A good day, for many, starts and ends with tea. An early cup to help ease into the morning; a pick-me-up mid-afternoon; a tipple after dinner; a soothing sip to wind down before bed: They’re all part of a tea lover’s lifestyle. But what if there’s more to tea than simply brewing a beverage? At The Daily Tea, we’ve been drinking tea for years, and our love and passion for the leaf still drives us to find unique uses for tea. After being told time and again just how healthy tea is for us, a light suddenly went on: It was time to take the next step and nourish our bodies from the outside with DIY Tea Scrubs.
And so tea became part of our everyday bath and beauty rituals. Incorporating tea into your own routine is easier than you’d think—and you can even make some DIY Tea Scrubs at home in your kitchen.
The Daily Tea spoke with Rachana (Rachel) Carter, an avid tea enthusiast and founder of iHeartTeas, a line of decadent tea-infused bath and body products, to find out more about using tea in at-home spa treatments. She even shared a few recipes with us!
How are tea-infused soaks and scrubs made?
The easiest way you can use tea in the bath is in its loose-leaf form. It’s a simple first step to including tea into your beauty regimen. Beyond that, in many bath and beauty treatments, loose-leaf tea can be added along with natural extracts, essential oils, and fragrances. Blended right, they all come together into healthful and rejuvenating options for when it’s time to relax.
How do you choose what ingredients go into your products?
When selecting ingredients, consider the product you’re making. For example, in a salt scrub, you would need to add a naturally exfoliating tea to enhance the scrubbing action. Select a hardy tea, one that would stand up to the addition of oils and salt. A great tea choice would be a CTC (“Crush, Tear, Curl,” a finely processed, broken black tea), such as an Irish Breakfast, not a sencha, which is likely to lose its texture when blended into oils. Be sure to use tea leaves that are more rounded, or even crushed, in order to avoid sharp pieces—you wouldn’t want to get scratched.
What are some of the benefits of using tea in your pampering routine?
Many of us use tea as a natural way to calm and relax the mind. Building from that principle, we can also use tea to enhance our natural beauty and calm. Start with a great tea, then add nourishing butters, oils, and extracts to feed the body. Don’t forget to notice scent! Using aromatherapy and naturally beneficial oils, you can heighten your relaxation and strengthen the connection between mind and body. While tea may offer potent antioxidant benefits, it’s also so much more than that: You can achieve daily balance through peace, happiness, and tea!
Download DIY Tea Scrub Recipes: Irish Breakfast Salt Scrub & Matcha Sugar Scrub
Rachel Carter is the proprietress of iHeartTeas, makers of fine tea-infused bath and body products. Visit www.iheartteas.com for her scrubs, lip balms, soaks and more, and to follow her blog!
-note that this post was originally shared in September of 2013-
