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Mushrooms, aka portobellos and shiitakes make up a type of edible gilled fungi. Believe it or not, these delicious, fleshy, high-fiber, low-calorie delicacy used in soups, salads, and stir-fries are not only valuable food add-ons, they’re also the skin’s best friend., more on that later. We’ll also discuss how to incorporate mushrooms in skincare. There are several types of edible mushrooms, including shiitakes, reishi, chaga, tremella, and maitaks. While they’re all great, both for culinary and skin health benefits, the tremella, reishi, and chaga are mostly used for skin routines. But hey, they’re all really great.
Why your skin would love mushrooms
Is it safe to use mushrooms in skincare? What effects do mushroom extracts have on the skin? The skin benefits of mushrooms are many. Basically, mushrooms contain natural bio-active metabolites like lectins and polysaccharides that promote
- Skin hydration and moisturizing
- Anti-aging (lifting and firming)
- Anti-oxidant protection
- Skin brightening
- Anti-inflammatory effects
- pH-balancing
This information might be academically new-ish, but mushrooms in skincare isn’t a new thing. Actually, mushrooms have been used for ages in Chinese traditional medicine and for their great skin health benefits. But they have to be used in the right way.
Homemade Hacks To Incorporate Mushrooms into your Beauty Routine
There are several options to use mushrooms in skincare routine. They can be found as mushroom powders for skin or mushroom extracts for skin care on many online marketplaces like Amazon or you can make a DIY mushroom extract.
#1: DIY Facial mask with Shea Butter and Jojoba Oil
One of the most common use of mushrooms in beauty routine is making face masks. With face masks, gain all the benefits of mushrooms on your face, including anti-aging, hydration, pH balancing, and anti-cancer health advantages. If you’re a DIY enthusiast and prefer to know the contents of what you’re putting on your face, you can make a mushroom double extract and combine it with shea butter and other ingredients to make DIY face masks, getting all the benefits of mushrooms, while remaining authentic to your skin.
#2: DIY Facial mask with Honey
It’s common knowledge that honey is great for the skin, especially the face. Mixing a few drops of mushroom extracts and a few drops of honey to make a DIY face mask might just be what your skin needs.
#3: DIY Facial mask with Avocado and Mushroom Powder
Avocados are known for providing a soothing effect on the skin, improves it’s elasticity, and generally makes it more supple. A mixture of half of an avocado with a tablespoon of mushroom powder (can be gotten from most stores including Amazon), and two tablespoons of plain yoghurt or honey can provide one of the best facial masks
#4: Add Mushroom Extract or Powder to Regular Skin Products
Incorporating mushroom powder or extract to your daily skincare routine is one of the best beauty hacks that are not common knowledge. Since a number of cosmetics companies have started incorporating mushrooms in skincare, it has become a trend to just add mushroom extracts to regular moisturizers, serums, lotions, or facial masks to get the most benefit from those products.
#5: Add Mushroom Extract or Powder to Hair Shampoo or Hair Mask
Especially for those with dry hair and scalp, adding mushroom extract to shampoo or hair mask is really a game changer. Always remember to test a sample of hair and leave for sometime to monitor the effect before applying to whole hair.
Have you used any of these ideas? Comment below what you think.
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