By now, you’ve probably heard of the amazing benefits of drinking green tea, and have maybe already added a few cups to your daily health regimen. But did you know that the same properties that make green tea so beneficial for your body can also work wonders for your skin when applied topically?
Benefits of Green Tea
The catechins naturally found in green tea act as anti-bacterial agents that can actually help regulate hormonal imbalances while suppressing the bacteria that causes acne. The catechins are also responsible for the anti-inflammatory properties of green tea as well, reducing redness and helping breakouts to heal without scarring.
Green tea also contains EGCG compounds that can stop the signs of premature aging, such as age spots, fine lines, wrinkles, and loose skin. The EGCG helps to reactivate skin cells that have started to die, and heal skin cells that have been damaged by pollutants, sun, acne, or poor lifestyle choices (diet, smoking, tanning, etc.).
Green tea also contains polyphenols that help to neutralize the damaging and harmful free radicals that you might come in contact with on a daily basis. These free radicals damage your skin and accelerate the aging process. So therefore adding green tea to your routine, either applied to the skin or as a cup of brewed tea, can be very beneficial for the health of your skin.
Why Use a Face Scrub
Facial scrubs are great for exfoliating your skin, removing dead skin cells and other impurities so that your natural healthy skin can shine through.
Some face scrubs can be harsh and drying, removing all the oil from your skin without replenishing the lost moisture. This just leads to excess drying and may even cause more problems than it fixes. However, using a natural green tea face scrub will gently exfoliate your skin, and then hydrate and nourish it naturally so that you maintain a healthy, youthful glow.
You could try to make your own green tea scrub at home, but it can get a bit a messy and you might be missing out on the other beneficial ingredients that can be found in the scrubs listed below.
Top Brands
It’s important to find brands that contain healthy oils and organic botanical ingredients, such as the ones below, to ensure that you are using the best products for your skin.
1. Brooklyn Botany
Brooklyn Botany’s Matcha Green Tea Scrub is a concentrated formula that delivers great results. The main ingredient is Matcha, which is ground tea leaves. The Matcha is what will provide most of the helpful antioxidants and nutrients to your skin. The paraben-free formula also includes beneficial ingredients such as dead sea salt, raw sugar cane, pear extract, argan oil, vitamin C, and vitamin E among others. In addition to your face, you can also use this scrub all over your body.
This product is made in the USA and is priced affordably. We definitely recommend giving it a try.
2. Levity & Co.
The Levity & Co. sweetface sugar scrub is a great product that is handmade in the USA. It provides a lot of benefits to your face. With the green tea and pure sugar cane ingredients it will exfoliate and soften your skin. One other great benefit to this product is that it smells amazing. The smell has aromatherapy benefits to it which can improve the mood of certain people.
The one downside of this brand is the price. It’s by far the most expensive brand on our list.
3. St. Ives
St. Ives makes a great product that uses 100% natural exfoliants to remove dead skin cells, clear blackheads, and sooth any irritating redness. St. Ives blackhead clearing green tea scrub contains ingredients that remove dirt and oil buildup in your pores, leaving you with clean skin.
If you are prone to breakouts or facial skin discoloration, then the exfoliants in this scrub will help to calm inflamed red skin while gently moisturizing your skin. Some exfoliating scrubs can use harsh exfoliants that are abrasive, but the natural exfoliants contained in this scrub are very gentle, yet still powerful. Some of the other key ingredients in this scrub are olive oil and olive leaf extract.
This brand does a great job at clearing up blackheads, which is tough to do as blackheads are notorious for being stubborn and difficult to get rid of.
DIY Face Scrub
If you want to try your hand at making a green tea scrub, then there are essentially two ways to do it: One is to use sugar as the abrasive, scrubbing agent. Combine brewed green tea that has already cooled with coarse sugar. It’s important that the tea is room temperature or cooler to prevent the sugar from dissolving in the tea. Apply it in a circular motion to your face and rinse it off with warm water. This method allows the brewed tea to work on your skin after the sugar has scrubbed away the dirt and impurities.
The other method is to use ground tea leaves as the abrasive agent. This method uses all parts of the tea leaf, so you will want to start with whole tea leaves rather than bagged tea. Grind up the tea leaves with a bit of honey (add a little water if you want to thin it out) and rub it in a circular motion on your face or other parts of your body. The crushed tea leaves will simultaneously remove dirt from your face, while also reducing the appearance of scars and blemishes.
The anti-inflammatory properties of the tea will cool your skin and reduce redness and irritation. Feel free to leave this mask on your face for up to ten minutes before rinsing it off.