The skin care benefits of mushrooms, according to a naturopath

We all know mushrooms have great benefits when ingested. From button mushrooms to shiitake and reishi, the fungus is packed full of antioxidants and excellent at managing stress, fighting inflammation, improving gut health, boosting immunity, libido and skin health.

But what about when you decide to mix up your mushroom intake by applying it topically through skin care?

Well, we were a tad curious ourselves.

So we employed the help of X50 Naturopath Georgia Forsyth (who’s a bit of an aficionado on all things mushies) to give us the lowdown on adding shrooms to our skin care.

The skin care benefits of mushrooms

In the same way the tasty mushroom can elevate many meals, it has numerous different benefits for the skin.

“Mushrooms are filled to the brim with antioxidant, anti-ageing, anti-microbial, and anti-inflammatory properties,” says Forsyth. “If that wasn’t impressive enough, they are also touted for being hyperpigmentation correctors.” 

“Mushroom extracts possess important bacteria strains responsible for skin damage as well as possessing a strong antioxidant activity, which in turn has the ability to cope with oxidative stress, a precursor for anti-ageing,” she explains.

Eating mushrooms vs applying mushrooms

According to Forsyth, the skin care benefits of mushrooms can be seen through topical application.

“Transdermal absorption of mushrooms is used for treating the skin; this pathway bypasses the liver and gastrointestinal tract, and is absorbed at a slightly quicker rate.”

However, she says maintaining your mushroom intake from a dietary perspective is still a good idea.

“Linking the quality of our skin with the quality of our gut health, it’s no-nonsense; the two are inextricably intertwined. If your gut is compromised it will be reflected in your complexion,” she confirms.

Hate the taste of mushrooms? No worries, there are a number of beauty ingestibles that include the ingredient, so you can reap the internal benefits minus the ick factor.

In fact, we’ve thrown together a bounty of our favourite mushroom-infused ingestibles and skin care, so you can inject your beauty routine with as much of the superfood as is humanly possible.