If you enjoy drinking tea, simply for the pleasure of doing so, there's no way around the fact that it's an absolute must that you have green tea in your tea collection. From a health standpoint, it's got some benefits that are nothing short of impressive. Off the cuff, green tea is able to fight off free radicals, improve brain function, burn fat, lower cancer risks, get rid of bad breath, help to prevent the risk of type 2 diabetes—whew—and that is just the tip of the iceberg!
I've been a fan—and consumer—of green tea for quite some time now. What I really like about it is, not only does this tea help to maintain my insides but, from a beauty standpoint, it is able to do some pretty impressive things for the outside of me as well. So, if you've got some green tea somewhere in your kitchen and you want to treat your skin (or hair) this weekend without spending a ton of cash, I've got 10 green tea beauty hacks that will have you glowing from head to toe—literally.
1. Acne Wash
Did you know that if you drink green tea 2-3 times a week, it can reduce the amount of sebum that your body produces which, in turn, can minimize your breakouts? Three other benefits that come from consuming the tea is it can reduce internal bodily inflammation, regulate your blood sugar levels and boost your immune system. At the same time, due to all of the antioxidants that are in green tea, it's also a super effective acne wash if you're looking for something natural that will cleanse your skin, dry out your pores and reduce the appearance of any pimples you might have. All you need to do is steep a green tea bag for 20 minutes, let it cool and then wash your face with the tea. You can also dip cotton balls into the tea and apply it directly onto your pimples, if you'd prefer.
2. Anti-Aging Serum
Something that green tea has a good amount of is Epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG). It's a plant compound that has a pretty impressive resume when it comes to maintaining our health. EGCG reduces skin inflammation, helps to prevent heart and brain disease, and can assist with weight loss too.
Because EGCG also has the ability to reactivate dying skin cells (which ultimately can reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles and age spots), that's why it can be a great anti-aging remedy.
To get the most out of green tea in this way, it's probably best to turn it into a skin serum. One of the best recipes I've seen is found here.
3. Eye Treatment
Whether your eyes are puffy or you've got dark circles that you're trying to get to fade away, this is just one more way that green tea has your back. That's thanks to its combination of the antioxidants and caffeine that is able to reduce your inflammation and irritation. An easy way to use green tea in this case is to soak two tea bags in warm water (no need to boil them), gently squeeze the bags to remove any excess water and then place them directly onto both of your eyes. If you leave them there for 15 minutes, you should see results once you remove them.
4. Skin Exfoliant
To make the most powerful kind of green tea exfoliant, it's best to use dried green tea leaves. Mix a tablespoon of dried leaves with ½ cup of olive oil (it contains vitamins A, D, E, and K; it can also deeply moisturize your skin), two tablespoons of water, a teaspoon of honey (it balances bacteria) and three drops of lavender oil (it has antiseptic and anti-inflammatory properties). After washing your face, apply the exfoliant and gently massage your face with it. Then rinse your skin with cool water. Your skin will feel soft and smooth.
5. Skin Toner
Is your skin naturally oily but you want to find a toner than has no alcohol in it? If so, green tea is the answer. The tannins that are naturally found in this tea makes it a powerful astringent. As a bonus, something else that tannins do is reduce the amount of sebum production that happens within your skin's pores. If you want to use green tea in this way, mix a half cup of cooled green tea with a tablespoon of witch hazel (it's also an astringent), a teaspoon of honey and three drops of tea tree oil (it contains anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial properties). Soak a cotton ball into the toner and rub the solution all over your face after you wash it. Do this once a day for the best results.
6. Acne Scar Lightener
If you've got surface or even stubborn acne scars, green tea extract is wonderful way to fade them. Something that antioxidants are able to do is brighten skin while fighting off free radicals at the same time. Plus, since green tea also deeply penetrates skin, it is able to soothe inflamed and damaged skin while it lightens up acne-related blemishes you might have. Steep two bags of green tea into a cup of water, along with two teaspoons of honey. Allow the solution to cool and then add two tablespoons of pure Aloe Vera gel. Let the mask sit on your freshly washed face for 20 minutes. Then rinse with cool water. Try and do this once a week for optimal results.
7. Hair Strengthener
Since green tea contains nutrients, antioxidants and phytochemicals (compounds that are found in plants), it makes total sense that it's also a tea that would be good for your hair.
And, since one of the vitamins that green tea contains a lot of is Vitamin B (which is a vitamin that strengthens hair roots and helps to prevent split ends), you can't go wrong by adding green tea to your hair care regimen.
Probably the best way to get the most out of green tea in this way is to put two teaspoons of green tea extract into your shampoo and wash your hair as normal. Noticeable results tend to occur within a couple of months.
8. Dandruff Remover
The root cause of dandruff is fungus and not dry skin. This means that the best way to combat dandruff is to apply a remedy that kills fungus while exfoliating the scalp and removing dead skin cells all at once. One way to accomplish this is to create a dandruff rinse out of green tea (it will exfoliate), lemon juice (it contains anti-fungal properties) and coconut oil (it's an anti-bacterial oil and a moisturizer too). If you put two tea bags, one lemon peel, a cup of water and one tablespoon of coconut oil into a small saucepan, let solution boil, steep for 10 minutes and then cool completely, you'll have an ideal hair rinse that will help to remove dandruff quickly and effectively. Apply the rinse after you shampoo your hair and before you condition it. Make sure to allow the rinse to sit on your scalp for 15 minutes in order to get the best results.
9. Skin Moisturizer
Something else that green tea happens to have in it is Vitamin E. The cool thing about this particular vitamin is it does everything from boost immunity and reduce UV skin damage to renew skin cells and deeply moisturize the skin. That's why green tea makes the list for being an effective moisturizer. If you combine two teaspoons of sweet almond oil (it improves skin tone), a teaspoon of rosewater (it maintains skin's pH balance) and a teaspoon of organic green tea powder, you've got the kind of moisturizer that will have your skin feeling super soft and smooth from head to toe.
10. Psoriasis Reliever
If you've got psoriasis and you're self-conscious about it, don't be. Reportedly, eight million Americans have this skin disorder that leads to symptoms like red scaly patches of skin, skin plaques, itching and burning around the skin patches, swollen joints and severely dry skin. If you have these symptoms, while it's important to get officially diagnosed by a medical professional, green tea is something that can help to make the symptoms more bearable. In fact, one study revealed that applying green tea extract can significantly reduce the psoriasis symptoms and heal the skin overall. Hmph. And you thought that green tea was only good for sipping on (wink).
Want more stories like this? Sign up for our newsletter here and check out the related reads below:
The Ugly Truth: Here's What Detox Teas Are Really Doing To Your Body
Here Are Some All-Natural Ways To Achieve Flawless Skin
10 Breakfast Foods That Are Good For Your Hair & Skin
Uncommon (But Totally Natural) Things That Are Great For Hair Growth
Featured image by Shutterstock
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RELATED
A Goddard College graduate, who earned an MFA from Pratt Institute and was awarded an honorary doctorate from Marymount Manhattan College, Mahogany offers unapologetic realness with a side of grace and empowerment. "I started touring locally. I started creating chat books so that those poems will go in the hands of the people who were sitting in the rooms," she shared.
"And then I started facilitating poetry workshops, so I used my chat books as curriculum. And that, in turn, allowed me to further invest in my art and show the community and people who were hiring me that it wasn't just a one-off, that it's not just, you know, a fly by night—that I am invested in this art as much as I am invested in your community, in your children's learning, in our growth."
Mahogany has a special way of moving audiences, and her superpower sparks shifts in perspective, post-performance introspection, and strengthening of community bonds, especially among Black women. (One can undeniably recognize her gift for arousal of the spirit and mind merely from her listening to her insights from the other side of a Google Hangout call. I can only imagine the soul-stirring, top-tier sensory encounter when watching her perform in person.)
In this chat with xoNecole, Mahogany reflects on sustaining a creative career, the aftermath of writing a banned book, and using poetry for both healing, community-building, and activism.
Anthony Artis
xoNecole: What are three key things that have laid the foundation for a sustainable creative career for you?
Mahogany L Browne: What has helped me is that I'm willing to go in being an expert at knowing poetry and knowing the way in which art can change the landscape of our lives, not just as a poet, but also as a poetry facilitator. How you move through classes, those things are mastered, right? So when I go into another space that's maybe tech-heavy, I don't mind learning and being, you know, a student of the wonder of how we can make this magic, work together.
Two, you’ve got to know how to pivot. Sometimes we say, ‘Alright, this is what my life is going to be. I'm going to be a New York Times best-selling author. I'm going to, you know, have an album that's Grammy-nominated. And then, say you get dropped from your record label. That doesn't mean you can't make an album anymore. You can also still create an album that can be submitted to the Grammys. So, what does a pivot look like as an artist who doesn't have an institution behind them? Pivot being a student of the wonder.
Relationships also really help. How do I serve the community? And in turn, that tells me how the community can show up. For me, I have long-standing ties with a community that will outlast my one life. So, what does it mean to create space where these relationships can develop, can be nurtured, can be rooted, can be cultivated? Creating space—it happens through relationships.
xoN: With today’s economic challenges, what does your current creative process look like, and what are you working on?
MB: I’m always thinking five years ahead. I just reviewed the pages for two children’s books and recently released a YA novel. I’m drafting an adult fiction manuscript now.
Anything I create is founded with the root of poetry, but it can exist in captions. It can exist in commercials. It can exist as a musical. So that's where I’m at now.
xoN: You started performing "Black Girl Magic" in 2013, had an acclaimed performance of it via PBS and the work went on to viral success shortly after. Talk more about the inspiration. And what do you think about the continued relevance more than a decade later?
MB: I wrote it as a rally cry for the mothers who had been keeping themselves truly in harm's way by, you know, being a part of the community right after the death of their child or their loved one. They are usually mothers of victims of police brutality—and just seeing how they showed up in these community spaces, they are devout to the cause but obviously still grieving.
"I wanted this poem to be just a space of reclamation, of joy and of you, of your light, of your shine, of your brilliance, in any which way in which you fashion. Every room you enter is the room you deserve to be in. What does it mean to have a poem like that that exists?"
And the first time I did the poem, the Weeping that occurred, right? It was like this blood-letting of sorts. The next time I performed it, I'm moved to tears because I'm seeing how it's affecting other women who have just been waiting to hear, ‘You belong. You deserve. You are good. We see you. Thank you, despite everything that they said to make you regret being born in this beautiful brown, dark-skinned, light-skinned, but Black body.’
Black women are the backbone—period. Point blank. And so, that that poem became a necessity, not just to the fortitude of Black women in the community, but like you know, in service of healing the Black women.
xoN: One of your books was banned at a school in Boston, and it was later reinstated due to parental and activist support. What was that experience like?
MB: Well, I think it happened because they were racist. That's it. Point blank. The reversal of it was empowering, right? I realized, oh, I thought we just had to sit here and be on a banned book list. But no, parents are actually the leaders of this charge.
So to see that, the parents said, ‘Nah, we're not gonna let you take this book out of my baby’s school just because it's a Black kid on the front saying, ‘Woke’ and they're talking about being a global citizen. They're talking about accountability. They're talking about accessibility. They're talking about allyship, and you don't want them to have compassion or empathy or have even an understanding, right? So no, we rebuke that, and we want this book here anyway.’ To see that happen in that way. I was, like, reaffirmed. Absolutely.
xoN: You recently organized the Black Girl Magic Ball at the Lincoln Center in New York. Honorees included author and entrepreneur Rachel Cargle and National Black Theater CEO Sade Lythcott. What impact did it have and what expanded legacy do you hope to leave with your creative works?
MB: I was really interested in not celebrating just the book, but celebrating the community that made the book possible. And so I gave out five awards to women doing that thing, like, what does it mean to be a Black girl in this world?
I just thought it was gonna be an amazing time. Everybody's gonna dress up—we're gonna celebrate each other. And boom, I then realized that it responded to like a gaping hole. There was a missing thing for Black girls of all walks of life, all ages, right?
"It's very intergenerational. That was intentional to come together and celebrate just being us."
You have all these instances where just being you is either the butt of a joke or it's diminished and not worthy of a specific title in these larger institutions. So what does it mean to just to be loved up on and celebrated?
It felt like a self-care project at first. You know, for the first couple of years, folks were coming and they were getting that sisterhood. They were getting that tribe work that they were missing in their everyday lives.
I love the Black Girl Magic Ball because we got us. If I go out with a bang, they'll remember that Mahogany worked her a** off to make sure all the Black girls everywhere knew that she was the light. We are the blueprint.
For more information on Mahogany L. Browne, her work, and her future projects, visit her website or follow her on IG @mobrowne.
Featured image by Anthony Artis
