Black Tea: Who Needs It?
It’s tea time
When I hear “black tea”, I picture a very fancy person sitting ramrod straight, knees pressed together, saucer balanced carefully in one hand - teacup raised to their lips by a dainty hand (pinky out of course).
I think of it as a drink of refinery, maturity, and focus. It has enough caffeine to keep you on track but not so much as to make you feel jittery.
So that’s all for drinking black tea. What about applying it to your skin?
Rethink your drink
Black tea has become an increasingly popular skincare ingredient, known especially for its antioxidant and anti-ageing properties. INNISFREE’s black tea products use fermented Beauty Green Tea, which keeps it high in theabrownin, which is responsible for those properties.
You want antioxidants in your diet and in your skincare to help protect you against harmful free radicals (the reactive molecules responsible for creating oxidative stress). But who exactly is in extra need of this kind of TLC?
The Night Owl
This one goes out to our friends who love to burn the midnight oil - or even those of us who enjoy the occasional bout of revenge bedtime. The unfortunate truth of the matter is that nighttime is when our bodies do a lot of their maintenance work. This is healing and recovery time, and when we keep ourselves up by doom scrolling on TikTok or Reels or finishing the project we put off to the last possible second, we’re denying our cells that recovery.
The Late Adopter
If you’re just getting into skincare, you might be surprised to learn that you’re supposed to start using anti-ageing skincare before you deal with signs of ageing.
The way anti-ageing products work is more like a prolonging than a reversal. In the same way overexposure to UV rays can artificially speed up the process of ageing, an anti-ageing routine slows it down - keeping your skin looking and feeling more youthful for much longer. The sooner you start, the better your results are likely to be.
The “Yes” Man
It’s hard to say “no” sometimes, but this one’s for our friends who find it hard to say “no” all the time. It’s lovely to help people, but without boundaries, it can come at the expense of our health and our visage. A black tea-imbued product can help offset some of the signs of tiredness, like dullness, blotchiness, and fine lines and wrinkles, to tide you over while you figure out how to balance your obligations.
But Gi, I thought green tea has antioxidants as well.
And if that’s what you’re thinking, you’re absolutely right - and if you’re interested in a more direct comparison, we’ve got one for you here. The long story short is that it’s the fermentation process of black tea that brings about those powerful and effective anti-aging effects.
And whether you’re looking to speed up your skin cell turnover with the Black Tea Youth Enhancing Treatment Essence or to do some deeper moisturizing with the Black Tea Youth Enhancing Ampoule, or even a little bit of both - INNISFREE has got your back.
Even if you don’t currently fall into any of the aforementioned categories, there’s still room for you at the table! Personally, I’m a fan of capping my day with anti-ageing products: essence, ampoule, and eye cream all-inclusive. I enjoy the knowledge that my skincare routine is doing all that good work while I catch my z’s.
So whether you’re winding down with a lovely soak in black tea (like me) or sipping on a brew as the sun rises, there’s a lot to be said for this effective elixir.
x
Gi