Mushrooms have been valued as a traditional source of natural bioactive compounds for centuries and have recently been exploited for potential components in cosmetics industry. Numerous mushrooms and their ingredients have been known to be beneficial to the skin and hair. The representative ingredients are as follows: phenolics, polyphenolics, terpenoids, selenium, polysaccharides, vitamins and volatile organic compounds. These compounds show excellent antioxidant, anti-aging, anti-wrinkle, skin whitening, and moisturizing effects which make them ideal candidates for cosmetics products. This review provides some perspectives of mushrooms (and/or extracts) and their ingredients presently used, or patented to be used, in both cosmeceuticals for topical administration and nutricosmetics for oral administration. With the small percentage of mushrooms presently identified and utilized, more mushroom species will be discovered, verified, and cultivated in the future, boosting the development of relevant industry. Combining with progress in genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and systems pharmacology, mushrooms can find their way into cosmetics with multiple approaches.

Hydrophobins are surface active proteins that are produced by filamentous fungi including mushrooms. Their ability to self-assemble into an amphipathic membrane at any hydrophilic–hydrophobic interface is most intriguing. These small secreted proteins comprise of eight conserved cysteine residues which form four disulfide bridges and an extraordinary hydrophobic patch. Hydrophobins play critical roles in fungal (and/or mushrooms) growth as structural components and in the interaction of fungi and mushrooms with the environment. The biophysical and biochemical properties of the isolated proteins are remarkable, such as strong adhesion, high surface activity and the formation of various self-assembled structures. With the increasing demands of hydrophobins from fungi and mushroom sources, production and purification in large scale is under challenge. Various applications, ranging from food industries, cosmetics, nanotechnology, biosensors and electrodes, to biomaterials and pharmaceuticals are emerging and a bright future is foreseen.

Cellulose is the most abundant organic polymer constituent of the cell wall of green plants and of various forms of algae. The complexity of lignocellulosic biomass is a major challenge in industrial research. Most mushroom species that naturally grow on soil or wood possess cellulases and the corresponding enzymatic system and, potential candidates for the direct bioconversion of softwood polysaccharides into fermentable sugars. However, there have been fewer studies on mushroom cellulases than on fungi such as Trichoderma spp., exploit the full potential of mushroom cellulases. This review will focus on the current status ofmushroom cellulase research and applications and will provide insight into promising future prospects.