3 Herbal Tea Recipes Based on Your Skin Type

The skin’s main function is to be a living, breathing barrier between our internal and external environments. It's the last organ to receive nutrients from the bloodstream and our first line of defense for external pathogens — this means it’s really important to nourish ourselves effectively to make sure that our nutrients reach all the way out to our skin.

From The Inside Out

At Annmarie Skin Care, we do make skincare that supports your skin's natural defenses , but that leaves the other half of the equation up to internal maintenance .

I’m constantly recommending that my clients, friends, and family drink herbal teas because it is the best and safest medicine for maintaining health over time. Consistent tea drinking gives your body what it needs in doses that it can handle.

Teas are a really wonderful way to boost your body’s hydration, and because we’re made of 65-80 percent water, the constituents that hot (and cold) water pulls out of the herbs are really absorbable for us.

Youthful Skin Tea Blends

The loveliest thing about herbs is how versatile they are. Most herbs have a myriad of actions associated with them, so it isn’t hard to come up with a tasty blend that does a lot of good in your body. We’re always looking for ways to keep our skin glowing and youthful and a good tea blend can offer us some really beautiful results!

When you’re creating a herbal tea blend (or any kind of herbal formula) you always want to look at what your goal is and what issues might be standing in the way of that goal. It might be obvious, but when the goal is ‘youthful skin’ you want to work to counter the causes of aging.

Reducing the Appearance of Aging

There’s no way to slow down time, so let’s think about aging in a different way. As we age our DNA is changed and damaged by natural wear and tear. We breathe oxygen to live, so we are literally oxidizing our bodies every time we take a breath.

Our cells are fed by glucose, so our body breaks down our nutrients into sugars. Though many of us consume too much sugar — and that's something we can work on — glycation is a natural part of the living process.

Stress is also a natural part of our lives — without a bit of stress we would have a hard time accomplishing our goals. Over time, stress hormones and especially excess stress are considered to have a negative effect on us — yet again, it’s another part of aging.

Since we know the actions of herbs through the knowledge that has been passed down through the ages and (very recently) through scientifically breaking down plants into their constituents, we’re able to directly reduce the look of aging on the skin.

But let’s go a little bit deeper and create some tasty, youthful skin teas based on skin type.

Youthful Skin Teas Based on Skin Type

When you’re making a tea for daily use, you want to work with gentle tonic herbs that will help bring your skin into balance rather than a tea blend that will push your skin in the opposite direction.

Additionally, I ascribe to the traditional way to drink tea — I suggest steeping tea 2-3 times before throwing out your herbs. This will make sure that you’re getting all of the nutrients out of your herbs (some take longer to be released), you’ll have more water in your body, and your blend will last much longer.

I suggest supporting your local herb store for your tea blend. Here are 3 blends to try:

Youthful Skin Tea For Oily Skin

If you’re experiencing oily skin, you want to add herbs that will help balance out your skin. Cleansing and cooling herbs are helpful and great creating balance in the whole system.

Equal parts: Steep 2-3 times.

• Lemon balm
• Yarrow
• Burdock root
• Hibiscus
• Tulsi

Youthful Skin Tea For Dry Skin

What you’re experiencing on the outside of the body is really indicative to what’s happening internally. If you have dry skin externally, I always add juicy herbs to help support to the skin.

Equal parts: Steep 2-3 times

• Marshmallow root
• Alfalfa
• Vervain
• Rosehips
• Ashwagandha

Keep It Balanced! Youthful Skin Tea For Combination Skin

Combination skin is the most difficult to work with externally, but internal skin work is all about balance! We want to focus on nutrients and minerals to help feed the skin so that it can balance itself.

Equal parts: Steep 2-3 times

• Dandelion root
• Nettle leaf
• Burdock root
• Chamomile
• Schizandra Berries

A Note From Food Matters...

We've continued to work with Annmarie Skin Care for years now, we love their brand and the organic and natural products that they create. If you would like to check out their Youthful Skin Tea Blend and special offers just for the Food Matters Community head here.