Ginger is a superhero product that is versatile in its many uses. It has been a tried-and-true root plant that has been used in natural remedies and professional treatments for decades. Over time, it has also gained its way into beauty and skincare world through the helpful benefits it can provide.
Through its ability to calm, protect, and heal the skin, ginger is being found in more skincare products, like soaps, that can easily be added to your typical routine.
Whether you are interested in making soaps at home, or enjoy purchasing natural, pre-made soaps, ginger is an ideal ingredient to formulate the base of the soap around.
Infusing ginger can be done through oils or extracts from the plant itself, and can provide many benefits to the skin whether it is being used on the face or the body.
What are the benefits to using a ginger soap? Ginger is a powerful natural ingredient that can help with stimulating blood circulation, helping to fade dark marks left by scars, and reducing any inflammation as some of the most popular skincare benefits.
It works to brighten the skin’s appearance, as well as detox the skin. Below we discuss further the benefits of ginger soap, how you can incorporate ginger into your beauty routine, and the best ingredients to pair the superfood with!
What Is Ginger Soap?
Ginger soap is a soap that is formulated with the main ingredient being either ginger essential oils, ground ginger, or ginger extracts. It is a product that can be either homemade or store bought and is found in both liquid and solid bar form, depending on your intended use and preference.
Ginger as an ingredient has a variety of skincare, beauty, and health benefits that can be used in many different ways.
Ginger is a root-based superfood, that has been used for decades both medically and cosmetically. It has been used as anti-inflammatory in both skincare and medical varieties. It is a common remedy to help aid in digestion and relieve nausea.
It is also commonly used as a pain reliver and to boost the immune system. With all the benefits it is able to provide in both health and beauty, it is an easy ingredient to naturally include in your routine.
Here’s a great tutorial for making your own ginger soap from The Soap Craft PH on YouTube.
Ginger Benefits In Skincare
Most commonly ginger is known as an anti-inflammatory ingredient. It can help to reduce irritation on the skin and calm the skin down when it is used in the form of a soap.
Along with having anti-inflammatory properties, ginger is rich in antioxidants which helps to protect skin from harmful free radicals and environmental damage.
Ginger soap can also help to improve the clarity of the skin by providing a glowing appearance. Ginger helps to encourage blood circulation, which can enhance the skin’s appearance by providing a glowing flush to the skin. The increased blood circulation can also aid in reducing the appearance of cellulite in certain areas on the body.
Often times, ginger soap can be added to a bath to as a detoxification treatment. The pungent scent of the ingredient, combined with the steam from the bath works to ease any joint pain or discomfort. Ginger baths are also used as treatment when trying to soothe the body when sick.
The toning properties found in ginger also work to even out the skin tone and fade discoloration left behind from scarring, such as acne scars.
While it helps to balance and even the skin tone, it works especially well when dealing with the appearance of hypopigmentation, which is when the scarred area appears lighter than the rest of the skin surrounding it.
With the increase of blood circulation, ginger can also help to improve the skin’s elasticity as well and encourage collagen production. This helps minimize the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles and improves the overall texture of the skin to be smooth and even.
Other Ingredients Used With Ginger Soap
Although ginger is a powerful ingredient with a whole host of benefits on its own, there are several other popular, natural ingredients that can also be paired with ginger to make a soap with added skincare benefits.
Especially if you are wanting to use this soap on the face as well as the body, there are certain ingredients that can further target your specific skin care concerns to deliver you the best results possible.
Tumeric
Turmeric is a popular natural ingredient that is often paired with ginger in skincare products, as they both have similar properties.
Similar to ginger, turmeric is another plant root-derived product that has been used for both health and cosmetic purposes. Turmeric is also an anti-inflammatory ingredient that is rich in antioxidants to help protect and preserve the skin’s appearance.
Turmeric is also a great ingredient to help reduce and prevent acne breakouts from occurring on the skin, while also working to fade any marks left behind from acne scarring.
Paired with ginger, both ingredients help to improve the skin’s radiance and clarity by providing enhancing the skin’s natural glow and eliminating any dullness or clogged pores. Using both ingredients in a body or face soap can leave you with skin that looks vibrant, even, and clear.
Citrus Extract
Another common ingredient that can be paired with ginger for an even complexion is a citrus extract like lemon. Both lemon and ginger work to even out discoloration on the skin and improve the overall radiance of the complexion.
If you are wanting to even out dark spots, hyperpigmentation, or scarring left on the face or body, using a lemon and ginger soap can help gently exfoliate the skin to even out the complexion.
Lemon and Honey
If you want to indulge your skin by using ginger as more of a treatment, you can also mix it with lemon and honey to create a face mask or spot treatment. Honey works to gently exfoliate the skin to eliminate dead skin cells, while also lightening areas of discoloration to leave you with a more evened out skin tone.
A ginger, lemon, and honey treatment combines the powerful properties of these natural ingredients to treat your skin to a radiant complexion.
Sugar and Olive Oil
Along with creating an indulgent face mask, you can also mix ginger with sugar and olive oil to create an all-natural scrub to exfoliate away dead skin cells to reveal a smooth and brightened appearance. The scrub also helps to increase blood circulation, which works to provide a healthy glow to the skin.
When To Use Ginger Soap In Your Routine
Ginger can be used in your skincare routine in many ways, depending on your target concern. Not only can it be used by adding the extract into a soap, but it can also be used whole on its own to provide natural healing benefits to the skin.
If you are looking to fade areas of discoloration, especially marks left behind by acne breakout, you can place a slice of ginger on the specific area and let sit on the skin for several minutes, until the natural juice dries, and remove.
This treatment can be done multiple times throughout the week as it works to effectively fade any discoloration left behind by scarring.
Ginger works well as a soap, providing all the needed benefits to target a variety of skin concerns, but it can also be amplified by adding other powerhouse ingredients to make into a mask or exfoliator.
When ginger is combined with other ingredients that have similar properties, they enhance one another by providing the best ways to treat the areas of concern together.
However, ginger soap on its own can help to deliver you the skincare results you are after. It is an ingredient that can work for any skin type or skin tone and does not have any negative side effects.
If you are planning to incorporate ginger soap into your routine, though, it is always best to do a patch test with the natural ingredient to spot any potential allergic reaction.
Ginger soap can be used as a daily face or body cleanser, if desired. As it can work for any skin type, it should not be overly drying on the skin which can cause skin to appear dull or textured. It will instead provide the face or body with smooth and clear skin that has a healthy, natural glow.
Conclusion
In general ginger is a superhero ingredient that has stood the test of time, both medically and cosmetically. Medically, it can treat various concerns ranging from boosting immunity to aiding in healing wounds, to relieving nausea.
Cosmetically, it can also provide a variety of benefits from encouraging increased blood circulation to provide a healthy glow to the skin, minimizing the appearance of discoloration, and promoting an increase of collagen production to soothe fine lines and wrinkles.
Whether you are looking to add a ginger soap into your routine as part of your bath time ritual, or are looking to incorporate it as part of your skincare routine, using a ginger soap can work for you no matter your skin type, tone, or concern, by providing a glowing, clear, and even complexion.