Surprising Uses For Green Tea

Green tea, I can’t praise that stuff enough. It’s delicious, invigorating, and so, so good for you! And not just for drinking. Green tea has many more uses that you may never have considered before. I’d like to share a couple of surprising uses for green tea with you that will make you reap many more benefits from this amazing plant.

After Sun

Green tea has anti-inflammatory properties which help to soothe sensitive skin after being exposed to the sun, and helps to reduce redness in case you’ve been out in the sun for a little bit too long. Green tea is also said to protect from UV-damage. It doesn’t block out UV rays, but it helps regenerate exposed skin cells.

Brew a strong green tea and allow it to cool down to room temperature. You can place it in the fridge to speed up the process. Soak a cloth in the tea and place the wet cloth on your skin for a few minutes to allow it to soak up all the tea goodness.

Foot Bath

Green tea has anti-fungal and anti-bacterial properties, which makes it a great ingredient to use in a foot bath. It will help the skin on your feet to stay healthy, and it also absorbs odours, helping you to get rid of any nasty foot smells.

Brew a strong green tea, allow it to cool down to a pleasant temperature and pour it into a tub to soak your feet in for 10-15 minutes. You could also add epsom salt for extra health benefits.

Face Mask

Green tea is a perfect ingredient to use in a face mask. It contains chemicals that can reduce the size of organic matter, which will effectively tighten and depuff the skin, and prevent premature wrinkles. The antioxidants in the tea provide a deep cleanse, and if you use powdered tea, it can also act as a mild exfoliant.

I have a DIY green tea face mask recipe here that you can check out, but you can also just soak a cloth in cold green tea and place it over your face for 10-15 minutes. If you put a couple of used green tea bags in the fridge, you can use them in the morning to reduce puffiness underneath the eyes. Just place them on your under-eye area for a couple of minutes!

Health Booster

Tea has been believed to be great for overall health for centuries in Asia, but more recently we’ve adopted it as a disease preventer in the Western world as well. Green tea is believed to lower the risk of getting certain forms of cancer, diabetes, and other diseases. It’s even been said that drinking green tea regularly helps you live longer. Since it’s loaded with antioxidants, it definitely helps keep your body healthy by preventing the formation of free radicals.

To fully reap the health benefits of green tea, it’s recommended you drink at least 3 cups a day.

Brain Booster

Green tea contains small amounts of caffeine, which stimulates the brain and improves its functions, without the negative side effects you can sometimes experience when drinking coffee (I know I do, coffee makes me very hyper and shaky!). Green tea also contains an amino acid which increases dopamine production. Combined with the amounts of caffeine small enough to be effective but not too much, tea is a natural brain and happiness booster.

Acne Treatment

The anti-bacterial properties that make green tea a great foot bath ingredient, are also effective against acne. Especially combined with the anti-inflammatory properties and tea’s ability to reduce puffiness and redness, you should slowly see improvements in acne when you apply green tea to it regularly.

Either soak a cloth in strong, cold green tea and apply onto problem areas, or use green tea in the form of a face mask.

As if we needed more reasons to love tea! I’m a fan of anything that’s natural, tasty, and has loads of health and beauty benefits, and tea is way up there with my ultimate favourites.