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/conten...00005/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
---
Lew Perin /
http://www.panix.com/~perin/babelcarp.html

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

>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/conten...00005/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
>---
>Lew Perin /
>http://www.panix.com/~perin/babelcarp.html

You could develop a spa for wealthy people with skin problems, like
wrinkles. Your spa might offer hot tubs with tea, in which the patron
meditates without moving for some time, like 30 minutes to begin with.
Put about one pound of tea in 100 degree f. water.

The sales pitch might mention things like relaxation and meditation,
with the suggestion that positive thought will aid in wholeness. This
might be integrated with some Chinese medicine practices, such as
acupuncture and massage. I suggest that background music and aroma be
part of the sensual experience. It wouldn't hurt to suggest that the
tea works as a medium stimulating release of negative energy and
stress, then facilitating positive and relaxed outlook. Some of the
properties in tea no doubt are useful in cleaning the skin.

bookburn

On Jun 29, 10:42 am, Lewis Perin > wrote:
> 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/conten...0156/00000005/...
>
> 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
> ---
> Lew Perin /

Tea-On, Apply directly to the wrinkles. Tea-On, Apply directly to the
wrinkles. Tea-On, Apply directly to the wrinkles.

You can have that bit of marketing from me to you for free.

I'm certainly not into the skincare thing, but I will admit my
unnatural love for Anthony (for men) "product." I think the scents are
generally citrus-y. The only other marketing/product design I
immediately had was a lotion/creme including tea and cucumbers...
kinda like an English tea and finger sandwich angle. I do know that
emu oil really penetrates the skin well, but I have no idea if it is
good for the face.

I've heard bathing in tea is good, but I'm always afraid it would
stain either myself or the tub. A good book for info is Teany's book
by Moby, it has a whole bunch about eye masks, etc. using tea.

- Dominic
(no more off topic than my request for noodle info, and it seems like
a smart idea... I apparently know more than I thought about skincare
as well which is slightly worrying

> 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?

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.

Ok, I tried the cream thing once - and it worked pretty good. Foot
soaks have done too. Also works good.
Fuzhou has a store where you can walk in - and create your own
cosmetics - for a fraction of the price of store bought stuff.
And in China they got foot massage places all over the place. The (for
men) female, (for women) male attendants massage your shoulders and
neck while your feet are soaking in the tub - except they use some
kind of Chinese herbal medicine - not tea. Then, they remove the tub
and start massaging feet and legs. Hurts a lot though. A session
lasts about 45 minutes. And it costs like 45 or 60 yuan.

On Jun 29, 10:42*pm, Lewis Perin > wrote:
> 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.
>
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
properties. Studies conducted by our group on human skin have
demonstrated that green tea polyphenols (GTP) prevent ultraviolet (UV)-
B…-induced immune suppression and skin cancer induction.” Green tea
and the other teas (e.g., white tea, which is what green tea begins
as) show a good deal of promise for skin, but they are not the miracle
that cosmetics and health food companies make them out to be. As the
Annual Review of Pharmacology and Toxicology (January 2002, pages 25–
54) put it, “Tea has received a great deal of attention because tea
polyphenols are strong antioxidants, and tea preparations have
inhibitory activity against tumorigenesis. The bioavailability and
biotransformation of tea polyphenols, however, are key factors
limiting these activities in vivo [in humans]. Epidemiological studies
… have not yielded clear conclusions concerning the protective effects
of tea consumption against cancer formation in humans.”

Most researchers agree that tea (black, green, or white) has potent
anti-inflammatory properties and that it is a potent antioxidant.
Current research also indicates that epigallocatechin-3-gallate
(EGCG), an extract of tea, can prevent collagen breakdown and reduce
UV damage to skin (Source: Journal of Dermatological Science, December
2005, pages 195–204)." Unquote.

kevo

Kevo > writes:

> On Jun 29, 10:42*pm, Lewis Perin > wrote:
> > 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.
> >
> Ever wonder how I look not like my age?

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

> [...]
> However, the effectiveness of tea as a cosmetic product is still
> debatable...
> [...polyphenols aren't necessarily bioavailable in skin...]

OK, but I was thinking of the caffeine.

/Lew
---
Lew Perin /
http://www.panix.com/~perin/babelcarp.html

On Jun 29, 7:42*am, Lewis Perin > wrote:
> 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/conten...0156/00000005/....
>
> 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
> ---
> Lew Perin /

beeswax and avocado oil
beeswax and coconut oil
beeswax and apricot kernel oil
beeswax and lanolin
sugar/salt and avocado oil for bath scrub

Lewis Perin wrote:
> 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/conten...00005/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
> ---
> Lew Perin /
> http://www.panix.com/~perin/babelcarp.html


FWIW, my previous dermatologist didn't like lotions or oils or anything
like that at all, he said none of it actually moisturizes or penetrates
the skin. Water does hydrate, and then putting some sort of cream on top
of that (he actually preferred petroleum jelly over other things with
more "stuff" in them) kept the hydration in longer.

Lanolin can cause skin rashes in susceptible people. Personally, being a
sensitive-skin person, the more absolutely basic and non-formalin
forming the better. If I wash my face with tea (which I have thought
about doing more as an astringent and bacteria-killing option than any
penetrative result) I just steep some old green tea bags in hot water
and rinse my face with them, no fussing. If you really want a base cream
you could try the base that goes into most creams which is somthing like
white petrolatum possibly mixed with mineral oil. If you want something
less petroleum-originated, my first choice would be almond oil, but it
won't penetrate, if my dermatologist was correct, and it probably somes
off easier than a white petroleum base. What would penetrate I am
guessing would be soaking the skin in water containing the tea (or
caffeine, but really I don't know what the skin uptake of caffeine is,
so that might be a problem for people who are caffeine sensitive) and
then after the skin has been hydrated with the tea-containing water,
"sealing" it in with an oil or petroleum cream of some sort.

So in sum I guess I see two modes of possible "delivery", a white
petroleum cream base like what goes into, for instance, hydrocortisone
creams on the shelf, or using a water bath and then sealing it in. This
is all total brainstorming on my part though, I'm not a doctor or an
herbal practitioner or anything but a tea drinker and person who's skin
is very sensitive to lots of things unfortunately. If you were to pursue
this I'd first find out what the uptake of caffeine is through the skin,
that might be a serious problem if the caffeine were concentrated and if
it permeated the skin quickly.

Melinda

On Jul 2, 7:54*am, Melinda > wrote:
> If you were to pursue
> this I'd first find out what the uptake of caffeine is through the skin,
> that might be a serious problem if the caffeine were concentrated and if
> it permeated the skin quickly.
>
> Melinda

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." > wrote:
> On Jul 2, 7:54*am, Melinda > wrote:
>
> > If you were to pursue
> > this I'd first find out what the uptake of caffeine is through the skin,
> > that might be a serious problem if the caffeine were concentrated and if
> > it permeated the skin quickly.
>
> > Melinda
>
> 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

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