Chicory has been mentioned as a special skin beautifier by the ancient herbalists. As tea made from the place blue flowers of this plant was said to give the "plainest maid a measure of loveliness by her bright shinning skin". According to a legend, chicory got this reputation because of a beautiful woman whom the sun wished to marry. But she spurned him. On her refusal, he turned her into a wild chicory plant and ensured that her fragile flowers would be forever turned towards him, whenever he was in the sky, from dawn till dusk. No one knows whether this legend arose before chicory had earned its name as a complexion improving drink, or after. But the flowers used for making a tea to drink seem to give the skin a healthy glow.
