What do mushrooms do in skincare?

Why put mushrooms in a face mask?

Because few things in the forest are as quietly remarkable. Mushrooms are fungi, not plants. They build their cell walls from long chains of sugar, chitin and beta-glucans among them, and they make their own pigments and antioxidants. People have cooked with them and valued them in traditional medicine for centuries.

They have a place in beauty, too. Reishi, maitake, chaga, shiitake, turkey tail and tremella all appear in cosmetics or cosmetic patents, and reishi has been used in Japanese skincare since the 1980s. Shroom Therapy gathers that tradition into one mask: a 25 mushroom complex, every mushroom named on the list with its species, set in mineral clays.

What do mushroom beta-glucans do on skin?

They hold water. Beta-glucans are long, water-loving sugar chains, and a 2025 review in Food Science & Nutrition describes them forming a dense film on the skin that retains moisture and slows water loss. That’s why they’re prized in moisturizing skincare, and in Shroom Therapy they’re part of why skin feels soft after you rinse.

Tremella, the snow mushroom, shows how much water a mushroom can hold. Its polysaccharides are so good at it that tremella has become a favourite in hydrating skincare. In a small 2021 study of 20 volunteers, a hand gel made with snow mushroom extract kept skin more moisturized than a placebo gel for the full three hours measured. Researchers are still exploring what else it can do, mostly in the lab so far.

Are mushrooms rich in antioxidants?

Remarkably so. Mushrooms are among the richest food sources of two antioxidants, ergothioneine and glutathione. When Penn State researchers measured 13 species in 2017, porcini had by far the most ergothioneine, and even everyday white button mushrooms had more of these antioxidants than most other foods. The same team has found that shiitake, oyster and maitake carry about three to four times as much ergothioneine as button mushrooms. Every one of these is in Shroom Therapy.

Researchers are curious about ergothioneine for skin, too: skin cells carry a dedicated transporter for it, especially in the epidermis, the skin’s outer layer. That work is still mostly in the lab.

Other mushrooms bring antioxidants of their own. Chaga, the dark growth found on birch trees, is rich in them, and its colour comes from natural melanin pigments that show antioxidant activity in lab tests. Meshima carries hispidin, a potent antioxidant in lab studies, and turkey tail holds dozens of phenolic compounds.

These measurements are of the mushrooms themselves, in food and in the lab. On your skin, Shroom Therapy is a rinse-off mask, so we describe what you’ll see and feel: skin that looks clearer and feels soft.

What are adaptogens?

“Adaptogen” is a term coined in the 1940s by the Soviet scientist N. V. Lazarev for natural substances thought to raise the body’s general resistance to stress. Some mushrooms were treasured long before the word existed. Reishi, lingzhi in Chinese, has been renowned in China for more than 2,000 years. Cordyceps has a long tradition in Asian medicine for its tonic, adaptogenic reputation, and poria has been part of traditional Chinese medicine for over 2,000 years. Chaga has its own folk history: it has been used in Eastern Europe since the 12th century.

It’s a traditional idea about the whole body. Europe’s medicines regulator accepts it for traditional herbal medicines rather than as a clinical term, and it describes tonics taken by mouth, not anything a face mask does. We love the history it carries. On your skin, these mushrooms bring something you can feel: polysaccharides that hold water, and antioxidants.

Which mushrooms are in Shroom Therapy?

The ingredient list names every mushroom in the 25 mushroom complex with its species, and marks each one with an asterisk; the footnote reads “*Organic”. They follow the clays, from lion’s mane at No. 4 to clamshell at No. 28, with cinnamon bark last. Here are some of them, and what each is known for.

Every mushroom on the list has its own page in the mushroom complex, with its species and where it sits on the list.

Why is Shroom Therapy a powder?

Microbes need available water to grow. The international guideline for cosmetic microbiology, ISO 29621, treats products with very low water activity as low risk for microbial contamination. A dry powder has very little available water, which is why Shroom Therapy needs no preservative.

It also means every mask is made fresh, by you. Mix a tablespoon of the powder with a teaspoon or two of warm water into a smooth paste, using a dry spoon, and keep water out of the jar. Mix only what you’ll use: once water is in, nothing keeps the paste fresh.

What do the clays do?

The mushrooms sit in mineral clays, listed first: illite and montmorillonite, bentonite and Moroccan lava clay, also sold as rhassoul. Clay particles are fine and absorbent, and a 2024 review in Archives of Dermatological Research describes bentonite and montmorillonite absorbing excess oil. As the mask sets, the clays lift oil and surface buildup, so skin looks clearer and feels refreshed.

How do you use a mushroom mask?

Once a week, in place of your scrub. Spread the paste over your face and leave it on for about 15 to 20 minutes while it sets. To take it off, wet a washcloth with warm water and press it to your face: the water rehydrates the dried clay so it wipes away easily. Then cleanse and finish your routine; our night routine shows where it fits.

Your skin may look a little red for a while afterwards. That’s normal: it fades within about 30 minutes, and it’s the mask doing its job. What stays is skin that looks clearer and feels soft. Because the mask contains cinnamon bark, patch test first if your skin is sensitive.