Rooibos tea, the fascinating South-African herbal red tea has many things going for it these days. Rooibos is packed with numerous anti-oxidants, some of which are quite rare like aspalathin and nothofagin, and is also condensed with rich variety of minerals.
Because of it being caffeine-free it has understandably become a rather popular choice for healthy tea lovers nowadays.
The various health benefits of Rooibos, ranging from treating malignant tumours to strengthening your bones, are still being studied, but many of the claims that rooibos is beneficial for the health are backed with solid evidence behind them.
Now for our own purposes this raises the question… If rooibos tea supposedly has the potential to fight against cancer and other difficult ailments, surely rooibos can in some way or another help when it comes to skin care like eczema, rashes and acne?
The answer is yes or at least “very likely”, rooibos tea can indeed prove to be helpful for your skin and/or your possible case of acne.
In this article I’ll go through why exactly rooibos can be good for your skin and a couple of the main ways of how you can go about using rooibos for precisely this purpose.
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How and why does it work?
The short answer is rooibos works mainly because of the richness in anti-oxidants, vitamin D and a big array of minerals (zinc, manganese, calcium, magnesium and more) present in the tea.
Rooibos is filled with goodies, understood!
Here is where it gets interesting: Rooibos also contains unique and rare powerful anti-oxidants that can only be found in rooibos and maybe a couple few other rare plants.
Now two of the most notable anti-oxidants were already mentioned earlier, namely aspalathin and nothofagin. Both of which have had proven anti-viral, anti-fungal and anti-bacterial qualities, which furthermore increases its likelihood for being effective for optimal skin.
So what about acne?
While we’re on the topic of anti-oxidants it should be mentioned that rooibos red tea also contains other anti-oxidants that have anti-inflammatory properties, which is especially good for people with irritated skin or acne.
A study done in 2009 reported that wister rats given rooibos showed reduced levels of inflammation and less DNA damage compared to the control group of rats only given water.
Because of the important role that inflammation plays in acne vulgaris, it being one of the four main causes of acne, makes this specific anti-inflammatory aspect all the more important to highlight.
Rooibos may not be able to address all of these four main causes of acne, but it may just as well address one specifically and effectively, which can make it a viable option and complementary way of treating acne.
Rooibos vs wrinkles
According to a 2010 study that followed 20 women for four weeks investigated the efficacy of a couple different herbal flavonoids. Rooibos happened to come up on top when it came to wrinkle reduction (9.9% reduction).
This result was achieved most likely because of the anti-aging effects of the anti-oxidants, most notably alpha hydroxy acid and the enzyme superoxide dismutase, both of which is found in rooibos.
Rooibos manages somehow to effectively neutralize those nasty so called free radicals, which are the main bad guys responsible for causing wrinkles.
if you are a beauty freak, it doesn’t hurt to give this red tea a try!
How to use rooibos tea for healthy skin?
There are 2 main ways you can go about using, this almost hyped up by now, rooibos tea for your skin:
1: Drink it up!
The first way is kinda obvious, you drink it!
A couple of cups of rooibos a day 3-5 should keep your skin healthy and pretty, about 2-3 cups if you’re pregnant!
In its liquid drinkable form, as previously mentioned, there are quite many benefits to this south-african red bush tea. Its safe to say that for skin and beauty purposes all those anti- things, anti-viral, anti-inflammatory, anti-this, anti-that should have some positive effects for you!
2: Apply the tea on your face
I think we can all agree that drinking this tasty red tea is great and easy, however another good way you can use rooibos for healthier skin is to apply it topically on your face. In doing so you allow the pores of your skin to naturally absorb the minerals and nutrient rich content of the tea.
You can go about this by either by taking tea bags and applying them directly onto your skin, or you can boil a gram or two of loose rooibos and use it gently on the surface on your skin.
Try to target irritated parts most but also more gently.
3: Use products with rooibos extract
This third way of putting rooibos to great use isn’t much different from the second, it differs only that you use manufactured creams, scrubs, lotions infused with rooibos extracts instead of the real thing.
There seems to be quite a lot of products on the market place nowadays, which isn’t that shocking, considering the discoveries that have been and still are being made when it comes to the skin benefits of rooibos.
African Extracts seems to be a legitimate website which has its whole brand dedicated to rooibos.
Other ways of using rooibos
- Shower scrub: If you have rooibos in tea bags you could try using them as a shower scrub that you can gently rub back and forth on your body.
- Face wash: You can wash your face with rooibos tea. How? Well simply by boiling a couple cups of water and adding two teabags. When the red tea cools down to lukewarm you can then wash your face smoothly and gently.
- Body wash: Boil water and add 2-4 grams of organic rooibos, then proceed by adding this water to your bath and let it infuse the water. Now step in and enjoy.
- Eye pads: Lastly, you could also use the tea bags as eye pads like you would do sliced cucumbers for wrinkle reduction and other potential benefits.
Conclusion
To get the maximum of benefits for your skin you could go for both drinking and applying it topically on your face.
Whether you choose to go with the real thing or extracts is up to you, try them out and see what works for you.
Having said that, it seems that rooibos tea never stops surprising me when it comes to its diverse uses, just when I thought I knew what it was all about something new just pops up and catches me off-guard.
The benefits are truly quite numerous when it comes to this south african red bush tea.
Did it work for you? Or did nothing happen?
Feel absolutely free to share your own experiences below!
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