You can do more with tea than drink it. Here are five ways to beautify with tea!

Every other year, my father would bring home a luggage full of an assortment of things – electronic gadgets, soaps and lotions, and boxes of tea. I've never been much of a tea drinker hence the boxes remain untouched until I get a sudden urge to brew a pot.

I still have a long way to go before I empty my latest stash, so I searched for a way to use up the tea without having to drink gallons of it every day. As you may already have guessed, I took the beauty route. Here are some of the things I've tried with tea!

Undereye De-puffer

Did staying up late turn your eyes into a puffy, darkened mess? This popular trick advises soaking two tea bags in warm water for a couple of minutes then putting them over your eyes for 20 minutes. The tannins in tea are believed to help in reducing redness and puffiness because of their anti-inflammatory properties.

Doing this is very relaxing! Halfway into the prescribed 20-minute session, I already felt like dozing off. After the treatment, I didn't notice much change in my under eye area but they did feel refreshed. Just like using eye cream once isn't going to bring any drastic changes, I'll probably have to do this regularly to get its full benefits.

Facial Toner

My favorite sheet mask has green tea in it, and it works wonders for my acne-prone skin. So I was curious to know if putting tea directly on my face would work. After soaking a tea bag in warm water and letting it cool so I don't burn my face, I applied it all over and blotted it with a cotton ball after. I love the smell of tea, so I found wiping my face with a tea bag to be a pleasant experience. After the tea had been fully absorbed by my skin, my face felt soft and tight! Once I'm ready to shake up my current routine, I might do this more often to see how the antioxidants in the tea could help in lightening my pimple marks.

Sunburn Reliever

You can use tea not just for the face but for any part of your body. It's especially effective for soothing sunburned skin. I know we're always supposed to put on sunscreen, but sometimes we just forget. For days when that happens and you end up having painful burns because of the sun's harmful UV rays, take refuge in tea! Simply soak some tea bags in your bath water and use it as a rinse. You can do this trick for minor nicks, too, like razor burns.

Bruise Healer

If you're as clumsy as I am, you' probably have bruises from bumping against tables or tripping over things. I don't really mind having bruises because they go away over time but when they're visible to everyone else, I can't help but feel conscious. As with using tea to de-puff eye bags, it makes sense to apply tea bags on bruises as well to aid their healing. I haven't been able to test this yet though as I'm currently bruise-free.

Hand Deodorizer

I love the smell of tea so much that my favorite fragrance ever is Elizabeth Arden's Green Tea. Apart from being a great scent for a perfume, I recently learned that tea also makes for a great deodorizer! Tea contains catechin, which is an antibacterial odor fighter. That's why tea works great for baths and soaks! It's also good for hand washing after handling very smelly items like garlic, onion or fish. Get that lingering stink off by rinsing your hands in tea-soaked water.

Tea-rrific, don't you think? If you have more tea than you can drink, use them for beauty instead! Let us know if you try these tricks, or if you know of any new ones we can add to this list!

Sources: Cosmopolitan, TIME, Today, Natural Living Ideas