With anti-aging skincare on the rise, more companies are turning to powerful botanicals to help address aging concerns like fine lines and wrinkles. We like to think we’ve beat everyone to one of the best ingredients Mother Nature has to offer.
Let’s talk about Terminalia Chebula, a powerhouse ingredient that really does do it all. Learn what it is, why it works, and how to add Terminalia Chebula to your skincare routine.
What Is Terminalia Chebula?
Terminalia Chebula, also known as Chebulic Myrobalan or T. Chebula, is an evergreen plant native to the South Asian countries of India and Nepal. A common medicinal plant in Ayurvedic practices, Chebula and its berries are sometimes referred to as the “King of Medicine.”
Closer in appearance to a nut than a berry, Terminalia Chebula has appeared throughout history in traditional Indian medicine. Used historically in a variety of herbal treatments, it often appears in conjunction with Ayurvedic herbs and fruits like amla and haritaki fruit.
For example, Ayurvedic remedies use Chebula powder blends like Kadukka (Chebula combined with Haritaki powder) to balance the three doshas, or humors: vata, pitta, and kapha. These humors combined are said to greatly influence a person’s physical, mental, and emotional health.
While Chebula is a prized remedy in Ayurvedic medicine, Terminalia Chebula also plays a starring role in modern skincare.
What Does Chebula Do for Your Skin?
Chebula offers a wide variety of benefits for your complexion, although it’s only lately making its way into the Western market as a topical skincare solution. Read on for some of our favorite reasons to incorporate Chebula into your skincare routine.
Chebula Offers Extreme Antioxidant Effects
Chebula is rich in tannins and antioxidants like many fruit and berry extracts. Antioxidants are a key part of your overall well-being, they help your body fight off free radicals, they are great for maintaining a bright, youthful-looking complexion.
Free radicals are unstable molecules that can come from sources like cigarette smoke, pollution, and UV rays, which can damage your skin as the free radicals attempt to stabilize, leading to premature signs of aging like wrinkles and fine lines.
Thankfully, antioxidants can help neutralize free radicals, thereby minimizing the damage. Your body only makes so many natural antioxidants, so giving your skin a burst of antioxidants can be helpful in addressing visible signs of aging like fine lines and wrinkles.
Chebula is so packed with antioxidants that it’s thought to be stronger than more commonly used antioxidant skincare ingredients.
Vitamin C, for instance, is great for your skin and offers a wide range of benefits, from overall brightening to promoting an even skin tone. But when it comes to antioxidants, Chebula has Vitamin C and Vitamin E beat.
The reason is that Chebula is a special type of antioxidant known as a cascading antioxidant. That means that, like most antioxidants, Chebula helps to fight free radicals, but instead of being “used up” immediately after application, the antioxidants in Chebula continue to take on new forms.
These new forms allow the antioxidants in Chebula to continue to help fight off free radicals and protect your skin.
That’s why products like our Chebula Active Serum are so effective at helping to minimize photodamage, helping to soothe your skin, and helping your skin to glow.
This is the last anti-aging serum you’ll ever need because it helps fight five signs of aging and helps prevent future damage before it happens with the most bioactive and potent antioxidant the skincare world has ever seen (Chebula, of course).
Not only that, but a whopping 60% of Chebula is bioactive, while most natural fruit sources are only around 10% bioactive. This means that this breakthrough skincare ingredient can address more signs of aging with more potency. This serum is for you no matter your age, skin type, or skin tone!
Chebula Promotes Hydration
Dry skin can lead to irritation and breakouts and cause fine lines to deepen into wrinkles more quickly. This is because dry skin doesn’t have as much elasticity and is unable to bounce back as quickly as hydrated skin.
Chebula has been shown to support your skin’s hydration levels and help on your complexion glow. If you have dry skin or hydration is a concern, working Chebula into your skincare routine is a great way to help address those concerns.
Looking for a way to ramp up hydration? Try our Chebula Extreme Cream.
Our new Chebula Extreme Cream is a moisturizing triple threat: it delivers deep moisture, potent antioxidant benefits, and optimal skin barrier support.
This luxurious formula is packed with the highest quality ingredients, including an exclusive Hydra-Cocktail of protein rejuvenators, humectants, emollients, and breathable occlusives that lock moisture in and help maintain your skin barrier.
This cream is a daily moisturizer unlike any other before that features the anti-aging superpowers of Chebula and helps to deliver radiant, youthful-looking skin.
Our fan-favorite formula also features potent plant actives, including Acerola Cherry, Calendula Oil, and Wild Pansy Extract to instantly help soothe skin and works to dramatically improve moisture levels.
Chebula Combats Irritation
Chebula is thought to have soothing properties, which can help calm your skin if you are experiencing sensitized skin.
Thanks to Chebula’s antioxidant capabilities to help fight free radicals and support your skin barrier, you may notice less sensitivity after using Chebula.
Chebula Promotes Even-Looking Skin Tone and Texture
T. Chebula is an excellent ingredient for helping correct uneven skin tone and texture. When your skin is hydrated, protected by Chebula’s antioxidant properties, and shielded from the sun’s potentially harmful rays with sunscreen, you may notice your complexion starting to improve.
In addition, Chebulagic products can help support your skin barrier and help combat stressors your skin may encounter in your environment, meaning that your skin may experience less dryness, roughness, or flakiness.
Our Chebula-based products also make use of beneficial seed oils, which can double down on skin barrier optimization by providing necessary fatty acids and lipids that help keep your skin protected and hydrated.
Are There Any Side Effects of Chebula?
Like many other plant-based ingredients, Chebula doesn’t have any known negative side effects, which makes it ideal for virtually all skin types.
As Terminalia Chebula is well-tolerated by most skin types, it’s a great alternative to other anti-aging and brightness-promoting ingredients that could cause skin sensitivity or irritation. While Synthetic Retinol, AHAs, and BHAs can be phenomenal anti-aging ingredients, these ingredients can be too strong for those with sensitive skin.
Chebula offers many of the same anti-aging benefits as these ingredients without causing redness or irritation found in traditional anti-aging products.
Pro tip: Plant-based retinol alternatives, like the one found in our Phyto-Retinol Vitamin A Booster, are a gentle, yet powerful alternative to traditional anti-aging products which can cause skin sensitivity.
While Chebula is a powerhouse, you should still take advantage of the nourishing benefits other plant compounds have to offer!
Our perfectly dosed vegan Phyto-Retinol Vitamin A capsules deliver Provitamin A Carotenoids that your skin transforms into its own potent retinoic acid — one of the most biocompatible kinds
of retinoic acids. Your skin then uses its own retinoic acid to help fight signs of aging, including wrinkles, dark spots, and uneven skin tone, delivering your most youthful-looking glow.
The Phyto-Retinol Vitamin A Booster is microbiome-friendly, non-irritating and
non-photosensitizing. This means it can be used during the day and alongside other products that you typically have to avoid while using synthetic retinol, such as Vitamin C.
How Do You Use Chebula in a Skincare Routine?
Working Terminalia Chebula into your skincare routine is simple. Because it’s such a gentle ingredient, it doesn’t have any known interactions with other ingredients or products. That means you can use it in virtually any part of your skincare regimen without having to worry. You can even use more than one Chebula product as part of your daily routine!
Cleanse
To prep your face for your Chebula serum, cleanse thoroughly and follow with our Ginger Turmeric Cleansing Balm.This tried-and-true cleansing balm effectively removes makeup, sunscreen, dirt, and impurities while helping to protect your skin’s natural barrier.
The wrong cleanser can do more harm than good, and that’s why we replaced harsh surfactants like sulfates with natural-biocompatible, makeup-melting Yucca Extract and potential irritants and synthetic ingredients, like fragrance and silicones, with skin-soothing Turmeric and Ginger Root Oil.
The result? A cleanser that is gentle on sensitive skin, yet highly effective on even the toughest mascaras.
Target
Next, apply the Chebula Active Serum to get the hydrating effects of ingredients such as Hyaluronic Acid and Aloe Vera. It’s the perfect way to invest in how your skin looks today, tomorrow, and years from now.
Moisturize
Once you’ve applied your serum, it’s time to moisturize. Our Chebula Extreme Cream is perfect for doubling down on Chebula. It’s a rich, antioxidant-packed formula that promotes a wide range of brightening and anti-aging effects. It’s ideal if you’re targeting specific concerns like dullness, roughness, or dark spots caused by sun damage.
You can use our Extreme Cream and our Chebula Serum as part of your morning routine, or evening routine. Chebula rivals the results of traditional anti-aging products without the harsh effects so if you’re worried that switching to more natural ingredients won’t be as effective, there’s no need.
Change it Up With Chebula
Using Chebula-based products in your skincare routine is an effortless way to get glowing, hydrated, and visibly nourished skin.
Don’t know where to start? Take our quick skin quiz for a list of our recommended products for your unique skin, or jump right into the Chebula sisterhood with our Chebula Active Serum or Chebula Extreme Cream, paired with any of our other all-natural, sustainably sourced Anti-Aging formulas!
Sources:
Formulation and Characterization of a Cream Containing Terminalia Chebula Extract | Karger