Sip These Teas for Skin Health
The selection of the first week of August as National Cleanse Your Skin Week can’t be arbitrary. The week is about halfway between the season of sun, heat and light, and that of crisp air and early dusks. Many of us have spent loads of time outside, and our skin needs refreshment. Revitalizing it is even more urgent in Colorado, due to its aridity.
Skin is our largest organ, accounting for about 15% of body weight. The average adult supports about 9 pounds, and 21 square feet, of skin. The organ holds more than 11 miles of blood vessels, and 300 million skin cells. It’s vital for our health.
Many of us began pursuing outdoor pursuits well before summer’s official kick-off, on June 20 this year. In fact, savoring the outdoors is a year-round pursuit for many Coloradans. It’s time for some skin-pampering!
Slathering arms and faces with moisturizer is a fine idea. But so is drinking tea. That’s right — cups of your favorite beverage can help soothe and improve skin.
But not all teas are created equal. Some offer more skin-healing benefits than others. In this guide, we explore teas to sip whenever skin seems in need of nourishment.
Teas for Skin: Organic Beauty Tea
At least three of this blend’s seven ingredient contribute to skin health. The tea’s foundation, tulsi, is especially helpful. In Sanskrit tulsi means “the incomparable one,” due to its myriad health benefits. Tusli, also known as “holy basil,” offers antibacterial, anti-fungal and anti-inflammatory properties, all of which contribute towards skin health. The herb is rich in vitamin K and antioxidants, as well as different vitamins, minerals, electrolytes and phytonutrients. Truly, tulsi is a wonder plant, and extremely healing for skin.
Another Organic Beauty Tea ingredient, nettles, offers nourishing, diuretic and anti-inflammatory properties. Acne and eczema, among other things, can get cleared up by nettles.
Then there’s dandelions, which lend anti-aging benefits to our custom blend. Dandelion root is famously detoxifying — people use it to cleanse their livers and kidneys, for example. Its powerful detox properties apply to skin as well — dandelion can help remove toxins that clog pores and cause acne.
Organic Beauty Tea is rich in vitamins A, C, E and B-complex, which together strengthen the keratin in hair and nails, fight acne and keep skin elastic and nourished.
Teas for Skin: Bai Mu Dan White Tea Cake
People in China sip thousands of different styles of Camellia sinensis, the plant that gives us traditional tea. They preserve it immediately after harvesting, for green tea. Oolong undergoes some oxidation, black sinks even deeper into oxidation, and pu-erh is fermented. All of these broad styles enjoy many different iterations in China.
One interesting and wonderful style is white tea cakes, which are crafted from high-mountain peony white tea — white is a lightly oxidized style of tea — from a semi-wild tea garden along Taimu Mountain, in China’s Fujian Province.
White tea cakes are aged, which transforms the leaves’ plant compounds, adding health benefits that were absent prior to the aging process. People in China savor white tea cakes for reducing fevers, mitigating inflammation, nurturing liver and lung functions, reducing blood pressure and healing skin.
We adore our Bai Mu Dan White Tea Cake, and routinely sip cups. The textured mouth-feel and “hui gan” (long-lasting and sweet after-taste) make the sipping pleasure exquisite. But while we enjoy the warm tea’s flavors and textures, we also appreciate its health-boosting properties. Improving skin stands as an important benefit.
Teas for Skin: Organic Rose Pu-erh
The style of tea known as pu-erh mostly comes from Yunnan Province, in the the southwestern portion of China. It is fermented, aged and awfully unique! Drinking pu-erh can conjure things like a forest in fall — the aromas bring to mind fallen leaves and twigs, damp soil and even mushrooms. This might not sound like a delicious tea, but trust us — pu-erh has legions of fans because it is so wonderfully savory and delicious.
The fermentation process brings about more than flavor complexity. It also introduces health benefits. Among other things, the process increases the tea’s volume of antioxidants, powerful compounds that inhibit oxidation. Oxidation in the body produces free radicals, and free radicals damage cells. Antioxidants fight free radicals, and mitigate the damage they wreak upon the human body.
One of the victims of wide-ranging free radicals is skin. Anything, like pu-erh tea, that weakens free radicals helps bring about healthier skin.
Our Organic Rose Pu-erh also contains rose petals, which add more than intoxicating aroma and flavor to this beautiful tea. Roses are famously good for skin; one of the best oils for skin are those made from roses. The flower’s skin powers range beyond just topicals like oil, however. Sipping teas that involve rose introduces skin-helpful vitamins, minerals, and anti-bacterial compounds to the brew.
