There’s a reason facial steaming shows up in spa menus, grandmother’s advice, and beauty rituals across cultures: a few quiet minutes over a bowl of warm, fragrant steam feels wonderful, softens the surface of your skin, and preps your face for the rest of your skincare routine. Best of all, you don’t need a fancy gadget to do it. A glass bowl, a kettle, a towel, and a spoonful of loose leaf tea are all it takes to steam your face at home.
Here on the farm, we reach for our own herbal blends when it’s time for a facial steam. The botanicals turn the whole thing into an aromatherapy session, and the same jar makes a lovely cup of tea afterward. In this guide, I’ll walk you through exactly how to steam your face, how often to do it, and how to tailor the ritual to your skin.
What Is Facial Steaming?
Facial steaming is exactly what it sounds like: holding your face over a bowl of steaming water, usually with a towel draped over your head to trap the warmth. The warm, humid air softens the skin’s surface and loosens dry, flaky patches along with any lingering makeup, sunscreen, or debris, which makes your cleanser and exfoliant noticeably more effective afterward.
One quick myth to clear up: pores don’t actually open and close like little doors. What the warmth really does is soften the oil and buildup sitting inside them, so everything rinses away more easily when you cleanse. The result is skin that looks fresher and feels smoother, plus that lovely post-steam glow from the warmth itself.
And beyond what it does for your complexion, a facial steam is ten minutes of enforced stillness. No phone fits under the towel. That might be the best part.
Why Steam Your Face with Tea?
Plain water works, but loose leaf tea transforms a facial steam into a full sensory experience. As the botanicals steep, they release their fragrance into the steam, so every breath smells like a garden. We designed two of our teas with this kind of double duty in mind: they’re blended for the teacup, and they’re beautiful in the steam bowl.
Good Night Tea is our chamomile lavender blend, rounded out with linden flowers, spearmint, and rose petals. In the steam, it reads soft, floral, and calming, which makes it our favorite for an evening wind-down ritual. Beautea takes things in a warmer direction with ginger, turmeric, dried pineapple, and calendula petals. The gingery aroma is bright and invigorating, lovely for a weekend morning steam. Either way, brew what’s left in the jar into a cup to sip while your skin dries. You can explore our whole artisanal tea collection to find the aroma that suits you.
What You’ll Need
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A heat-safe glass bowl
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A kettle or pot for boiling water
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A large bath towel, plus a hand towel to set under the bowl
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5 to 8 teaspoons of Good Night Tea or Beautea
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Optional: a few drops of a skin-safe essential oil
How to Steam Your Face: Step by Step
Step 1: Set Up Your Station
Choose a table and chair where you can sit comfortably for 10 to 15 minutes. Place the glass bowl on top of a hand towel for stability, and keep your bath towel within reach. This is a good moment to queue up quiet music or light a candle, since you’ll be under a towel with nothing to do but breathe.
Step 2: Cleanse and Prepare the Steam
Wash your face with a gentle cleanser to remove makeup, sunscreen, and the day, then pat dry. Bring 4 cups of water to a boil. While you wait, add 5 to 8 teaspoons of loose leaf tea to the bottom of your bowl. Once the water boils, pour it over the tea, filling the bowl about three-quarters of the way, and let it steep for a few minutes. This short wait matters for two reasons: the botanicals release their aroma, and the steam cools from scalding to comfortable.
Step 3: Steam
Drape the bath towel over the back of your head, lean forward over the bowl, and let the towel fall around you and the bowl to trap the steam. Keep your face at least 8 to 10 inches above the water. Test the temperature first: the steam should feel pleasantly warm, never hot or stinging. Close your eyes, breathe in the botanicals, and stay for about 10 minutes, lifting the towel for a break whenever you need fresh air.
Step 4: Rinse and Finish
When you’re done, rinse your face with cool water for a refreshed, toned feeling, and pat dry. Your skin is now beautifully prepped for whatever comes next, so don’t stop here. Follow with a toner or flower water, then a moisturizer or facial oil to seal in that soft, dewy post-steam feeling while your skin is still slightly damp.
Add a Gentle Honey Exfoliation
Right after a steam, while your skin is warm and soft, is the perfect moment for gentle exfoliation. Our crystallized honey Original Honey Body Scrub is a single ingredient, pure crystallized honey, and the fine crystals are gentle enough for facial skin. Apply it with light circular motions, avoiding the eye area, then remove with warm water and a soft washcloth. Skin feels polished and smooth, never stripped.
Prefer something plant-based? Our Sea+Tea Body Scrub is gentle enough to use on the face too, with fine-ground pumice, blueberry seeds, and cane sugar in a base of coconut oil and shea butter.
Using Essential Oils in Your Facial Steam
Essential oils are a lovely way to customize the aroma of your steam. Lavender and chamomile lean calming and floral, eucalyptus and peppermint feel crisp and awakening, and rose and geranium add a soft garden sweetness. Add just 2 or 3 drops to the water after it has stopped boiling, since a little goes a long way in steam.
A few sensible precautions: always follow the usage guidance on your specific oil, keep your eyes closed while steaming with oils, and patch test any new oil on a small area of skin before adding it to your ritual. If you love the lavender and chamomile pairing, our chamomile lavender tea recipe brings the same botanicals to your teacup.
A Ritual with History
Facial steaming is nothing new. Steam bathing traditions stretch back centuries, from Roman bathhouses to Finnish saunas to herbal steams passed down through families. What draws people to it today is the same thing that always has: it’s simple, it’s soothing, and it leaves skin looking dewy and refreshed using nothing more than warm water and time. Adding botanicals like chamomile, rose petals, and lavender continues a long tradition of steeping garden herbs into self-care.
Our Rose Face Oil is a beautiful finishing step, applied to slightly damp skin after your steam
How Often Should You Steam Your Face?
Once a week is the sweet spot for most people. Skin needs time between sessions, and over-steaming can leave it feeling tight and dry rather than soft. If you have sensitive skin, start with just five minutes and see how your skin responds before working up to ten. And if your face tends to flush easily with heat, or steaming ever leaves your skin feeling irritated, shorten your sessions or skip the ritual altogether. It should always feel good.
Tailoring Your Steam to Your Skin Type
The basic technique never changes, but the details can flex to suit your skin. If your skin runs dry, keep sessions short, choose calming aromas like lavender or chamomile, and be generous with moisturizer afterward. If your skin runs oily, you may enjoy a full ten-minute steam followed by a gentle cleanse, with crisp aromas like eucalyptus or peppermint. Sensitive skin does best with plain tea steam, no essential oils, and shorter sessions. Combination skin can land anywhere in the middle; balanced florals like rose and geranium are a nice fit.
Making Facial Steaming Part of Your Routine
The easiest way to keep up any ritual is to anchor it to something you already do. Many people steam on Sunday evenings as a reset before the week, pairing it with a honey face mask while their skin is warm and receptive. Others make it part of a monthly at-home spa night. Whenever you steam, follow with your full face care routine to lock in moisture while your skin is still damp.
Our Best Face Forward Set contains an entire morning and night skincare routine, a lovely follow-up to your steam
Facial steaming proves that the best self-care is often the simplest. A bowl, a towel, a spoonful of fragrant tea, and ten unhurried minutes: that’s the whole recipe for softer-feeling, fresher-looking skin and a genuinely peaceful pause in your day. Brew a cup with whatever tea is left in the jar, and you’ve turned an ordinary evening into a little spa ritual, right at your own kitchen table.
FAQs About Facial Steaming
How long should you steam your face?
About 10 minutes is ideal for most people. If you have sensitive skin, start with 5 minutes and see how your skin feels afterward. Going much past 10 to 15 minutes can leave skin feeling dry and tight rather than soft, so set a timer and enjoy the break.
How often should you steam your face?
Once a week works well for most skin types. Steaming more frequently can leave skin feeling stripped of its natural oils. If your skin is sensitive or flushes easily with heat, steam less often or keep sessions to 5 minutes, and stop if your skin ever feels irritated.
Should I steam my face before or after cleansing?
Cleanse first. Washing your face before you steam removes makeup, sunscreen, and surface oil so the warm steam can work on freshly cleaned skin. After steaming, rinse with cool water, then follow with toner, moisturizer, or facial oil while your skin is still slightly damp.
Can I use tea for facial steaming?
Yes, and it makes the ritual far more enjoyable. Add 5 to 8 teaspoons of loose leaf herbal tea, such as a chamomile lavender blend or a ginger turmeric blend, to a heat-safe bowl, pour boiling water over it, and let it steep for a few minutes before you begin. The botanicals fill the steam with fragrance for a spa-like aromatherapy experience.
What do you put on your face after steaming?
Rinse with cool water, pat dry, and apply your skincare while skin is still slightly damp. A toner or flower water comes first, followed by a moisturizer or a few drops of facial oil to seal in that soft post-steam feeling. A steam is also a lovely time to follow with a gentle honey exfoliant or a face mask.
Is facial steaming good for all skin types?
Most skin types can enjoy a weekly steam with a few adjustments: shorter sessions and calming botanicals for dry or sensitive skin, and a full 10 minutes with a gentle cleanse afterward for oilier skin. If your skin flushes easily with heat or feels irritated after steaming, shorten your sessions or skip steaming and choose a cool-water ritual instead.
