At-Home Shiitake Mushroom Beauty Care

Every man and woman ages and goes through stress each day. Each of us deals with unpreventable things that have adverse effects on our skin. Lots of us dish out a whole bunch of money to get products containing just a pinch of natural extracts and ingredients (along with some pretty harsh chemical additives) that can heal and repair our skin. It seems silly sometimes, when you realize how much better at home skincare can be for your skin, your wallet, and the planet!

One of the most extravagant all natural ingredients you can use for spoiling your skin at home is the shiitake mushroom. It's a hearty fungus that's got tons of good stuff inside! Shiitake mushrooms have well known antiviral and antibacterial properties, making it a great natural cleanser for the outside and inside of your body. These super shrooms also have vitamins B5 and B6, riboflavin and potassium, making them fantastic at smoothing out the feel and tone of your skin while adding beneficial natural goodies to your thirsty pores. Shiitake mushrooms also have lots of pantothenic acid (also known as B5), which is widely used the world over in some of the best acne treatment programs around!

Now that you know how good this awesome fungus is for your skin, it's time to find out how to use it to it's full potential! The easiest way to use the shiitake mushroom at home for skincare is to purchase the powdered extract, or to purchase the dried mushrooms themselves and crush them. You can use a mortar and pestle to get a fine, coarse powder that will help exfoliate a bit better, or you can actually just pop the dried mushrooms right in a food processor! Once you've got a more powdery, loose substance to work with, put about a half cup of it into a medium sized glass bowl.

In this bowl of powdered goodness, add a few pinches of unaltered sea salt, and about a teaspoon of white cane sugar. Mix the dry ingredients together well, and little by little, begin adding tablespoon after tablespoon of whole milk. Keep adding until you've reached a paste like consistency in your bowl, and finish off by dropping two good sized drops of almond oil. (If you can't find or don't have almond oil, extra virgin olive oil works just as well!)

Mix this paste together with your fingertips in the glass bowl. What you have in front of you is a skin treatment that would cost you a pretty penny at a spa! This amazing mixture contains all the wonderful natural goodness of shiitake mushrooms, as well as the added benefits of exfoliating salts and sugar, and the moisture of natural oils. You can use this as a body scrub, and even try leaving it on your skin for about 5 minutes! The results are smoother, softer, more naturally shiny skin that turns heads.

Another fun tip for your dried shiitake mushrooms is to add the simple powder to a tiny bit of honey and an egg white. You can put this mixture on the dark circles beneath your eyes, as well as the corners of your nose. It will even out your skin tone, brightening those dark circles and drawing any acne causing oils out of the trouble spots near your nose! This is a great spot treatment for acne, too!

(Info, including health benefits and uses at Shiitake Center)