Tea Can Make You More Beautiful

Kendall Jenner says she made it through New York Fashion Week by drinking 12 cups of Kusmi Detox Tea a day. And while it seems weight loss was the main goal, it got us thinking: what else can tea do to make us look and feel more beautiful?

Obviously, we don’t expect to transform into a supermodel by simply chugging tea, but there are plenty of benefits to steeping dried flowers and herbs in your hot water. To find out what, we asked experts to tell us which types of tea we should have in our tea cups.

GREEN TEA

Now this is a bit of an obvious choice as green tea is often talked about for it’s health benefits, but we would be remiss not to mention it. “Green tea stimulates your metabolism, [it] can help with weight loss, [it] contains beneficial antioxidants for your skin and heart health and is safe to drink daily,” says nutritionist Lisa De Fazio. “The anti-aging and anti-inflammatory effects of green tea may delay signs of skin aging, such as sun damage and wrinkles.”

But there’s a way to step up your green tea game. It’s called matcha powder. “With matcha, a powdered green tea, you ingest the whole thing versus straining the leaves. Matcha has even more antioxidants than regular green tea,” says New York dietician Lauren Slayton.

OOLONG TEA

And while green tea takes the prize for the most antioxidant packed tea, oolong tea comes in at a close second. That doesn’t make it second-best though. Oolong comes with it’s own set of weight-loss benefits because it activates an enzyme that dissolves triglycerides, a type of fat that’s stored in fat cells. In fact, a study from the Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center found that Chinese women who drank four cups of oolong tea per day lost a little more than two pounds over a six-week period. That might not seem like a lot, but imagine what that can do when paired with a healthy diet and exercise. Boom! Catwalk, here we come.

ROOIBOS TEA

Next up, rooibos tea. “Rooibos tea contains both a powerful antioxidant, which is thought to slow aging, and quercetin, which is believed to have potent anti-inflammatory properties,” says De Fazio. “Due to this, the Japanese promote it as an ‘anti-aging tea.’”

Rooibos aids in skincare because it’s great for eczema and dry, itchy skin. “Drinking it and applying it topically has shown to help with dry skin and acne, likely due to the flavanoids in the rooibos,” says Slayton. That makes it perfect to sip on, while you pack on your face creams.

WHITE TEA

Now, another anti-aging choice is white tea. It’s one of the least processed types of tea out there, so you get more of the beneficial nutrients. A 2009 study found that extracts in white tea strenghthened elastin and collagen, which minimized wrinkles and fine lines.

But the benefits of white tea don’t stop at the skin, another study published in the Journal of Nutrition & Metabolism found that it can block the formation of fat cells and even speed up the fat-burning process.

Now, drink up. There’s no excuse for you NOT to drink your favorite tea, and add some new ones to your list. Below are some we’re trying. Enjoy!