If you've been at a tea party with me recently, you have heard me mention how tea is being used more and more in beauty products (neutraceutical). The antioxidants make it an obvious choice for manufacturers touting the anti-aging properties of their product.
We were away this past weekend and I had 2 neutraceutical white tea spottings while we were gone. The first spotting was while we were visiting our brother-and-sister-in-law up in Peterborough, where I spotted a shampoo that contains white tea. No, I am not the type to snoop through vanities and medicine cabinets while in the bathroom! While I made use of the shower, I couldn't help but notice their shampoo, which was on a shelf at eye level, with it's back side facing me. Coming from a health food store, it had its glorious all-natural ingredients listed. After the water and botanical cleansing ingredients, camellia sinensis (white tea extract) was the next ingredient listed. I wish I could remember the brand name, or had taken a photo of the product to show you, because the ingredients were really good, and with how high the white tea appeared on the list, it was possible that there was enough of the tea in the product to do some good.
The second was a surprising spotting. We stopped for dinner on the way home and the restaurant bathroom had Soft Soap liquid soap and one container was labelled White Tea & Ginger. I was skeptical that this contained anything that was really tea, and thought I'd just find some synthetic fragrance product. But after an extremely long, challenging list of ingredients (have you ever tried pronouncing those chemistry-infused names), camellia sinensis did show up on the list of ingredients.
What to make of it? Does it really matter anyway? Well, as a tea afficiondo and tea party consultant, I sure found it interesting. The high polyphenol content of white tea would have some effect in countering free-radical damage caused by the sun, perhaps. But what quantity used on our skin or hair would be considered effective? And, in the instance of a commercially well-known product with a long list of hard to pronounce chemistry-based ingredients, such as those I saw listed on Soft Soap, would the healthful benefits of an ingredient like white tea, be countered by the ingredients listed higher on the list? I am not about to accuse Soft Soap or any other soap manufactured by the well-known companies (Colgate-Palmolive, Proctor & Gamble) of being harmful, but I will suggest that you check out this link, check out the ingredients of some of the products you use around your home, and then decide for yourself. Just leaving you with something to think about today...
Meantime, enjoy a cup of white tea, and rest easy knowing that it is indeed, a truly healthful choice!
