Introducing skincare’s best superhero: fungi! Here at Copina Co. we love learning about the lineup of beauty-boosting mushrooms that have been used medicinally for centuries, but are now becoming hot in the holistic skincare space. Mushrooms have a long history of being used topically and internally in Eastern medicine, and we love that they’re now becoming popular in the West!
Mushrooms + Skincare
Using mushrooms to supplement one’s diet and skincare for health benefits is not anything new. Mushrooms like tremella fuciformis (and others that we’ll discuss) have been used for centuries in Asia because of their amazing health benefits.* Here at Copina Co. we fell in love with researching how to best drink (yes drink!) our shrooms for the best benefits to our skin. We, in a previous post, covered the differences between the fruiting body of mushrooms vs. mycelium and the benefits that led to the tremella mushroom fruiting body extract being incorporated into our vegan collagen support blends.
But the tremella mushroom is not the only mushroom that can help our skin. Stay tuned for some extra details on mushrooms with major beauty benefits for youthful skin.
So What are the Benefits?
Shrooms are gaining immense popularity right now, but there's more to them than their funky shapes and fun chagaccinos on your local cafe’s menu. Mushrooms are amazing ingredients when it comes to skincare and food. They can help with stress, and hormones, and reduce inflammation to name a few!* We love our tremella mushroom benefits because (for one) it can hold 500 times its weight in water (like, what!).*
Some mushrooms that are made into topical use can help with anti-inflammatory and environmental stressors that could damage your skin.* Internally, mushrooms have omega fatty acids and ceramide which can help with your moisture barrier.* Maintaining a healthy moisture barrier for your skin helps with preventing water loss and overall hydration. Think about that dewy glowy skin that looks bouncy!
How Can I Add Mushrooms to my Skin-Routine?
Some mushrooms you can eat or drink, but we never recommend eating or drinking mushrooms you found in the wild or are unknown to you. You’ll want to educate yourself a little before buying mushrooms at the market or farmer’s market expecting them to hold all these benefits. Eating mushrooms is amazing for a well-balanced diet, but let’s take a look at how to get the most out of our fungi friends for our complexion.
Adding mushrooms to your daily skincare products is an easy way to gain their topical benefits. We recommend high-quality mushroom extracts if using them to reap the benefits inside out, like through our plant-based collagen support creamers or with our Cacao Calm or Vegan Collagen Matcha. If you want to learn more about why they should be extracts made from the fruiting body, check out our tik tok to give a little shroom-education! Done hearing only about the tremella mushroom? Check out four other functional beauty mushrooms for youthful skin!
5 Functional Beauty Mushrooms for Youthful Skin
Tremella Fuciformis
Overall benefits: Hydrating + Protecting
The Tremella mushroom, which is also known as tremella fuciformis and the snow mushroom, holds an immense amount of weight in water. This hydrating powerhouse is rich in antioxidants and vitamin D. It can help with skin conditioning, hydration, and other overall benefits which is why it has landed itself an important role in our collagen support blend.*
Tremella fuciformis mushroom is not the same as a portobello or shiitake mushroom, meaning you probably won't be able to find it at your local grocery store and add it to a stir fry or stir it into pasta. Opting for a powder or extract is the best and most convenient way to add tremella to your diet and enjoy some of its amazing skincare benefits. We include tremella mushroom extract in all of our plant-based collagen boost blends, which help your body naturally synthesize more collagen, resulting in stronger hair, skin, and nails.*
Chaga
Overall Benefits: Antioxidants, restoration, and helping with redness or sensitivity
Chaga, which also holds crown as the “king of mushrooms”, is budding into a household name in skincare, and for good reason! You also might have seen it on menus recently as the chagaccino! It hosts an amazing amounts of antioxidants that aid things like immunity and overall well-being. Chaga has antibacterial and antiviral qualities as well as SOD, or superoxide dismutase, which is an enzyme that can help the body break down superoxide radicals.* With these qualities, Chaga might help restore the skin barrier and support other beauty benefits.*
Reishi
Overall Benefits: Helps with signs of aging and is soothing
Some call reishi the mushroom of immortality, or the queen mushroom, which why it makes complete sense to add it to our skincare roundup. It is known as an adaptogenic mushroom that can help with strengthening your skin barrier and also help your body adapt to stress.* We all know how stress can affect our skin and hair! Using topically, it could help with irritated skin to help calm external redness and such.*
Shiitake
Overall Benefits: Can help with brightening and evening skin tone
Shitake used topically could help with fading dark spots or uneven skin tones.* It has high levels of Kojic Acid which is known for improving skin tone. Shitake and adding it to your diet can also be a natural way to help your collagen production!* It is rich in amino acids and antioxidants that naturally aid your skin and its fight against environmental stressors.*
Cordyceps Mushroom
Overall Benefits: Great antioxidants, can help with skin elasticity, and anti-inflammatory properties
Cordyceps is a well-rounded mushroom because of its antioxidants that help hydrate skin, boost natural collagen, and help with elastin production.* The antioxidants help support the fight against free radicals that play a role in signs of aging.* It often is used to help with eczema and help the skin with signs of aging due to its anti-inflammatory properties.*
If you want to learn more about why we decided to add the Tremella Mushroom to our vegan collagen blends, take a peek at our ultimate guide to our ingredients. We’ve added the snow mushroom into all of our blends. If you want to see where you can get a shroomy latte or shroom-boosted smoothie, check out our store locator.
If you want a shroomy latte everyday of the week, try using our collagen creamers, Matcha Collagen blend, or our Cacao Calm. Each can give you your daily dose of tremella mushroom and other benefits including amla berry, biotin, and bamboo leaf extract to name a few!
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