Would You Try It: Bird Poop Facials and Earthworm Face Cream
It seems as though everyone is in an unspoken race to look young. The market for anti-aging creams and facials has been booming in our youth-obsessed culture. Whatever magazine you are looking in, you will find ads upon ads showing off the newest ways to look young and rejuvenate your skin.
Upon searching the internet, we came across a trend of using odd ingredients in spa treatments. We were surprised, and not to mention a tad bit grossed out, to find out what additives some spas are including in their services.
Bird droppings are not exactly what we think about when we imagine a facial. According to the New York Times, this trend of using bird poop in a facial, done by Shizuka New York Day Spa, dates back to the days of the Geisha. They would use this method to remove all of the heavy white lead-based makeup that they wore. The modernized version uses ultraviolet light to sanitize the nightingale droppings, which are then mixed with rice bran to exfoliate and brighten the skin. We wouldn’t suggest going out and collecting poop from your everyday pigeon, as the specific breed of nightingale excrement contains guanine which is supposed to shine the skin as well.
Even if this was true, we know that we would still be skeptical about using the excretion on our faces. We have heard a lot about how getting pooped on by a bird is supposedly “good luck,” but you still won’t catch us standing around waiting for that to happen. Celebrities, such as Victoria Beckham, swear by this odd treatment. The hour long process will set you back about $180.
Another crazy ingredient that has gained popularity is earthworm castings, or poop. It has been long used as plant growing fuel. We don’t know who discovered that this was a good ingredient for face creams, but they must have had some time on their hands. Apparently, the castings contain copper peptides, humate, auxins, kinetins and cytokinins, which all translate to mean that they promote healthy cell growth and firm your skin.
Wrinkle Butter, from a small company called Fresh Beauty Market, contains a higher concentration of anti-aging compounds than the super expensive creams.
Worse that the other two, we would say, is the Placenta facial being offered for a whopping $350 to $500 dollars. This outlandish procedure has been used by stars such as Denise Richards and Megan Fox. Louise Deschamps, a licensed skin care specialist who practices in Beverly Hills, told CNN.com that using the afterbirth is especially good for people with acne-prone skin. This is by far one of the craziest ingredients to put on your face, but hey if it works for you, it works for you.
Let us know what you think about these outlandish ingredients and whether or not you would want to try these out!
[Image via Istock.com]
