Once upon a time long, long ago, a Chinese emperor dropped tea leaves into boiling water. He thought it was a yummy, invigorating drink. While I’m a little surprised he was making his own tea, I get the pleasure he must have felt from this serendipity! Green tea became part of the Chinese diet and traditional medicine, and many health benefits came to be realized from this amazing plant!
Fast-forward 4000 years, and we now have piles of scientific evidence to back up those claims.
Green tea, like black tea is made from the leaves of the plant Camellia sinensis. The difference between them is that green tea is unfermented. The leaves used for green tea are steamed right picking in order to prevent the oxidation of the leaves. The leaves remain green and its active substances retain their qualities. Black teas, on the other hand, are made from fermented leaves and as a result have lower nutritional and enzyme content as compared to green tea. So, green and black teas have different chemical properties.
Modern science has been able to demonstrate that green tea is beneficial to our health due to the fact that tea contains extraordinarily high levels of antioxidants called polyphenols or flavonoids. Antioxidants help your body fight against free radicals which cause damage to cells and tissues in your body.
While all tea is healthy to drink, it is green tea that contains the highest level of flavonoids. Recent studies suggest green tea to be beneficial in many areas including the following:
- Digestive and respiratory health
- Cholesterol levels
- Immune health
- Blood pressure
- Anti-inflammatory effects
- Oral hygiene
- Skin-loving effects (see below!)
- May decrease the risk of osteoporosis
- Lowers blood sugar
- May speed up fat metabolism and aid in digestion in an extract form, since a lot of green tea is needed for this
High Tea is obviously concerned with how green tea can benefit your skin! As it turns out, green tea comes in several different forms for use in cosmetics and personal care, and it has something for everyone – it literally is great for all types of skin!
Used on the skin, green tea acts as:
Antioxidant
Green tea’s rich antioxidant content helps protect skin, keep it clear, and make it look brighter and smoother
Anti-inflammatory
Green tea’s compounds can help treat and calm skin inflammation, including acne, and reduce redness
Skin cell rejuvenation
Green tea can help skin rejuvenate and repair damaged cells
Collagen levels
Green tea helps maintain collagen levels, improving skin’s strength and firmness and by smoothing out fine lines and wrinkles
Dark circles and puffy eyes
Green tea contains caffeine, which shrinks inflamed blood vessels around the eyes, reducing dark circles and puffiness
Skin cancer
Green tea polyphenols can help prevent skin disorders caused by UVB rays
Aging
Green tea can help your skin handle the aging process better due to the effects mentioned above
Toning and astringent
Green tea’s polyphenols and tannins can help tone the skin and provide a gentle astringent effect, making it appear brighter and refreshed
Disinfecting
Green tea extracts can help improve the appearance of pores and balances by inhibiting excessive sebum production
I’m guessing you get High Tea’s obsession with tea – particularly green tea – and why it’s the hero ingredient in every High Tea formula. With millennia of use and oodles of scientific proof to back it up, green tea is an amazing plant that seems to have limitless benefits to us – especially to our skin! It just so happens that you’ll rarely catch me without a big thing full of tea!
Green tea can come in the form of a hydrosol – a plant water produced from the distillation process. It can be in the form of an extract where the dried leaves sit in glycerin for weeks to extract the plant’s constituents into the glycerin. Green tea also can be in the form of a beautiful oil – Camellia or Tsubaki oil, which are cold pressed from the seeds. Other forms are green tea wax (from the fresh leaves), powder and essential oil (also from distillation of the leaves). Of these, High Tea uses Camellia oil and green tea extract most frequently. They are beautiful and effective additions to our products!
Having the option to include both the oil-based and water-based phytochemicals of the green tea plant gives a well-rounded representation of this gorgeous plant in my High Tea products!
So…
Anyone for tea?
