I'm considering a small (amateur) cosmetics manufacturing project and
looking for - no, not investors! - just advice. I'm asking for it
here because I'm less likely to be laughed at on this newsgroup than
somewhere else.

I can explain...

People who fitfully follow the research on the relationship between
tea and health probably have heard murmurs about beneficial effects of
tea applied directly to the skin. It's starting to look as if the
active ingredient isn't theanine or polyphenols but good old caffeine:

http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/bsc/bjd/2007/00000156/00000005/art00023

I have tea leaves I'll never brew and drink, so I'm thinking it might
be interesting to boil them down to a concentrate and combine them
with something - what? - so the result would sink into the skin and
stay there. Does anyone have some advice?

/Lew

On 29 Jun 2008 10:42:59 -0400, Lewis Perin panix.com> wrote:

On Jun 29, 10:42 am, Lewis Perin panix.com> wrote:

If you have green tea leaves, use a coffee grinder and grind them down
to a fine powder. Get some white skin cream lotion and mix the tea
powder into the lotion. Use a wooden spatual to mix. Put it into small
squeeze bottles for later use. If you go to a cosmetics wholesaler,
you can probably find kind of cream suitable - that doesn't have too
much other stuff in it. Lanolin cream is pretty good.

The only problem though, is you have to strain the resulting tea
powder through a fine sieve - there will still be some big chunks left
in there. And the sieved powder won't be as fine as matcha. Maybe a
blender would work better. I don't know. I haven't tried it.

If you have black tea, oolong tea - also grind that up into a powder.
Put the powder into small individual packets (like 2-3 teaspoons) per
packet. Add this powdered tea to a large tub of hot steaming water.
Let it steep a minute, and dunk feet and legs in. Makes a good foot
soak to rest weary feet, and gets rid of vile odor too.

On Jun 29, 10:42 pm, Lewis Perin panix.com> wrote:

Ever wonder how I look not like my age?
:"P
White tea and green tea has been added to cosmetic for quite some time
now. Origins has a white tea range called Perfect World, Bvlgari adds
it to their cosmetic and perfume range...

Extract of tea would be the advisable way to go, or make a tincture of
it - these things do not last very long, at most 1 week in the
refrigerator. I find it easier to make a thick infusion of it, and add
a little of it to kaolin when I make a mask, and use the rest as a
final rinse.

However, the effectiveness of tea as a cosmetic product is still
debatable...

Quote: "The Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology (December 31,
2001) stated that the polyphenols “are the active ingredients in green
tea and possess antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anticarcinogenic...

Kevo gmail.com> writes:

Yes, but until now I assumed it was clean living.

OK, but I was thinking of the caffeine.

/Lew

On Jun 29, 7:42 am, Lewis Perin panix.com> wrote:

Lewis Perin wrote:

On Jul 2, 7:54 am, Melinda wrote:

Wow, actually you may have hit on something there... it would be like
Red Bull lotion. No drinking anything, no calories, and be wired for
the day. Again, "Tea-on apply directly to the skin" x3.

- Dominic

On Jul 2, 11:22 am, "Dominic T." gmail.com> wrote:

i think a company made soaps that had caffeine in them ... for a
morning *hit*