Treat Dark Circles And Puffy Eyes With Green Tea

This is part of the relaxing home spa kit I made for my mom for Mother’s Day this year. Go check out the rest of the kit!


I don’t usually have problems sleeping (no restless nights, etc. JM says I sleep like a dead brick…) but I do find it hard to get enough sleep. I wake up still feeling pretty tired, and if I’ve been up really late the night before it shows on my face. My skin is dull and my eyes are puffy, and sometimes those nasty black circles under my eyes make an appearance. I’m not normally too fussed about my appearance (I don’t do anything to my hair except comb it with my fingers after my shower, and it’s a friggin’ miracle if I get just a bit of eyeliner on in the morning before leaving the house) but I HATE puffy eyes and dark circles.

But I’ve recently found the greatest cure…it’s green tea bags! Yes, tea. As in, the kind you drink. Green tea is the most commonly used, but you can use black, green, or white tea bags and they all work!

Green tea bags to treat puffy eyes and dark circles

These teas have two different ingredients that help: caffeine and tannins.

  • Caffeine shrinks the blood vessels just under your skin. This reduces swelling and puffiness under the eyes, and the constricted blood vessels also help to eliminate the dark circles.
  • Tannins are responsible for the color and astringent flavor of the tea. The astringency also helps to constrict capillaries and blood vessels, with the same effects as the caffeine.

Black tea has the highest level of caffeine and tannins, then green tea, and white tea has the least of the three, but any of these will help with puffiness or dark circles. You can choose based on just how late of a night it was. 😉

All you need for this recipe is two bags of tea, so pick the strength you want and let’s get started!

First you need to brew some tea with your tea bags; they don’t work when they’re dry. It’s fairly simple, just boil some water, pour it into a mug over your tea bags, and let it steep for about a minute for green tea, 2 minutes for white tea, and 3 minutes for black tea. (I took out about three paragraphs right here that went into more details about water temperature, brewing time, etc. cuz I’m a crazy tea person. You’re welcome! Maybe I’ll just write a whole post on making tea one of these days…)

Two mugs of green tea

Once your tea has steeped for the right amount of time, remove the bags and squeeze out any extra water. Let the bags cool on a plate or something. You can pop them in the refrigerator for about ten minutes if you’d like, but don’t leave them too long before using them or they will dry out.

When you’re ready to use them the bags should still be slightly damp and room temperature or cooler. If they dried out in the fridge just run them under tap water for a few minutes. Then just place one tea bag over each eye, lay back, and leave them there for 10 minutes. The tannins and caffeine will get to work, and ten minutes later you’ll look and feel refreshed. Amazing!

Do you have any other beauty tips involving tea? I know green tea can be used as a toner for your face (bonus points if you add apple cider vinegar). Anything else I should know about?

 

 
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Jessi Wohlwend

I believe that anyone can do crafts and DIY projects, regardless of skill or experience. I love sharing simple craft ideas, step by step DIY project tutorials, cleaning hacks, and other tips and tricks all with one goal in mind: giving you the tools you need to “do it yourself”, complete fun projects, and make awesome things!

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  1. Ella Johnson says

    7 years ago

    Can the tea bags be used just the one time or more than once?

    • Jessi Wohlwend says

      6 years ago

      You can use them more than once, but they get less effective over time. It’s the tannins in the tea that helps reduce swelling, and when you use the tea bags, some of the tannins are used up, so they’re less effective next time.

  2. nikkin says

    8 years ago

    Awesome, I got dark circles. I tried in lot of things. No use. I’m trying using tea bags . Godz grace let it rid off. Any other remedies plz comment. Thank you

  3. jim smith says

    8 years ago

    hey hold the hot water.go with a glass of ice with water poured in.put one bag in and let it soak for about five minutes.when the water turns a bit color take the bag out and lightly squeeze out excess water,letting the bag stay a big soggy.apply for several minutes with head tipped back. dab water as needed . move baggy about as it warms to areas not previously covered.when drier and a warmer replace to glass, and repeat again as you want.repeat to other eye.then sleep on it.

    trust me…

  4. sanaya says

    10 years ago

    What if I want to use this remedy for dark circles..how long do you think it will take????

    • Jessi Wohlwend says

      10 years ago

      It depends, but I would just follow the instructions on brewing the tea and cooling down the tea bags, and put the bags on your eyes for 10 minutes, and see how it goes. It might take a few applications, depending on how dark the circles are. But if you do it every day for a week I imagine you’ll see great improvement!

  5. rebecca says

    10 years ago

    how long does it take for the tea bags to work? does it take hours, days, weeks? because I have tried it once for 10 mins and I didn’t see a difference at all!

    • Jessi Wohlwend says

      10 years ago

      It should help pretty quickly. The caffeine in the tea helps to constrict blood vessels which will reduce swelling and puffiness around your eyes. It doesn’t build up over days or weeks; I would assume within fifteen minutes or so you should be seeing the puffiness start to go away. Make sure you’re using tea that has caffeine in it!

  6. Hopeful1 says

    12 years ago

    I am absolutely trying this! Sounds so simple and wonderful. : )
    – Hope

  7. pinkoddy says

    12 years ago

    Cucumber is also really good for your eyes used in the same way (without the tea making part obviously).

  8. Debra Kapellakis says

    12 years ago

    That is fantastic! I will try that. I have a bit of darkness under my eyes these days. First time in my 51 years.

  9. Jessi W says

    12 years ago

    Thanks Anne, you're so sweet!

  10. Anne H says

    12 years ago

    Great post, like always! I am very much impressed with your work..

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