Skin is the body’s largest organ, and it never stops rebuilding itself. The outer layer is replaced every few weeks; the collagen that gives the layer beneath it strength and spring is made and remade throughout life. All of it is built from what we eat. That is the simple reason nutrition and skin belong in the same sentence.
Collagen needs vitamin C
The body cannot finish a collagen molecule without vitamin C. Two of the enzymes that do the last steps, prolyl and lysyl hydroxylase, need it to work. Humans, unlike most animals, cannot make vitamin C themselves, so every bit of it has to come from food. Skin holds more of it than blood does, and uses it twice: to build collagen, and as an antioxidant against the oxidative stress that daylight brings.
Three more the skin depends on
Vitamin A governs how skin cells mature and renew; it is the vitamin behind the retinoids of dermatology. Zinc is needed wherever tissue is built and repaired, and the skin, renewing itself constantly, holds about one part in twenty of the body’s store of it. Biotin is a cofactor in the making of the fatty acids that keep the skin’s barrier intact, and of keratin, the protein of hair and nails. These are the nutrients in the formulas made with skin and hair in mind, and the reason is their biology, not a trend.
And the coffee?
Research on coffee itself and the skin is young. There are observational studies, and no clinical trials we would build a promise on. So we do not make one. Coffee in our formulas is what it has always been: the ritual, and the carrier.
Inside and out
Skincare works from the outside, on the surface. Nutrition works from the inside, on what the skin is made of. Neither replaces the other. A formula cannot do what sun protection, sleep and a varied diet do, and it does not try to. What it can do is make sure the nutrients the skin is built from are in a cup you were going to drink anyway.