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subscribe to beauty blog via RSSA Field Guide For The Beauty Thrill Seeker
October 10, 2008 5:52 pm
Thanks to some intrepid reporting from our editor friends across the pond, we bring you a roundup of the bizarre and terrifying beauty treatments that have made headlines this year. As London’s Daily Mail reported yesterday, there is in fact quite a glut of women (and presumably some high-maintenance men) who will simply not settle for anything short of new, extreme, and borderline crazy when it comes to treating their skin.
—For the discriminating facial customer, there’s nightingale excrement, packed with guanine that contains enzymes and an illuminating amino acid that has been used in Japanese skin-brightening treatments for centuries.
—Looking for a new way to quench parched hair? It’s all about the sperm from organically reared Angus bulls, which is apparently high in pure proteins that penetrate the hair shaft, nourishing it from within.
—If a normal pedicure doesn’t rid your feet of calluses to your liking, forgo the pumice for flesh-eating garra rufa fish, tiny toothless fish known as doctor fish in their native Turkey, which produce a chemical in their saliva that softens outer skin layers, which they then painlessly nibble away.
—The marine botanicals in Crème de la Mer have nothing on Elicina, the cult anti-wrinkle cream made from the secretion of 10,000 snails, which contains allantoin, a powerful antioxidant said to protect the skin from free radicals.
—If the idea of botulism toxin turns you off, how do you feel about snake venom? Syn-Vipe, a protein that is a replica of the venom produced by the temple viper, is the active ingredient in Biodroga’s Venom Cream—and allegedly has the same face-freezing effects as Botox, relaxing facial muscles to reduce fine lines and wrinkles.
Photo: Getty Images
tags: Allantoin, Biodroga, Bull semen, Crème de La Mer, Elicina, Garra rufa fish, Guanine, Haris Salon, Syn-Vipe, Venom Cream
