you can probably guess, applying hand cream RN is essential. In fact, we’ve gotten into the routine of applying lotion immediately after we use hand sanitizer. You can also keep hand cream next to your sink for easy access after hand washing.
Look for a hand moisturizer that contains rich, hydrating ingredients like shea butter and oils like apricot and avocado oil, as they’re packed with natural goodness that will help seal in moisture and repair the skin. Here are three of our faves:
Vaseline Intensive Care Lotion, $16.26: While this may not be the most luxe hand cream on our list, it’s a household staple. The fast-absorbing formula is clinically proven to heal dry skin within five days. Plus, it doesn’t leave your skin feeling greasy or tacky.
L’Occitaine Honey Harvest Hand Cream, $29: This hand cream leaves our skin feeling so smooth! The rich combination of shea butter and honey hydrates while strengthening the skin, helping prevent future moisture loss.
Kiehl’s Ultimate Strength Hand Salve, $28: This cream is infused with sesame oil, avocado oil, and olive, which are all packed with essential fatty acids to nourish and repair dry skin.
I’ve been using POND’S for about 4 years now. Pond’s has great products for people that have dry skin. Anytime I have used their products, I always end up with a soft, glowing healthy skin. POND’S has been a trusted brand in the beauty realm for over 50 years, so it’s easy to see how they’ve nailed down great quality products that are available at drugstores nationwide.
Since POND’S seems to mesh well with my skin, I was excited to give the POND’S Cold Cream Cleanser and POND’S Evening Soothe Wet Cleansing Towelettes a try. The aroma of the Evening Soothe towelettes alone is reason enough to use them. It felt like such a luxurious experience to remove my makeup and cleanse my skin. A little tip I have for removing extra stubborn eye makeup is to run one end of the cloth under the faucet to create a little bit more of a “suds” and press that on your eyes to soften the makeup. I wear a lot of mascara, so I’ve found that pressing an extra-moistened towelette on my eyes before attempting to work the makeup off is much kinder on my lashes.
The POND’S Cold Cream Cleanser is perfect for these dry winter months. And it’s both gentle and effective.
The last thing I want to spend time on in the morning is covering up any blemishes, and these products have helped me maintain blemish-free skin while also keeping it nice and hydrated.
My skin is prone to dryness in the first place, but especially in the winter I find that dry patches and irritation is common. Here are a few tips on cleansing dry or sensitive skin in the winter months:
1. Don’t use piping hot water. I know it’s much more relaxing to use hot water when you are washing your face, but the hot water can end up being a little bit too harsh and cause extra dryness in the end. Luke warm is best!
2. Don’t rub your skin with a washcloth afterwards. Pat it dry instead or let your face air dry! This motion will be a little bit more gentle on fragile parts of the face.
3. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate! Drink plenty of water AND use a good moisturizer. Both will contribute greatly to well-hydrated skin throughout dryer months.
Th season of gel texture moisturizers, quick-absorbing serums, and refreshing facial mists is gradually coming to an end, and you’ll soon need to swap in richer, more heavy-duty hydrators as temperatures start to dip and the air dries up. Kick off the skin care shelf transition with Boscia’s new Chia Seed Moisture Cream, which provides intense, long-lasting moisture to dehydrated skin — and uses one of your favorite superfoods to do it.
According to Dr. Kolansky, your skin is drier in the winter because the cold weather causes your blood vessels to constrict, resulting in less blood flow to your skin’s surface. And the changes in temperature between your warm home or office and the bitter outdoors causes an additional loss of moisture. When the weather outside is frightful, I bulk up my regimen with more hydrating ingredients like:
Ceramides
Fatty acids
Hyaluronic acid or sodium hyaluronate
Selected skincare oils
Shea butter
With the cold weather, comes skincare companies releasing more hydrating products and thicker creams. One such product is the Chia Seed Moisture Cream from Boscia. According to the company’s website, “since 2002, plants have been the secret to our skincare success. We use ingredients rooted in nature—plant-to-bottle formulas that show results with fun formulas. Good skin comes naturally because, in our world, beauty really does grow on trees.” And the Clean Beauty Chia Seed Moisture Cream is “a super-rich cream that provides an instant restoration of deep hydration to dry skin while nurturing and locking in moisture for soft and supple skin.”
Is it worth adding to your winter routine? Let’s take a look:
What Can Chia Seeds Do For Your Skin?
Chia seeds are a superfood for the body, but do those superpowers benefit your skin at all? Kind of… Chia seeds are a natural source of omega-3 fatty acids, which are anti-inflammatory fatty acids naturally found within the skin. Omega-3 fatty acids are documented to be substantially lower in those with dry/very dry skin types than those with normal to oily skin types, though omega-3 supplementation (whether oral or topical) can help this, returning skin to a more youthful, supple state. The topical chia seed oil has also been documented in the journal Annals of Dermatology to relieve severe symptoms of pruritus or skin itching.
The itty bitty seed in pressed oil form is clinically proven to increase skin hydration by reducing moisture loss, aka it locks in all of those skin-plumping omega fatty acids for healthy, glowy skin that lasts. Mineral-dense Swiss Glacier Water joins in to help moisture soak in deeply, protect skin, and improve smoothness, while elderberry extract brings a major dose of vitamins A, B6, C, and E to promote brightness and defend your complexion against stress and environmental pollutants. Long story short, it’s the naturally effective moisturizing cocktail your complexion never knew it needed.
So is chia seed oil going to remove your fine lines and wrinkles? Fix hyperpigmentation? Encourage collagen production? Probably not. However, if you suffer from dry to very dry skin, the chia seed oil is likely to temporarily plump up your skin, reducing the appearance of fine lines somewhat.
So the Chia Seed Moisture Cream can be great for temporary hydration (perhaps under makeup in the morning) but the long term benefits aren’t quite there.
Glacier Water; Marketing Gimmick or Effective Ingredients?
One of the ingredients that popped out at me when I first saw this product on Sephora’s website was “Glacier Water.” What does that mean, and does it have any benefit at all or is it simply a gimmicky marketing thing?
After doing some digging, I found that companies use “glacier water” as a hydrator in their products. Glacier water starts as rainfall, snow, and ice residing on, you guessed it, a glacier! As it trickles down it is filtered through the mountains’ porous, volcanic rock, also known as “tuff,” and collects trace minerals before running underground to pick up volcanic minerals from lava rock. And after all of that, it then emerges via ancient lava fields and thermal baths.
According to Tom Vichorski, a chemist who works with Skyn Iceland, this process results in water that is purified naturally. “Think of your standard carbon water filter,” he says, “now think of that filter extending miles beneath the Earth’s surface — that’s why the water is so pure.” So, I’m just going to be honest here… trace amounts of minerals in purified water are not going to do anything life-changing to your skin. There is no peer-reviewed published research that says “glacier water” will result in better skin. But it does make for fun and fancy marketing.
Personal Use and Opinion
The product is housed in a bulky, matte pink jar. For a product that’s selling point is its use of antioxidants, jar packaging isn’t the best as these ingredients aren’t known for being very stable. It’s also not the most hygienic thing in the world to constantly be dipping your fingers into your product and exposing it to the bacteria in the air, however, Boscia includes a funky looking scooper with the product which helps to mitigate this somewhat.
The cream itself is very thick, and a little bit goes a long way. I think that for those with oily skin this would be too heavy, but if you are on the drier side this would be great! I used this nightly for a few weeks and didn’t notice any irritation or adverse effects. Overall it was a solid product, but not sure there are any real long-term benefits outside of hydration.
Bottom Line
While “glacier water” is pretty gimmicky, the Chia Seed Moisture Cream from Boscia is a solid night cream. It’s thick and hydrating and I would recommend it for those who have dry skin.
Disclaimer:
The purpose of this blog is for skin, makeup, and beauty care-related reviews and tips only. It is not intended as and does not substitute for medical advice. Information posted should not be construed as personal medical advice. Posts are not intended to diagnose, treat, or cure disease.
Chia Seed Moisture Cream
$38 |BOSCIA
The super hero of this incredibly rich moisture cream, chia seed oil, instantly and deeply moisturizes for a healthy and revitalized complexion
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