The Back of the Bottle – Black Tea

The first thing that I do when I look at the questions I receive is do a Google search.  I don’t do this expecting to find an answer to the question. Rather to see what the current conventional “wisdom” (a term I use loosely) is about the subject of the question.  Unfortunately, more often than not, most of the results that populate the first page (or even sometimes many pages) are either marketing pieces hyping a product or “reviews” (another term I use loosely) of products that are largely the regurgitation of the marketing hype.

The more “miraculous” the results that the product promises are, the more the little voice in the back of my head starts to set off warning bells.  When Googling black tea in skin care products, the number of results using words such as “miracle” and “amazing” started to set off a veritable cacophony of bells of all shapes and sizes.

Now that my monthly rant is out of the way. Let’s take a look at what black tea can really accomplish when used as a skin care treatment or ingredient.

Black Tea

As everyone is no doubt aware, many types of tea (green, white, black, red, etc.) have been used for medicinal purposes for millennia – taken both internally and applied topically.  So, the question of the day is: just what does black tea do when it is applied topically and how is this any different than any of the other teas?  While there is an increasing amount of medical research being done on the effects of black tea when taken internally; much of the knowledge base regarding its efficacy as a topical treatment is anecdotal.  In reality, it appears that when formulated in topical treatments black tea behaves much like its cousins green and white tea with a few differences that are more matters of degree than anything else.  This is not, however necessarily a bad thing.

Black tea combines similar soothing qualities to green and white tea with slightly stronger antioxidant properties, which should, theoretically, make it somewhat more effective than its cousins in fighting free radicals – something we look for in anti-aging skin care products.  So, while black tea may not be the vaunted fountain of youth that we are so-frequently promised; it does have the potential to be yet another valuable arrow in the anti-aging quiver.

About Carell

Please submit your questions by email to Ms. Zaborski at [email protected]

In 1978 Ms. Zaborski founded the Corrective Skin Care Institute Inc, a pioneering medical spa. For the past fifteen years has worked with an international team of cosmetic chemists and medical professionals. Developing the System for Optimal Skin™ (SOS™) skin correction system.