White tea: beauty in a (tea) bag

Are you needlessly spending your money on commercial face tonics?

Don't. You don't need them.

Or rather, you can make your own for a few cents - and they'll work better than any store-bought concoction.

There are many ingredients you can use to make your own face tonic.

Vinegar, for example, is almost (but not quite) indispensable. It will optimise your skin's pH levels, soften it and keep infections away. (You'll learn all about it in a future post.)

There are, however, other, more "exotic" substances that are now readily available - yet remarkably few people use them for DIY skin care. 

White tea is one such marvellous substance.

In the past few years knowledge about the benefits of white tea has spread throughout the West. And clinical studies seem to prove that its purported benefits are more than the usual over-inflated fluff that inevitably comes with every fad. 

Here is a comprehensive list of the health (and cosmetic) benefits of white tea. As reported by Science Daily, it is even being studied as a possible "solution to the obesity epidemic".

It seems that white tea really does outperform even green tea when it comes to anti-ageing properties - and that's saying a lot! According to a 2009 study conducted by the Kingston University, in London, white tea extract outperformed all the other twenty "contestants", including green tea; and it did so by a landslide.

Have a look:

Anti-collagenase activities were exhibited by sixteen plants of which the highest activity was seen in:

white tea (~87%)
green tea (~47%)
rose tincture (~41%)
lavender (~31%).

N.B. Collagenase is the enzyme that breaks down collagen, which results in sagging, loose skin, and wrinkles.

Taken from this great website. 

You can read more about the cosmetic and health benefits of white tea on the following website which is a wonderful resource for information about the benefits of white tea (and all other types of tea, not to mention skin care in general):

"White tea may be even better for your skin than its green tea cousin"

If you are not drinking white tea yet, you may want to start now. At least give it a try. 

But when you do, do not throw the bag away, like a very beauty-conscious but utterly foolish friend of mine. Instead, wring it out, ever so slightly, and massage your face, neck and hands (and everything else you wish) with the bag.
(And if you take your tea at the queenly hour of five-six o'clock, so much the better! It has long been known that five-six o'clock is the time when the skin is more receptive to extraneous substances than at any other time of the day. This, however, is not writ in stone, so make sure you read our post about that in the near future.)

You can do this at any hour, with every tea bag you use. If, like many connoisseurs, you do not use tea in bags, then massage your skin with the leaves and finish the massage with a cotton dabbed in the liquid.

If you do this after your face has been cleansed, you may want to apply a moisturiser right away, before the skin dries. This is a time-honoured method for "locking" moisture in. It gives the skin a dewy look and multiplies the benefits of the preparation (cream or oil) you're using.

This is not exactly news - it was published more than a year ago - but I am sure many haven't heard about it.
Modern science has had to retract-  yet again! - one of its old premises: that only animals (including humans) produce the female sex hormone, progesterone.


Then, in 2009, a researcher Guido Pauli, conclusively identified progesterone in the leaves of the common walnut tree (Juglans regia) and in the Adonis plant (Adonis aleppica), a member of the buttercup family.
You can read the original paper here, and a Science Daily article here.


What has that got to do with self-made beauty, you ask?
Plenty.
As you well know, sex hormones determine the appearance of our secondary sexual signs (breasts, for example). They also play a vital role in the appearance and condition of the skin, hair and other body parts, not to mention our state of mind. And, as we all know, the levels of hormones decrease with age and change the dynamics of their interplay.


It is NOT wise to play Mother Nature and tinker around her lab, especially not when hormones are concerned.
But I am sure biochemists are hastily concocting "bio-identical" progesterone from walnut leaves as we speak. 
I am also sure there are many DIY "chemists" trying to do the same.


I am all for natural remedies - they really do work, fantastically in some cases - but in this case I would advise you to WAIT. Do not try to "extract" progesterone from walnut leaves or buttercups for the time being. Walnut leaves are full of juglone, which is a time-honoured natural dye (you may be wearing it on your hair right now). It is also a potent herbicide. And while you're not a herb, accidental ingestion of juglone is not likely to improve your looks or your health.


Instead, have a walnut or two. Every day. They'll help your skin and your hair (and your nails, and many other, less conspicuous parts) stay and look healthy, and make your brain act healthy.
The walnut, all of its parts, does have great curative powers for a number of complaints. You can read about it here.


And they were the food of the gods, in those good old days of the Golden Age.

Argan oil... Does it work?

Well, it depends on what you expect - and how quickly you expect it to happen.
But I can tell you this. For the past few months I've been giving my friends - male and female - argan oil as a gift. In fact, I don't think they'll ever receive any commercially concocted beauty products from me (except, maybe, some of the L'Occitane
 products - most of which, which, however, I can replicate myself and make them work just as well if not better).

As you can imagine, the reason why I am using it as a present is the efficacy of argan oil.
That darned oil just hasn't disappointed anyone yet!
(If it has disappointed you, please do let me know.)

My 79-year-old aunt's skin looks smooth and practically wrinkle-free again.
Although I must tell you, none of my relatives, except one, ever had very many wrinkles.
However the difference is visible, no question about that. It was visible after only a week or so of her using it. Not only did I notice it - she noticed it, which almost never happens.

Another relative of mine (in her early forties) who suffers from extremely dry skin has dumped all the other (expensive) creams and is now using only my home-made concoction of argan oils with a few drops of assorted essential oils.
And her brother (also in his early forties) now swears by argan oil. To him, I gave it pure, with no essential oils added, because he claims they give him headaches. (Not true - PURE essential oils can never give you hedaches - unless you're literally doused in them -, but they can make them disappear. However, I did not want to argue with him at that point.)

Other happy recipients include not only friends, but also elderly - yet still beauty conscious - neighbours.
I have yet to see a disappointed face.


But that's not the only reason why I like it so much.
Whenever I buy it, I feel good because I know my money will go to female cooperatives in Morocco, who now make a living off this tree and the oil of its kernels.
That thought literally makes me smile every time I fork out the money. :)
(In truth, I have been reading recently that things may not be as picture-perfect as they appeared to be. I'll keep you updated on this. But it surely beats paying handsomely to pharmaceutical companies!)