Chaga Soap
If you are familiar with the world of superfoods, you have no doubt heard of chaga. Originally a well-kept secret among Alaskans and Siberians, who used it as a folk remedy for generations, this unassuming mushroom has rapidly become one of the world’s most popular alternative health remedies. While traditionally consumed as a tea, enterprising chaga consumers have come up with a number of other ways to use the mushroom, the most surprising of which may be soap.
Yes, it is possible to use chaga in a soap, and a number of vendors have begun selling chaga-infused soap. Read on to discover how chaga soap can help you improve your health while getting you clean at the same time.
Chaga Soap
While commonly thought of as just a means of getting dirt and grime off your body, soap actually has a wide variety of health applications. Many industrially-produced soaps can actually harm your body due to artificial chemicals used in their production. Individuals with sensitive skin can develop rashes or other skin problems due to improperly-manufactured soaps. Because of this, you should consider a natural soap.
Bathing is the process by which you keep your skin healthy and clean. Your skin is the largest organ in your body and is responsible for ensuring that pathogens and other foreign entities do not penetrate into your organs and internal tissues. Over the course of a day, your skin will pick up dirt and other foreign objects. Soap exfoliates your skin, stripping off the dirt layer and leaving your skin ready to fight off more pathogens.
Chaga comes into play here because one of its most notable effects is reversing aging. Chaga contains large amounts of antioxidants, which are responsible for combating free radicals. Free radicals are free-floating particles that are present in your body, and they are primarily responsible for aging due to the way in which they collide with your cells, causing cellular damage. Antioxidants destroy free radicals whenever they come into contact with them, slowing and even reversing the aging process in some instances.
Applying chaga to the skin directly speeds up its anti-aging effects by delivering it to where it is needed most. It is because of this that many chaga users have begun using it in creams or face masks, concentrating it on the parts of the body where its anti-aging properties will do the most good. Chaga soap operates on the same principle: delivering chaga directly into your body’s pores, allowing it to get to work immediately.
Quality natural soap is generally manufactured using sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide. The former is generally used for hard, bar soap, while the latter is used for liquid soap. While these two ingredients are more expensive than animal fats or artificial soap ingredients, they also possess nutrients and substances that enhance the overall strength of the soap.
These substances also contain glycerin, which has been shown to have a moisturizing effect on the skin. Indeed, most moisturizing creams contain glycerin. Most commercial soap does not contain glycerin, which is why most soaps have a drying effect on the skin, requiring some users to re-moisturize with the use of creams and lotions. Glycerin in soap helps keep the skin moisturized throughout the day and also counteracts negative effects caused by the detergents that many use to wash their clothes.
Natural chaga soaps are generally made with a careful blend of lye. Lye is vital to the production of soap and too much lye will result in a harsh soap that can cause skin damage. Many natural soaps will include shea butter as part of the soap-making process. Shea butter will neutralize any remaining lye in the soap, ensuring that the final product is soothing to the skin. Natural chaga soaps can thus be used to treat eczema, psoriasis, and other skin ailments in addition to their existing effects.
Conclusion
Soap is something that many people don’t think too deeply about: they simply buy name-brand soaps at the store, wash themselves off at the end (or beginning) of the day, and don’t put any more consideration into it. However, by using these artificially-made soaps, you may be harming your skin by introducing dangerous chemicals into your body. These soaps are also abrasive to individuals whose skin is more sensitive, meaning they need a more natural solution to bathing.
Chaga soap, while a relatively recent innovation, is proven to work as a means of exfoliating the skin. With natural chaga soap, you get the benefits of a clean, organic soap that helps your skin instead of hurting it, and you also get to deliver the anti-aging benefits of chaga directly where they can do the most good. If you are in the market for a natural soap, chaga soap may be exactly what you need.