Skincare Benefits of Kakadu Plum - Why Is Kakadu Plum Good for Skin?

The popularity of superfood has reached the point where we no longer resort to just eating them, but now adding them to our skincare routine! It just so happens that deep in Northern Australia grows an almighty powerhouse of a fruit called the Kakadu plum, which also goes by the name of the Billygoat plum.

Grown without any invention from humans and harvested in an extremely eco-friendly manner that not only protects the habitat of this ancient plum. Used for thousands of years by the native people of Australia for medicinal purposes due to its anti-inflammatory properties, great for helping with headaches and treating colds and flu. There are also the antiseptic properties too, meaning the plum was added to balms to help with wounds.  

For a fruit that is no bigger than a large olive, the Kakadu plum packs more vitamin C than you could ever imagine. 3,000mg of vitamin C per 100g fruit, which is a concentrate 50% higher than 100  oranges. Packs a punch for such a small fruit huh? Our skin hugely benefits from vitamin C, but that’s not just the only benefits this supercharged fruit can offer your skin!

For the next part of this article, I want to run through all the benefits of this wonder fruit for you all to have a better understanding of how this unknown ingredient is the miracle your skin’s been missing.

Anti-Ageing Benefits of Kakadu Plum

As previously mentioned, the Kakadu plum is full of vitamin C. This ingredient is known to stimulate the production of collagen in the skin, this allows your face to appear plumped and firm with a more youthful look. The production of the collagen also results in fine lines and wrinkles becoming reduced in appearance.

The complexion is also brightened and any scarring and hyperpigmentation from sun damage or left-over acne scarring become less visible to the eye and lighter in pigmentation.

Is Kakadu Plum Antioxidant Rich?

The Kakadu plum is as rich in antioxidants as vitamin C! Ellagic acid is one of the powerful benefits, it is a strong antioxidant which you will also find in strawberries, walnuts and almonds too. It also just happens to have superior antioxidant abilities that are five times more powerful than blueberries.

Including antioxidants into your regime is hugely powerful due to the fact that antioxidants neutralise unstable molecules know as free radicals. If your skin happens to have an excessive amount of free radicals can harm the skin's barrier and cause oxidant stress. Antioxidants come and bind the free radicals protecting the cells on your skin against the toxic effects which result in damage. The damage is caused by environmental factors and by this I mean, pollution and overexposure to the sun’s UV rays.

Kakadu Plum Is Naturally Antibacterial

The plum is naturally antibacterial, one of the main reasons it has been used so much by the indigenous people in Northern Australia, the fruit contains two ingredients that make it such a powerful product. Phytochemicals gallic and ellagic acids are both sought after for their antifungal and antibacterial properties.

Gallic acid- is able to kill bacteria and restore the skin’s natural barrier

Ellagic acid- encourages the production of the skin’s elasticity and suppleness  

This has meant the extract of the Kakadu plum is ideal for any skincare products formulated to help blemish-prone skin, by fighting the spot producing bacteria and also restoring balance to the overall skin health and appearance.

Kakadu Plum Helps Reduce Redness

Kakadu plum oil extract is deeply soothing for the skin and is able to reduce any irritation and sensitivity your skin may be experiencing.

Due to the fruit containing Gallic acid, which had previously been mentioned, which is a natural anti-inflammatory which calms inflammation and sore skin that is irritated and sensitive. Due to the fact that this is such a natural, botanical ingredient, it is gentle and effective enough to use on a lot of skin types, however, there are some risks to take into consideration when using such a potent extract.

If you have an extremely sensitive skin type, the best thing to do before drowning yourself in products containing Kakadu plum, is to perform a small patch test first of all. This will allow you to see if your skin can handle the strength of the extract. If you happen to have dry and sensitive skin and your patch test has shown no reaction, then the most effective way to gain the benefits is to layer Kakadu products with hyaluronic acid to avoid any potential stinging.

Kakadu Plum Helps Fight Skin Infections

It isn’t just the fruit itself that contains skin benefits, the inner bark of the Kakadu plum tree can be extracted and used to cure many skin disorders and infections.

Due to the antifungal and antiseptic properties, the bark extract is an excellent wound healer! A treatment balm can be used on wounds, sores, boils and many more, including treating the skin conditions such as psoriasis.

Kakadu Plum For Hair Care

It will appear this super fruit helps more areas than you thought. Kakadu plum gives hydration and moisture to the hair and levels of collagen are maintained throughout, which is essential for the hair to remain healthy and grow.

With the moisturisation given to hair, you will find your hair is shiny, healthy-looking with plenty of bounce, frizzy, dry tresses are smoothed out and detangled which notable leads to less breakage to the hair and keeps it remaining thick and strong.

It’s amazing to think this incredibly plum, smaller than a kiwi, found on the other side of the world could quite possibly be the answers to our skin prays. With all the benefits and skin-saving ingredients in such a high concentrate, it’s a wonder we haven’t discovered it sooner. Thinking about it though, in a way, the harvesting and growing of this fruit are so wonderfully sustainable, it makes it just that little bit more precious, in a place that has so much history and culture! There has been an increase in the popularity of A-beauty (that means Australian Beauty don’t you know) the ethos and attitude backing A-beauty is one of simplicity and a laidback approach to beauty and skincare, the polar opposite to the better know K-beauty, which consists of a  complicated 10 step skincare routine.

Natural, effective ingredients are an important factor, which will probably explain the popularity of the Kakadu plum in products, due to the fact it’s at its most effective and fully active when at its most pure and natural state.

So there is a little more information for this bush harvested wonder, without a witchetty grub in sight!