Do you know what’s in some  of your skin care products?

Women and men around the world are increasingly looking for magical beauty ingredients. From snail slime to donkey milk and plancenta, here are just some of the squirm-worthy stuff that are often praised for all their skincare goodness. PHOTO| FILE| NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Infant foreskin is collected from circumcised babies. When applied it apparently promotes cell regeneration, or simply put, new growth. Thirty grams cost $250. Highly controversial, Oprah admitted usage and caught a lot of flak for it. HuffPost

    cites use in Hydrafacials “to fight acne, treat hyper pigmentation and reduce wrinkles.”

As someone who self identifies as vain and quite curious, I am constantly researching beauty products. The most peculiar things turn up. The audacity of beauty experiments is refreshing.

They really will try anything. Aside from the hilariously bizarre like soaking in donkey’s milk, there are the those that are  expensive. Even more laughable is how women attach value to ingredients in products they repeatedly use.

This list is quite literally the stuff of sci-fi.

- Soft as a baby’s bum can mean actual babies are involved. Placenta is becoming increasingly common. It started with celebrities eating placentas after birth, crushing them into pills or blending them for smoothies.

Aside from being filled with proteins for the hair and skin it allegedly speeds recovery post baby, protects against postnatal depression and increase milk production.

It minimises hair shedding because it is in some shampoos, and melasma. For the record, doctors are not sure about placentophagy, very common among animals. Still, there are hair and skin products in the market.

So if your placenta makes you feel icky perhaps sheep placenta might do the trick. Extracted post birth, it reduces skin inflammation. 

 If you want to gradually clear and smooth your skin but are not a fan of acidic facial peels, consider the baby salmon. Discovered by the famed Dr Perricone for his cosmoceutical range, the little fishes secrete enzymes when they hatch that can be used to

exfoliate the skin. The fluid, he says, “contains peptides, proteins and protease” that “turns off” once unwanted skin has been exfoliated reducing the risk of irritation and sensitivity.

 Purified human umbilical cord serum is said to stop, slow down and reverse ageing in 30 days. Made in a US cryobank, the serum is processed, inspected and certified by the Food and Drug Administration before going to market. Why pick this serum? It

reduces inflammation, repairs damaged skin tissue and stimulates collagen production.

Infant foreskin is collected from circumcised babies. When applied it apparently promotes cell regeneration, or simply put, new growth. Thirty grams cost $250. Highly controversial, Oprah admitted usage and caught a lot of flak for it. HuffPost cites use in

Hydrafacials “to fight acne, treat hyper pigmentation and reduce wrinkles.”

BIRD POOP

 Bird poop contains urea. It softens skin and gives you a glow. Bird poops is nothing to be crapped at. It fights discolouration, evens out skin tone and repairs sun damage. It is also used in nail polish and cosmetics. 

 You know how bee stings make your skin swell? It turns out their venom works in reverse when applied topically. It soothes acne and has anti-aging and anti-wrinkle benefits. 

 Harvested human skin results from research to heal burn victims by growing new skin. It is not exactly the kind of thing you walk into a lab and ask the technician to grant. WorldHealth.net state a doctor discovered wounds release Epidermal Growth Factor (EGF) that when applied to wounds and burns accelerates healing. He believed this could regenerate ageing skin and developed a skincare range around it. Originally controversial because it was believed to fall under stem cell, the beauty industry drew inspiration from the technology.  

 My all time favourite ingredient remains snail slime. Rich in glycolic acid, collagen and elastin, snail slime may be a South Korea patent, but Cameoon used it to treat burns.

 In October 2015 a South African company named Repcillin disclosed attempts to extract crocodile oil. Containing vitamins A and E, fatty acids rivaling the darling of the health and beauty world coconut oil, it is extracted once the meat and hide have been harvested.

Repcillin say crocodile oil used to be discarded but they will now harvest it for beauty products.

 Yeast is associated with bread. And with the crazy reaction to gluten, earned a bit of a reputation. However, as of August 2015 beauty brands have embraced it for its amino acids, proteins, minerals, antioxidants and vitamin B. It hydrates, is anti-aging,

brightens skin and produces collagen. It is now a top skin care contender. Women of colour will likely find products with yeast to correct hyper pigmentation. 

 Bull semen is said to be an antioxidant 30 times stronger than vitamin E. It is quite versatile; from healing sunburn to moisturising skin. Some UK salons admit to using it in its purest form to give hair extra shine. A Norwegian company makes spermine face

cream going for $250 (Sh25,000) a jar.

Know what is in that product you so love and how you feel about it, process, packaging and all.