410 replies to this topic

[gingergirl22]

I just wanted to report some results with this toner. My son has a pretty bad case of acne, although not cystic. He has been using this toner for a week now, although I cannot get him to use it twice a day. He is showering each morning, only rinsing his face with water, and at night he applies the toner with a cotton ball. Before starting he had about 5 large whiteheads and dozens of various sized pimples (could be 50 or so). His whiteheads dried up within days and there are no new breakouts. His skin appears less oily than usual and it has a nice even tone to it and has never looked better since his acne appeared 3 years ago. Can't help but wonder what the results would be if he applied it twice a day. ofg - I'm just so glad you shared this!

[onefatalgoose]

Also if anyone is sensitive to caffeine, i'd stick to decaf green tea. It still gets absorbed through the skin, so just a heads up. If you're not sure if you're sensitive to caffeine, basically if you notice you're having trouble falling asleep or getting deep sleep, or if your heart starts feeling weird, i'd avoid it. On many occasion i've had too many cups of green tea in the span of a few days and noticed these symptoms. But everyone's different

[epicdermis]

What do you think of adding lemon juice to the toner, in order to correct its acidity level? The pH of concentrated green tea is probably slightly below 7, but the pH of skin is 5.5 and the antioxidants have a pKa of 4.6 (so they aren't very stable at neutral pH).

I'm going to try making this tomorrow. I have some decaf green tea, himalayan pink salt, and a lemon. I also have some white tea, but I don't know if I should add it because it's expensive and I don't want to change too many variables at once...

[onefatalgoose]

I think if you want to experiment with anything natural in this toner it'd be absolutely fine. There are loads of concoctions i've seen people come up with, and this is a very simple one that i've suggested. Adding a little lemon could potentially make it even more effective. On the other hand, i guess you don't want to add too much as this could make the toner feel less light on the face. But yeah, there are quite a few things you could experiment with. I guess the only thing i'd keep in mind is ratio, but even that is flexible to an extent

[Ghost08]

After I wash my face at night, my skin feels a little tight and my current toner always relieves my skin and makes it feel soft and moisturized.
Does this toner do the same?

[onefatalgoose]

I've found that this toner always makes my skin feel soft after it dries. The only tightness i've experienced was when i went from a year not using green tea topically, or any topical for that matter, to suddenly using it again. And that lasted for a couple days. And we're not talking stretch your face til you can't talk tightness, as i've experienced on many occasion with store bought acne toners. This was more of a feeling like 'hey i haven't used a topical in a long time, and my face is adjusting now'

But experiment with it and see for yourself. I guarantee (unless you have some sort of rare allergy to either of these two ingredients) that it won't do anything harmful. And you can always stop if you don't like it. There's no purging bullcrap either. That term is so abused by the acne industry. I can see where if you added a cup of sea salt instead of 1/4 teaspoon, that you might get some negative drying effects, but I feel comfortable advising this ratio

[Maximus Decimus Merideous]

Hey! Great idea. How long does the green tea/sea salt mixture last in your fridge? Or do you make it fresh everyday?

[onefatalgoose]

What's up Max. No you don't have to make a fresh batch every day. I've kept one in the fridge (in a locktight container) for almost a couple weeks. And it might stay fresh longer than that, i really don't know. When i make it now, i get about 5-7 days use before it's gone, based on the ratio i described in the original post. But i use cotton pads so alot of it is getting tossed out. Gingergirl22 said she just puts some in the palm of her hand and rubs it into her face, so that's another option if you want to make it go further. Or you could make bigger batches. Just as long as you don't make so much that it sits in your fridge for a month, ya know?

It might take some time to realize how much you go through per week, and then you can adjust how much you make based on that

Also:

It's a good idea to slosh the toner around in the container each time before opening the lid and applying to your face. That way everything is well mixed when you do

[ramblinrose]

I know there are threads on this site discussing ACV, and from what i've read it seems to help alot of people. I've tried it, and i even mixed it in with green tea. Personally, i'm staying away from topical acids from here on out. My skin is sensitive enough to where i'm not even going there again. However i'm sure if you put a little ACV in this toner it'd be fine, and for all I know it could make the toner even more effective. But i'd read up on how much to dilute it, cause i know adding too much of that stuff can be harsh

oh great!!! i am going to an herb shoppe this weekend for some items and am very excited about getting organic loose leaf green tea & now i am even more excited because i can still try the acv lol!

[onefatalgoose]

Kojoka are you also going to use sea salt? I'd be interested to see your results combining all three of these. I'm personally sticking with only green tea and sea salt, as i've found it to be more than effective enough. But again be careful with the ratio of ACV, cause while it's praised for it's effectiveness, everything i've read and heard says you need the right ratio or it'll be too strong.

I know there was a thread started by a girl on this site talking about how she saw amazing results by drinking something like three glasses of water a day with a teaspoon of ACV in each. I know she did this everyday for a month with great results, and she said when she stopped her acne came back. I can't find the thread but i'll keep looking. When i've done this i usually add stevia and lemon to make the water taste better. And i use Bragg's, which i think is one of the best brands. But for sure i'd check out using ACV internally as well.

[gingergirl22]

I'd like to know if my toner looks strong enough. Since I am using loose green tea I wasn't sure how well I calculated the ratio of tea to purified water. The formula on the left was made from Sencha green tea from an Asian market with sea salt added. The solution on the right is my newest version, made from organic Frontier Sencha tea which I found at a local health food store in bulk, without sea slat added. I'm experimenting with using the formula without salt for overall use and the salted version for spot treating blemishes.

Edited by gingergirl22, 15 June 2012 - 07:03 PM.

[onefatalgoose]

Thanks for the pics gingergirl. Yeah they look good, the murkier the better. I'll try and upload a picture of my solution, once i figure out how to...

But yeah, when you see green tea in pictures on these health sites, it's in a white cup and has a very bright green color. And that's because it's a very mild solution. After i pour my solution into the container and wash out the pan that i boiled the tea in, the water that i'm rinsing with turns that light green color. And that's with just about nothing left in the pan, so it just shows how concentrated this solution is.

And:

I forgot to mention this in the original post, but it's something interesting that i don't think alot of people know about. This solution really helps with redness because green cancels out red in the color spectrum. And that's just regarding pigmentation. It also helps with redness simply due to the nature of the green tea

[gingergirl22]

Looking forward to seeing a photo of your toner! (I had to put my photo in Photobucket in order to post it because this site wants a URL for a picture.) I'm glad I'm on the right track. I love this stuff for myself and my son's acne is looking good and he actually doesn't mind using this toner which is nothing short of amazing.

I think we should be drinking green tea too, but it just doesn't appeal to me much. I'm trying to come up with ideas for an iced tea drink for the summer though, maybe blending green tea with other flavors.

[gingergirl22]

I am going to kick this up several notches by using Matcha Green Tea that I found in my refrigerator. It is over a year old, but still, it is a very concentrated form of green tea and I am curious how this works on acne and skin tone in general. I have some on my face now and it does leave a green tint so it will be for indoors only, at this concentration anyway. I just added a little water to it to make a thin paste. I'll report back.

[onefatalgoose]

Ok gingergirl, how the heck did you upload your photos? I got them to photobucket, but when i enter the url in the box i just get a little picture of a question mark in the typing box. Maybe that's how it's supposed to look i don't know. Whenever you get a chance. Or if anyone else knows, feel free to chime in

[gingergirl22]

In Photobucket I selected the jpeg photo I uploaded and clicked on Direct Link and it gave me a message that the link was copied. Then in my reply here I put my cursor where I wanted the photo to go. I clicked on the photo icon and pasted the Photobucket Direct Link (URL). The first time I did this I felt like the photo was too big so I went back to Photobucket and resized and went through the process again. Before all this I searched this site for some directions on uploading photos but found nothing, then thought of Photobucket. Someone please tell me there is an easier way! Good luck ofg!

Edited by gingergirl22, 16 June 2012 - 04:27 PM.

[ramblinrose]

i'm getting supplies tomorrow, sea salt included!!

[gingergirl22]

i'm getting supplies tomorrow, sea salt included!!

Looking forward to heaing how it goes for you...please keep us posted!

[onefatalgoose]

Ok i'm not sure how big these are so i'm just going to go with it. They might be huge. Thanks for the advice gingergirl

[gingergirl22]

Oh wow, your solution is twice as concentrated as mine! I think I'll make mine stronger next time. Thanks for posting your photos and I'm glad it finally worked! (Btw, I think the bigger photos are better.)

Edited by gingergirl22, 16 June 2012 - 07:29 PM.