Why coffee has a place in your grooming routine

Don't confine it to the kitchen cupboard - coffee also belongs in your bathroom cabinet

Given our love affair with coffee (it’s now the world’s most popular beverage worldwide, with around two billion cups consumed each day) it’s no surprise there’s a Spartan army’s worth of grooming products that also feature it somewhere in their formulas.

From the distinctive aroma of roasted beans – which adds a warm, rich, depth to fragrance – to the caffeine the beans contain, coffee appears, in one form or another, in everything from anti-wrinkle creams and hair-strengthening shampoos to body scrubs and gels that help shrink your love handles. It can energise cells, tighten skin and awaken the senses.

So, if you’re mad for a Macchiato or afan of the Flat White, don’t just wake up and smell the coffee, incorporate it into your grooming routine too. Here’s how…

A key ingredient of eye gels, caffeine is used for a variety of reasons. No only does it act as a powerful antioxidant – helping combat the effects of pollution – it also helps boost microcirculation in the skin around the eyes, which in turn helps the elimination of bag-causing toxins. There’s even evidence to suggest it also counteracts the effects of wrinkle-causing sun damage.

To turbo charge your gel’s performance give it the Frappuccino treatment and chill in the fridge before use: keeping it cold increases its bag-shrinking properties.

So enamoured by coffee are Australian brand Bean Body that they created an entire range of beauty products based around the beans. This handy body scrub uses finely crushed beans to help exfoliate skin and remove unsightly dead skin cells.

Especially good for knees, ankles and elbows, where skin tends to be especially dry, it’s perfect for prepping skin for your summer holidays, detoxifying it after a work out or before braving a spray tan when skin needs to be free of dead cells. The beans they use are Fairtrade too – so you’ll feel as good as your skin does.

With a study from 2007 showing that caffeine has the power to stimulate hair growth – at least under laboratory conditions – it was inevitable it would end up in hair products designed to minimise hair loss.

German shampoo Alpecin Double-Effect Caffeine Shampoo is the most famous but even Head & Shoulders have gotten in on the act with their new Hair Booster shampoo. As well as potential scalp stimulating effects caffeine’s anti-inflammatory properties also makes it great for anyone prone to irritation and itchiness.

We all know there are no shortcuts to a body like Beckham’s: abs of steel require hours in the gym, a high protein, low carb diet and all the help our fitness section can give you – but toning gels can help by making the most of what you do have.

Most contain caffeine because several studies, including one published in Skin Pharmacology and Physiology, suggest it may be able to break down fat cells via a process known as lipolysis.

Designed as a post-workout treatment, this toning gel will certainly make skin around your abs little firmer. But be warned; it’s not a miracle cream – you do need the abs in the first place.

Given the trend for gourmand fragrances – ones using ‘foodie’ notes to give them their ‘edible’ character – it’s little wonder coffee’s evocative aroma has found its way into some of men’s most popular eau de toilettes.

Used to give colognes depth, warmth, depth and a seductive quality, it’s pretty much all you smell with fragrances like Thierry Mugler’s Pure Coffee and The Library Of Fragrance’s (very literal) Espresso Cologne but there are plenty of others, like Penhaligon’s Endymion, which use it a little more judiciously.

Elegant and gentlemanly, the intense coffee note at Endymion’s heart is tempered with a host of other notes, including lavender, nutmeg, leather and sage, thus ensuring you smell dashing rather than drinkable and a fragrance connoisseur rather than, you know – a coffee shop.

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