Can Drinking Rose Flower Tea Improve Beauty?

Li女士 from Chaoyang Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing: My skin isn’t good. Last year, when buying tea, a seller told me drinking rose flower tea could nourish the complexion, making skin delicate and rosy—perfect for women. But after drinking it for several months, almost daily, I still feel no effect. Does rose flower tea really work for beauty? Is my drinking duration insufficient? How should I drink it to achieve optimal beauty results?
Dr. Bian Weihua, Deputy Director of the Nutrition Department at the Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, believes you’re overstating the role of rose flowers. It’s unrealistic to expect skin to become delicate and rosy solely from drinking rose flower tea. In fact, the best way to beautify skin is to improve its “soil”—enhance cellular antioxidant capacity, slow aging, and supplement moisture and nutrients like vitamin C, vitamin E, collagen, and polyphenols. Rose petals contain very little of these substances. Moreover, what we usually use are dried petals exposed to sunlight, which further depletes already minimal nutrients, so they cannot directly nourish the skin. To improve skin quality, it’s better to eat more green vegetables, as yellow-green fruits and vegetables contain higher levels of vitamin C.
Can rose flower aroma directly “fuel” the skin through tea infusion? Rose essential oil, extracted from fragrant hydrocarbons in roses, instantly makes skin soft and smooth when applied topically. But does drinking rose tea deliver this oil directly to the skin? Generally, topical oils penetrate only the epidermis and rarely reach the dermis, failing to deliver nutrients to the skin’s “nutrient reservoir.” Also, extracting essential oil requires complex processes and vast quantities of petals, so obtaining it merely by steeping petals in water is impractical.
Undeniably, the fragrance of roses calms the mind, relieves stress, and relaxes emotions. Thus, drinking rose flower tea allows you to enjoy its aromatic benefits, helping regulate the autonomic nervous system and balance endocrine function, achieving “internal nourishment leading to external beauty.” When your mood improves, your skin will naturally benefit.