Green Tea and Lavender Sunburn Spray
This remedy is made in two parts. The first part the dried herb blend, is made in tea bags to make them portable and premeasured to make them easy to use. The second part — the herbal infusion is made on an as needed basis.
Make a Sunburn Remedy that you can carry in your carry-on
Every item in this kit can be taken through airport security and will fit tidily in a suit case. This sunburn tea is for the inevitable sunburn someone playing at the beach or in the park is going to come home with. Summer vacation inevitably means someone will get a sunburn, even with scrupulous use of sunscreen. This easy to make remedy will take the heat out of the sunburn and protect the skin from damage including the serious risk of skin cancer. The polyphenols in green tea protect the skin from sun damage. “Tea components possess antioxidant, antimutagenic, and anticarcinogenic effects and could protect humans against the risk of cancer by environmental agents”.1 Green tea applied to second degree burns in animals studies demonstrated its ability to speed the healing of burns.2 Green tea has been shown to reduce tumor size in skin cancer without harming normal cells. 3. Lavender is another anti-inflammatory, analgesic herb that has a strong affinity to the skin. It reduces the pain and heat in a burn and helps speed healing. Marshmallow is analgesic, soothing, and cooling and good for calming inflammation and heat.
How I learned about tea’s super power to heal sunburn
When I was on my honeymoon, 35 years ago, we went to a water slide near Kelowna, in British Columbia. It was late June and Kelowna is a dry, desert climate with sage brush and rattlesnakes anywhere that isn’t irrigated. It was an overcast day and my redheaded husband was outside at the water slide with no shirt. The day had moments of darkness where lightening flashed overhead and we had to get out of the pool and wait for the storm to pass. The day overall was cool, windy, and clouded over, so I wasn’t prepared for what we found at the campsite. At the end of the day, Mr. Joybilee’s back was sunburned. Not just a mild sunburn, but it was deep, painful, red and had started to blister. He told me to make some tea. That’s what his mother did when he got sunburned growing up. All we had was Earl Grey black tea with us. We made a strong cup of black tea and then cooled it. I gently sponged his back with the tea and we went to sleep. In the morning, all the blisters were gone and his skin was just a little pink. Green tea is even more healing to sunburns and minor burns because it is higher in polyphenols than black tea. But in a pinch you can just grab a tea bag from your motel room’s coffee stand and make sunburn tea with that. This recipe, however, supersizes the super-power of tea to heal sunburn. You can easily double it for more robust use. You’ll need press and seal tea bags or reusable cloth tea bags to make travel size portions of this sunburn remedy. A tea ball will allow the tea blend to escape and possibly introduce plant matter to the infusion, which could be uncomfortable for the sunburn victim, so use a tea bag or a cloth drawstring bag for this remedy. 
Download a printable recipe by clicking on the link below:
Sunburn tea for quick relief
Yield: 9 applications
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons green tea 2 tablespoons lavender flowers 1 tablespoon marshmallow root 9 press and seal tea bags, or alternative cloth tea bags
Directions:
Mix the tea, lavender, and marshmallow root in a bowl. Spoon 2 teaspoons of the mixture into each tea bag. With your iron on “cotton” press the tea bags closed along the open side. Alternatively put 2 teaspoons of the mixture into a cloth, drawstring bag. For travel place 3 tea bags and 3 to 5 cotton pad applicators in an empty Altoids tin or similar container. Label the container with directions for use. Store in your travel first aid kit. To use: Place the tea bag in a mug. Pour boiled water over the tea bag in the mug. Cover and steep for 15 minutes. Allow the tea to cool. Press the tea bag and remove from the mug. Once the tea is cool wash the sunburned area gently using the cooled tea and the cotton pads. For a very bad sun burn spritz the burn area with the cooled tea mixture using a spray bottle. It couldn’t be easier to have sunburn relief close and comforting no matter where you travel on summer vacation. And since this remedy is dry, there’s no problem carrying it through airport security. You may want to pack a small empty spray bottle with sprayer lid, if your family tends to burn easily. The spray bottle means you can soothe a sunburn without touching it, a vast improvement over commercial sunburn salves.
References:
1 Mukhtar H, Wang ZY, Katlya SK, Agarwal R. Tea components: antimutagenic and anticarcinogenic effects. Prev Med. 1992;21:351–360 2. Fatemi MJ, Nikoomaram B, Rahimi AA, Talayi D, Taghavi S, Ghavami Y. Effect of green tea on the second degree burn wounds in rats. Indian J Plast Surg 2014;47:370-4 ZP Chen, JB Schell, CT Ho, KY Chen “Green tea epigallocatechin gallate shows a pronounced growth inhibitory effect on cancerous cells but not on their normal counterparts” Cancer letters 129 (2), 173-179