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Exactly how does one make the most iconic tea-based fragrance of all time — 33-year-old Bulgari Eau Parfumée au Thé Vert — even better? Scour the globe for the highest-quality green tea essence available, then upgrade other key ingredients in the beloved and oft-imitated scent, including jasmine and bergamot.
“Three decades ago, the technology to capture and distill an essence of green tea in such purity remained elusive,” says Amandine Pallez, creative and heritage designer for Bulgari Parfums. “This is Eau Parfumée au Thé Vert reimagined as a 2.0 version. It’s faithful to the original yet imbued with a markedly enduring presence.”
And the superstar scent — which joins the house’s other popular tea-based fragrance, Thé Blanc — couldn’t be trendier. Tea, as well as its myriad spin-offs, including kombucha and chai, is spilling over into multiple categories of beauty and wellness. Whether for skin (Juara Triple Tea Antioxidant Essence), bath (Fresh Verbena soap), hair (R+Co Teacup Anti-Pollution Detox Rinse) or home (Blueme “Balance” ceramic candle), tea is hot.
“The action of making and drinking a cup of tea forces us to slow down. It’s a real moment of self-care.”
Herbalist Myka Harris
The two-year-old Ceylon tea-infused Rose Noire fragrance from L’Objet, the luxury decor brand, has spawned a slew of chic offshoots. Housed in sleek black jars and spritzers, as well as a stunning white ball-shaped ceramic diffuser, the collection offers multiple ways to weave the exotic, rose-meets-tea scent into your world.
For Highbrow Hippie co-founder and certified herbalist Myka Harris, the brand’s new Daily Reset Tea is equal parts hair helper and daily timeout. As one of a small range of products from the eponymous atelier in Venice, Calif. (a favorite among such lush-locked celebs as Julia Roberts, Kristin Davis and Gwyneth Paltrow), it’s crafted from rooibos and honeybush, two teas Harris finds especially healthy for hair.
“My mother introduced me to rooibos tea decades ago,” she says. “It’s a wonderful tea that’s popular in South Africa and is becoming much more known here. It’s full of nutrients such as zinc and calcium, which are essential for hair health.” Additionally, Harris shares, rooibos is known for its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, which can help keep hair damage at bay. Also anti-inflammatory and indigenous to South Africa, honeybush contains phytoestrogens, which can boost hormo-nal balance. “It has a lot of similarities to rooibos,” she says, “but with a slightly sweeter taste.”
Aaah, taste. With all the slathering and spritzing going on with the new tea-based beautifiers, it’s easy to forget that sipping a cup of your favorite brew is the ultimate way to take a breather.
“Our modern lifestyle has evolved into one that assaults us with stressors at every turn,” says Harris. “From the constant influx of news delivered to us on our phones, the chaos of the world and the omnipresent technology that keeps us available, it’s more important now than ever to create rituals and structures that allow ourselves the freedom to disconnect and focus on ourselves. The action of making and drinking a cup of tea forces us to slow down. It’s a real moment of self-care.”
