WELLNESS

Is Kombucha Good for Your Skin?

Learn how kombucha can benefit your skin. Discover the nutrients and antioxidants found in this health drink and their potential effects on skin health.

Kombucha has many potential health benefits that have yet to be fully studied. Kombucha enthusiasts, however, quickly attest to its positive impact on how they feel. This tasty, fermented beverage is filled with beneficial ingredients that are known to improve health, including probiotics and antioxidants, combining together to create a great overall boost to health – and quite possibly your skin. 

Is kombucha good for your skin? The official jury is still out. However, thanks to all the amazing components in kombucha, it's highly likely that enjoying this delicious, natural drink can have a positive overall impact on every part of your health. Let's look at the potential benefit kombucha can have on your skin and how you can make the most of them.

1. Kombucha May Help Balance Your Skin's Microbiome.

Your skin, like your gut, is home to millions of bacteria, fungi, and viruses.  While the skin serves as a critical barrier to keep a variety of foreign pathogens from making their way into the body, it also plays host to microorganisms that play a key role in your overall health and the health of your skin. 

Your skin microbiome helps with a variety of functions. It helps protect against rashes and other breakouts. It helps protect against skin diseases. In some cases, when the skin microbiome is disrupted, you may even suffer from systemic illness throughout the body. 

The ingredients in kombucha may help introduce healthy gut bacteria that, in turn, may help improve the overall skin microbiome and help protect against imbalance. In a healthy adult, the skin microbiome generally remains relatively undisturbed over time. 

However, in some cases, pathogenic bacteria may have an easier time growing in the skin environment than healthy bacteria. By drinking kombucha, you help ensure that you are regularly introducing healthy bacteria to your microbiome. 

Of course, that does not mean that you should rub kombucha on your face (although no one is stopping you!). While drinking kombucha may have positive health benefits, including benefits to your skin, that may not mean that a topical application will help you achieve your skin goals. As you evaluate whether kombucha is good for your skin, taking a look at the skin's microbiome and how kombucha can benefit it may provide some of the clearest evaluations of the benefits. 

Related: 9 Surprising Health Benefits of Kombucha

2. A Healthy Gut Can Mean Improved Health Throughout the Body.

Scientists have been studying the relationship between gut health and overall health for years. Improved gut health can mean improved health throughout your whole body. When your gut is healthy, you will suffer from less inflammation, lower levels of obesity, and even healthier skin. 

When you're unhealthy, your skin is often one of the first "tells." Unhealthy skin may be greasy, gray, or sallow. You may notice that your skin feels looser, or seems to hang on your body, when you've been ill. Some people notice that someone isn't feeling their best by judging the overall look of their skin. 

With a healthy gut, on the other hand, many people find that their skin looks healthier, too. There's a good reason why it's called a "healthy glow." Simply put, the whole body is more likely to reflect overall health when the gut is healthy--so if you want a healthier look for your skin, drinking kombucha to improve your overall gut health may help you achieve those goals.

3. Kombucha May Help Reduce Inflammation, Including Inflammatory Skin Conditions.

Inflammation is a serious issue for many people. In fact, millions of Americans suffer from chronic inflammation. Many of them may have serious health issues caused by that overall inflammation. 

Most of the time, when you think about inflammation, you may consider its obvious symptoms, including joint pain, weight gain, or more difficulty getting around. However, inflammation can also cause a variety of skin concerns. Inflammation may lead to flushed skin colors, increased acne, and a host of skin conditions, including eczema or rosacea. 

Kombucha might not be a cure-all for those conditions, but some drinkers find that regularly consuming kombucha can help reduce inflammation levels, which may decrease the likelihood that they will suffer from those painful skin conditions. 

As the gut microbiome rebalances due to regular consumption of a healthy diet, including the probiotic-rich and fermented kombucha, many drinkers start to notice an improvement in overall health, including their skin health. In fact, the improvements to overall skin health are often some of the most noticeable when you start decreasing inflammation through greater overall gut health.

The probiotics found in kombucha may also help alleviate acne or decrease symptoms of eczema. As you wonder iif kombucha is good for your skin, consider how it can work to decrease inflammation throughout the body. It's a delicious way to serve up your body (and skin) a good dose of healthy bacteria!

Enjoying kombucha in a wine glass with a bottle of Brew Dr. Kombucha Blood Orange Ginger

4. Antioxidants Present in Kombucha Can Offer a Number of Skin Benefits.

While kombucha isn’t necessarily a magic beverage (although we think it’s pretty magical), the antioxidants present in kombucha can have a number of potential benefits that may help with your overall skin health. Antioxidants are well known for their positive impact and are a popular substance present in many skincare products. Likewise, kombucha's antioxidants may help you out in multiple ways.

Antioxidants can help offer protection to your skin.

Of course, there is no substitute for sunscreen when you're outside. However, consuming products that are rich in antioxidants, including kombucha, may help offer increased protection to your skin as researchers continue to explore how antioxidants can help with sun protection.

Antioxidants may help calm irritation in your skin.

Your skin can face any number of irritants throughout the course of a regular day. While your skin serves to protect your body from pathogenic invasion, it may end up facing a great deal of inflammation itself. When you consume products rich in antioxidants, on the other hand, you may find that it helps calm that irritation and keep your skin looking brighter. That may mean less redness, fewer breakouts, and generally more comfortable skin. 

Products rich in antioxidants may naturally brighten your skin. 

You may find that consuming products rich in antioxidants helps brighten your skin over time. Antioxidants can help your skin maintain that healthy glow that makes you look and feel your best. If you've noticed your skin looking kind of tired, you may find that consuming products rich in antioxidants can help with that brightening. Green tea is known for its brightening properties, so choosing a green tea-based kombucha may offer the best antioxidant protection for skin brightening. 

As you consider whether kombucha is good for your skin, the antioxidant properties are some of the greatest skin-brightening benefits. By using kombucha as a regular part of your diet, you can test these benefits out for yourself. 

Related: Is Kombucha a Good Antioxidant?

5. Hydration Can Prove Extremely Beneficial for Your Skin in General.

Being well-hydrated offers a number of benefits to your body and skin. By drinking kombucha, you're helping to keep your body well-hydrated, which, in general, means that your skin is likely to be more supple, healthy, and young-looking. When you allow yourself to become dehydrated or even simply fail to provide adequate hydration, your skin may pay the price. Dehydrated skin may be:

  • Dry, which may make it appear flat or scaly
  • Itchy, which can lead to increased redness as you scratch or scrape at your skin
  • Uneven, with more noticeable fine lines. Often, dry skin makes those little imperfections more apparent, which makes many people feel less confident in their overall appearance.
  • Dull. Dehydrated skin often lacks the healthy glow you might notice in hydrated skin.

Well-hydrated skin, on the other hand, is often plump, bright, and more radiant. You may notice that your under-eye circles are paler and that you look more generally healthy. Unfortunately, many people struggle with drinking enough water throughout the day, especially when they're busy or have other tasks that they need to take care of.

In fact, as many as 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated. Unfortunately, for many, that may mean that their skin suffers. That said, many people struggle to drink water alone but will be more likely to drink flavorful beverages like kombucha. 

Since kombucha is tasty, healthy (leave those added sugars, sweeteners, and other artificial ingredients at the store!), and has a number of great flavors to choose from, you may find yourself drinking more often and giving your body some much-needed hydration, which will give your skin that beneficial boost.

Try Kombucha for Its Skin Benefits and Much More

Do you want to experience the benefits of drinking delicious kombucha for your skin and start exploring its many other advantages as well? At Brew Dr., we carefully brew each batch to perfection and offer a range of exciting kombucha flavors to choose from. Check out our flavors to find your favorite brew!

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