Matcha is a hot new trend in clean beauty and skincare. Matcha reports that the demand for tea-based skincare products is on the rise, and the global tea-based skincare product market is forecast to be over $534 million in the next year, with natural beauty products boosting sales 8.7% compound annual growth rate. By 2032, the tea-based cosmetics market is projected to reach $1.2 billion.
What are the benefits of matcha in your skincare routine? And, as impressive as those natural beauty product sales numbers are, can matcha be made more sustainable? Here’s what’s going on with the matcha skincare trend, and where you can score some great clean beauty products to make your skincare routine more sustainable.
Related: Matcha provides wellness for your health and others
What are the benefits of matcha for your skin?
Matcha’s chlorophyll content can help to reduce the skin’s inflammation and redness. Matcha is known for its ability to detoxify skin, which can help remove dirt and impurities to help you achieve a glowing complexion.
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Here’s how it works. Matcha is a finely ground green tea powder made from tea leaves. This type of tea has a high amount of antioxidants in it, which helps fight free radicals in the body and reduce inflammation. The chlorophyll in matcha helps cleanse the skin by drawing out impurities. Nutritents in matcha also help protect skin from sun damage. Matcha contains methylxanthines, which help with microcirculation in the skin and improve your skin health and appearance for a more radiant look.
By protecting against free radicals, matcha can help protect the skin from premature aging from sun exposure. Matcha is different from normal green tea because green tea is strained so the leaves are not consumed. With matcha, you are consuming the leaf in a ground up form or putting it on your skin, which transfers more nutrients and antioxidants to your body. When it comes to your skin, this means more vitamins and minerals being absorbed into your skin to fight free radicals and keep cells healthy.
Because matcha reduces inflammation, it can help with conditions like acne or irritated inflamed skin. The Australian website Zen Green Tea also states that matcha is an excellent ingredient for skincare products because it is antibacterial and contains high levels of EGCG or epigallocatechin gallate, which evens skin tone and reduces inflammation and redness. Antioxidants in matcha also help increase skin elasticity. The ingredient is also being used in shampoos and haircare products because it has shown signs of reducing certain types of hair loss.
How to make matcha sustainable
It sounds like the fountain of youth, but is matcha skincare sustainable? And how do you know you’re getting a high quality product? Matcha has a complex rendering process compared with some other teas, which means it requires some extra handling. That can make a final skincare product with matcha in it a bit more expensive. But matcha, like other forms of tea, is usually grown in a relatively sustainable way, and it’s easy and quick as a resource that can be replenished, as opposed to using the bark or extract of a rare and slow-growing tree. You can look for the following indicators to tell if you are getting your money’s worth, and if the product is also sustainable and healthy for the planet:
- Organic ingredients
- Natural ingredients you can pronounce
- No extra preservatives, dyes, artificial fragrances or petroleum products
- Reusable packaging or manufacturer recycling program
- Carbon offset program or other charitable work such as tree planting for each product sold
- A business plan for a clean future
- Third-party certified as sustainable or as a B Corp
One way to tell if a company is greenwashing their matcha skincare is to look at the entire list of ingredients to make sure matcha isn’t the only natural ingredient. Also, companies with a mission to do well by the planet have their plans explained on their website, so if you want to know your matcha skincare is sustainable, check out the company’s website that made the product and see what they’re up to.
Best sustainable matcha skincare brands
What are some brands using matcha in their formula? Here are some sustainable matcha skincare brands to check out.
Kitao Matcha
Kitao Matcha skincare is ethically sourced from Kyoto, cruelty free and full of great natural ingredients. They’ve been around since 1919, and have a wide range of products like masks, enzyme cleansers and lotions to choose from.
Rowse Matcha
Rowse makes an organic matcha powder you can use as a facial mask. It’s sold by Rogue, where you can search for multiple types of clean beauty products.
Tata Harper Skincare
Tata Harper makes a high-end matcha skincare line with natural ingredients like chamomile added in. Choose from cleansers, masks and lotions from their Reactive Skin Essentials line.
Ikeda Matcha
Want to buy matcha and make your own products? Ikeda Matcha sells in bulk. This matcha is sourced from Kagoshima Japan and is grown certified organic for use in foods, tea and industrial products.
Lead image via Pexels
