As Old Father Time (OFT) knocks at our chamber doors forcing us to buy his crows feet and blotches, many of us start searching for natural, affordable, and effective rebuttals to his aggressive selling techniques.
At Chanui towers, we tend to look towards the hallowed brew for ingredients to bring us back to our greener years. This week our attention turns once more to rooibos and its numerous benefits.
Known for its antioxidant properties, rooibos tea is more than just a healthy drink—it’s a powerful ally in the war on our skin threatening to make us look like the baddie in Indiana Jones - The Last Crusade when he drinks from the wrong cup.
In this blog post, we’ll dive into the benefits of rooibos tea for the skin, explore its key compounds like aspalathin and quercetin, and walk you through a simple DIY recipe to create your own rooibos tea toner at home.
OFT be damned!
The skin benefits of rooibos
Rooibos tea is made from the leaves of the Aspalathus linearis plant, native to South Africa. It is packed with antioxidants and other beneficial compounds that support skin health among many other benefits, including deliciousness.
To read more about Rooibos, go have a look at our previous blog post, Revealing the Riches of Rooibos: Everything You Need to Know.
Here are just a few ways rooibos tea can help your skin.
Antioxidant protection
We can’t write a blog post about a tea’s many health benefits without giving a nod to antioxidants.
Rooibos tea is rich in aspalathin and contains quercetin, both of which are powerful antioxidants that help protect your skin from oxidative stress caused by environmental factors like pollution and UV exposure.
Free radicals—unstable molecules caused by sun exposure, pollution, and stress— are one of the main culprits behind premature aging. Drinking rooibos tea can help neutralise these free radicals, preventing wrinkles, fine lines, and loss of skin elasticity.
For a more in-depth look at antioxidants, have a read of our blog post: Antioxidants in tea.
Aspalathus linearis plant, native to the Western Cape province of South Africa.
Anti-inflammatory effects
As we mentioned in our last post: Black tea and heart health, Inflammation is a major factor in the development of a wide range of chronic diseases.
Have you ever woken up in the morning, stumbled into the bathroom and looked in dismay at the puffy version of yourself staring back at your with a hint of a post-bout boxer? You splash some cold water on your face then creak your aching joints down the stairs to make a cup of tea.
When you catch a glimpse of yourself an hour or two later you recognise that handsome mug staring back at you. You’re glowing. Your bones no longer ache and your eyes are bright.
Well, this is due in part to the body’s natural hormonal rhythm that helps regulate inflammation in our bodies. Cortisol is a key anti-inflamatary hormone and levels tend to peak towards the end of our sleep cycle with their effects kicking in after we wake up.
All that is to say that any anti-inflammatory boost we can give our bodies serves to help us look our best more consistently, particularly to those suffering from acne-prone or sensitive skin.
Enter rooibos.
The flavonoids in rooibos have anti-inflammatory properties that can calm redness and irritation, both as a drink and when applied directly to the skin.
Anti-aging properties - collagen!
Contrary to what you may have heard, collagen isn’t just a bovine product that ageing actors inject into their faces, it is in fact a protein that gives skin its structure, firmness, and elasticity.
As we age, our ability to produce collagen declines, leaving many reaching for the needle.
Rooibos antioxidant effects mentioned above help to provide an environment in which the skin’s natural collagen can thrive.
It’s a bit like tending a garden. If you don’t regularly weed the beds and rejuvenate the soil, you’re less likely to grow all the lovely flowers that make it look nice.
It’s a clumsy analogy but it just about works!
What are Alpha Hydroxy Acids (AHAs)?
They sound aggressive.
AHAs are a group of exfoliating compounds that are commonly used in chemical peels to treat skin with signs of ageing. They’re commonly found in citrus fruits, milk, fermented vegetables, apples, grapes…
And, you guessed it, rooibos!
AHAs work by removing dead skin cells on the surface of the skin that makes it appear aged and sun damaged.
They loosen the substances that bond the dead skin cells to the surface of newer cells, allowing the dead skin to peel away gently.
The skin underneath looks fresher, healthier and has more texture to it.
Rooibos contains small amounts of Lactic and Glycolic acid when compared to commercial chemical peels on the market meaning it can be used topically more regularly without risk of irritation.
So if you’ve got an extra few bags in the back of your pantry, why not use them to mix up a home made concoction that will brighten up your face that may or may not have been ravaged by Old Father Time, the rascal.
DIY Chanui rooibos toner - Coming soon to a chemist near you
With all this knowledge at your disposal, it’s time to put it into practice and make a toner that will make you feel like some kind of apothecary wizard.
This easy-to-make recipe uses ingredients that are easy to get hold of and leave you with a product that won’t cost you an arm and a leg.
Steep 1-2 rooibos teabags in 1 cup of boiling water for 5-10 minutes to give enough time for a full extraction into the water.
Let it cool completely, or chill in the fridge for 20-30 minutes.
If you have some, mix in 1 teaspoon of aloe vera gel and a few drops of essential oils like lavender or birch.
Pour the mixture into a clean spray or dropper bottle and store in the fridge. It should last around a week.
Use it by spritzing on your skin or applying with a cotton pad after cleansing.
Final step: Look absolutely fabulous and shake a fist at OFT.
Final thoughts:
If you’re looking to fight the signs of aging, soothe irritated skin or simply enjoy the process of giving your face a bit of a glow-up, rooibos is a delicious, inexpensive and all natural place to start.
It should go without saying that it’s not going to be a cure all for a life of welding without a mask in a sunny country without any sunscreen while never drinking enough water and washing your face only when the moon is full…
But there is a lot of evidence to suggest that incorporating it into your daily routine could leave you with a brighter and tighter face to share with the world.
Certainly worth a try!