Does Drinking Alcohol Affect Your Skin?

Note: While research on alcohol is evolving, the World Health Organization says drinking less or not at all is better for your health.

Dietary habits — like getting adequate hydration, eating nutritious fruits and vegetables, and avoiding too much added sugar — can all affect the health of your skin. So can your drinking habits.

“When we talk about alcohol and its impact on the skin, there’s no strict research establishing a precise ‘safe’ quantity,” says Viktoryia Kazlouskaya, MD, PhD, a board-certified dermatologist in New York City. “Even small amounts negatively affect patients with certain skin conditions.”

And even if you don’t have a skin condition, consuming alcohol can lead to symptoms like redness, dryness, breakouts, and puffiness, research shows. Here's how drinking can affect your skin in the short and long term, and what you can do to reverse the damage.

But how much alcohol use will really start to take a toll on your skin may differ from person to person. “Each person intrinsically has different genetics that make them more likely or less likely to be damaged by alcohol,” says Dr. Kormeili.

Here’s what you may notice in terms of immediate or short-term effects of alcohol on your skin after you drink, according to Dr. Kazlouskaya and Kormeili:

• Flushing and redness, due to dilation (widening) of blood vessels, which often goes away in a couple hours as alcohol is cleared from your system

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• Breakouts

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• Possible worsening of existing skin conditions like rosacea, eczema, and psoriasis

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• Facial puffiness, due to dehydration and fluid retention, which can be short-term or long-term

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• Dryer skin, since alcohol is a diuretic that can cause dehydration

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• Hives, which can happen along with facial flushing

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• Fine lines in the upper face
• Under-eye puffiness
• Worsening laugh lines
• Volume loss in the face
• More-prominent blood vessels

If you have a skin condition, alcohol may impact your skin’s health in the following ways:

Rosacea

How much alcohol you need to drink to cause this reaction differs for everyone, says Dr. Krathen: “Some people have a genetic tendency toward extreme flushing with even very small amounts of alcohol.”

Psoriasis

Drinking alcohol may also negatively affect psoriasis treatment and impact other conditions that some people get along with psoriasis, such as psoriatic arthritis, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and liver disease.>

“The link between alcohol and psoriasis is well-documented,” says Kazlouskaya. “More severe forms of psoriasis are often seen in patients with heavy alcohol consumption, likely due to increased systemic [body-wide] inflammation.”

Eczema

“Eczema is a generic term for skin inflammation,” says Kormeili. “Understanding that, you can see that any inflammatory product in your body (such as alcohol) can cause eczema to get worse.”

Acne

Another issue is that drinking alcohol may affect your hormones, says Kormeili. Because alcohol use can affect the liver, and the liver is involved in hormone balance, altering hormone levels could lead to acne and inflammation, she says.

Dandruff

Some research suggests that regular alcohol use may be linked with flares of seborrheic dermatitis, also known as dandruff.

“It’s not surprising that alcohol may worsen seborrheic dermatitis, as this condition shares many inflammatory pathways with psoriasis,” says Kazlouskaya.

Skin Cancer

The more you drink, the greater the risk, according to the review. “Alcohol weakens the skin’s immune defenses,” Kazlouskaya explains.

Plus, according to the research, alcohol generates free radicals when skin is exposed to UV rays, making damage to DNA worse and potentially leading to the development of cancer.

Yes, there are ways to repair longer-term damage from drinking alcohol. “With proper skin care and an individualized treatment plan, the skin’s natural glow can be restored,” says Kazlouskaya. Here’s where to start:

• Talk with a board-certified dermatologist. Recommendations for topical products and treatments will differ depending on your skin condition. So, make sure you see a dermatologist to create a plan of care. Two topical products that tend to be the cornerstone of a good skin-care routine include a broad-spectrum sunscreen (to protect skin from future sun damage) and retinol or retinoids (to repair skin and encourage collagen production), Krathen says.
• Ask about procedures. Advanced treatments like lasers, injectables, and chemical peels may be an option for you, depending on your skin concerns. Although you can get these procedures at a variety of places, for the best guidance, schedule a consultation with a dermatologist.
• Scale back alcohol use. Depending on your skin’s reaction to alcohol, your doctor may recommend limiting or even avoiding alcohol completely, especially if your skin is particularly sensitive to it. “Moderation is key for many things in life, and this is probably just another example of that,” says Krathen. If you choose to drink, have no more than one alcoholic beverage per day if you’re a woman or no more than two per day if you’re a man.

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  If it’s hard for you to cut back on alcohol, you can find resources for getting help at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

• Drinking alcohol can affect skin in various ways, causing redness, flushing, and puffiness, as well as possibly making skin conditions like eczema, acne, and psoriasis worse.
• Drinking alcohol can cause dehydration, fluid retention, and inflammation. It can also interrupt your skin’s immune system and antioxidant defenses, all of which can cause harm to your skin.
• You can treat or reverse the negative effects of alcohol on your skin by limiting alcohol use or by not drinking. Proper skin care and management of skin disease may also be helpful, along with advanced procedures like lasers and chemical peels.