I hate to admit it, but I'm more than easily sucked in when it comes to products advertised on social media. More specifically, I've been fascinated by those tea detoxes that have been all over Instagram and Facebook, otherwise known as teatoxes.
What's a teatox? Basically, a teatox takes one of the world's most popular beverages, tea, and spices it up with a variety of ingredients, promising results such as weight loss, detoxification, and increased energy. Color me intrigued.
But after some reading, I learned that so many of the teatoxes out there are based in laxatives, and that's no bueno. I came to learn that most detox teas contain senna leaf in their teas, and if you, like me, didn't know what senna is, let me let webmd.com explain.
"Senna is an FDA-approved nonprescription laxative. It is used to treat constipation and also to clear the bowel before diagnostic tests such as colonoscopy. Senna is also used for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), hemorrhoids, and weight loss. The American Herbal Products Association (AHPA) warn against long-term use of senna leaf. The AHPA recommends that senna leaf products be labeled, "Do not use this product if you have abdominal pain or diarrhea. Consult a healthcare provider prior to use if you are pregnant or nursing. Discontinue use in the event of diarrhea or watery stools. Do not exceed recommended dose. Not for long-term use."Basically, senna contains many chemicals called sennosides. Sennosides irritate the lining of the bowel, which causes a laxative effect.
I mean, can you image using laxative everyday, multiple times a day? ON PURPOSE?How do you think it would affect your body? You would become completely dehydrated and it would make you feel (and look) VERY sick.
Why do people use them then? Well, laxative teas end up giving you the impression that you have a flatter stomach after few days, mostly because you got rid of EVERYTHING, bad AND good, in your intestines. It's a very unhealthy way to achieve your desired results. And that's why I decided I really never wanted to use a teatox. That is, until I found TinyTea by Your Tea.
TinyTea by Your Tea is a non-laxative teatox, promising help with six major areas of concern including bloating, indigestion, problematic skin, cellulite, reduction of excess weight and the increase of energy. While I wasn't, and still remain unconcerned with reducing excess weight, I have been experiencing bloating, and indigestion issues, and I always have struggled with problematic/hormonal skin breakouts and unevenness. And ever since being pregnant with Jack, I've been really lacking in the energy department.
Another pro to using the TinyTea or any of the teas from Your Tea is that there's no shortage of coupon codes or promotions going on, so the 14-day, $35 TinyTea teatox ended up not being quite $35 with the 15% off coupon I found, and once my order was placed, I couldn't wait to receive my package in the mail. (If you want a longer teatox, there's also a 28-day version of the same.)
About a week after placing my order, my box arrived, and I was so excited and ready to get started.
The packaging was totally adorable, and being a sucker for good packaging, I was already happy. I know packaging has nothing to do with how a teatox performs, but I can't help myself. I also learned that the tea contains Jue Ming Zi, He Ye, Shan Zha, Lai Fu Zi, Chen Pi, Mai Ya. Yep. All those things...
The magical blend of the TinyTea is based upon traditional Chinese Medicine principles with delicately balanced herbs that are designed to nourish and cleanse the digestive system.
In Chinese Medicine, the digestive system is the pivot of health. Nourishing this will allow your body to achieve optimum physical, aesthetic and emotional health.
14 day TinyTea aims to restore your body back to its original health before modern day lifestyles, sugars, fats, stress, inactivity and emotions take a toll on it.
Once I opened the box, I was also really happy with the individual teabag packaging. It was nice and pink and shiny and cute!
Each bag has instructions for steeping, basically a 5-7 minute soak in hot water should do it, and you are to drink the tea 3 times a day, either 30 minutes prior to or after a meal, since the tea works best on an empty stomach.
Many of the reviews online talked about the shoddy packaging of the tea bag itself, and that many times, their bags would fall apart, letting the leaves free in the water, rendering the tea undrinkable. I assume that they revamped their bagging methods or materials, because I didn't experience any of that. In fact, I was impressed with the quality of the bag, and in my 14 day experience, I never had a bag burst.
I didn't receive my package until the afternoon, but luckily, I hadn't eaten my lunch yet, so I dove right in. What I learned right away was that 5-7 minutes is NOT enough time to steep. I have found that 15-20 minutes is more like it. I figure if you can't taste the tea, then the stuff that's IN the tea can't possibly be in the water, can it?
I took some before photos the day I received my package so you can see the progress after the 14 days, which surprisingly there was change. That's what has motivated me to even do a review to begin with. I didn't know just how GOOD it would work.
Before I get into all the results, I should probably mention the taste, since you know, you DO have to drink the stuff 3 times a day. It's not terrible, but it's honestly not the best. It's very earthy, and if you've had oolong tea, it tastes much like that. It's subtle, and it's easy to get down, especially with a little honey or squeeze of lemon or lime.
So back to the big question, "Does it work? Does TinyTea REALLY deliver?"It does. I was so surprised myself. I didn't put a lot of weight into expecting results but half way into the teatox, my skin had cleared up, my bloating was gone, and I felt like I actually had energy by the time 5 p.m. rolled around. That's HUGE. The skin clearing was HUGE. The bloating and overall improvement in digestion was HUGE and the energy?! Let me just give you a quick peek into the fact that with my baby still not QUITE sleeping through the night most nights, I don't get the best quality sleep and am generally beyond tired by the time 3 p.m. rolls around, so to have plenty of energy in the evening was again, HUGE.
Plus? I didn't have ANY period cramps while drinking the tea. I'm talking NONE. This may be TMI, but I also believe it's pretty important to include for anyone who is interested in this product. I suffer from serious cramping, as well as acne, and neither of those things cropped up this time around.
I also find it useful to mention that just before halfway through the teatox, I started to get mildly annoyed with drinking the stuff three times a day, but that mild annoyance went away around day 7 or 8. It became part of my routine. I actually looked forward to my warm mug. In fact, when the 14 days were up, I was pretty sad to no longer have the tea. Weird.
Many of the reviews out there talk about losing excess weight while this teatox, and how it does quite a good job in aiding you on your weight-loss journey, but I'm not going to. I never cared about that to start with, so I never did a weigh in at the beginning or the end of the teatox. But like I said, I filtered through a ton of reviews that showed many positive and impressive results in this arena.
So all in all, I was extremely and completely impressed and blown away by the results from TinyTea by Your Tea, and would totally do it again in a heart beat. I would also LOVE to try the Skin Magic tea, since I had such amazing results with the TinyTea.
Have you considered trying any teatoxes, or have you tried this teatox?
Even though I paid for this tea with my own money and wasn't contacted by the company whatsoever before or during the teatox, I decided to go ahead and contact them before publishing this article to learn of any current deals or promotions.
If you spend $35 or more, they will gift you a box of their Cafe Tea, and if you spend $55 or more, they're gifting 2 buses of their Cafe Teas. This promotion is valid through Sept. 9! They're also doing a promotion where you can get a free Sleep Tea with a purchase of Happy Tea, valid through the 9th as well. Their customer service availible on their website is powered by ACTUAL people, who are ACTUALLY helpful, and can help you find the proper teas, promotions or answer any questions you may have.
I hope this was helpful, as reading reviews on this tea were very helpful to me.
