Kate Beckinsale has revealed that she keeps her face looking youthful by using a ‘foreskin facial’ – that’s right, she puts the cells of tiny penises on her face.
The 45-year-old actor posted on Instagram that she had been to see facialist to the stars, Georgia Louise Atelier in New York, and had her trademark ‘Hollywood EGF facial’ – EGF supposedly means epidermal growth factor.
To the unsuspecting reader this might sound innocuous enough, but the serum used is actually made up of ingredients derived from the circumcised foreskins of newborn babies in South Korea. Weird.
The so-called ‘penis facial’ costs $650 and counts other celebrities like Sandra Bullock and Cate Blanchett as fans.
A representative for Atelier previously told HuffPost that the facial consists of a chemical peel followed by micro-needling (a process of creating tiny holes in the skin to create new collagen). This gets the skin ready for the foreskin cells.
The stem cells are harvested from foreskins and then cloned in a laboratory and injected in below the top layer of skin to encourage regeneration.
Atelier said she is always mindful of informing her clients where the EGF comes from. “I always explain that EGF is derived from newborn baby foreskin, but [that] cells were taken and from that, new cells are cloned from a laboratory,” she said. “The EGF serum only contains cloned cells.”
It doesn’t seem to be putting anyone off. Hardly surprising when you consider the other things people are doing their celebrities are doing to their faces...
Vampire Facial
Kim Kardashian is the most well-known fan of the ‘vampire facial’ which she first had in an episode of ‘Keeping Up With The Kardashians’.
The vampire facial, which makes you look like you’ve had a run in which a cheese grater, requires a doctor to draw blood from you, spin it in a centrifuge to extract the platelet-rich plasma (known as PRP) and then inject it back into your skin. It supposedly improves skin tone, texture and smooths fine lines.
Semen Facial
It seems that it isn’t just foreskins women want to put on their faces but also semen. Back in 2015 a British beauty blogger claimed that regular semen facials, which involved just smearing her male friend’s ejaculate all over her face and letting it set into a firm mask, were helping to cure her rosacea.
Dermatologists were not in agreement that this was a good method of clearing your skin. But that doesn’t seem to have stopped people from giving it a go.
Placenta Facial
Another day, another person trying to use weird parts of babies to try and find the holy grail of youth. Except here they are using baby sheep not humans.
Victoria Beckham and Simon Cowell are supposedly fans of the procedure which uses a stem cell concentrate made up of sheep placenta and hyaluronic acid to treat the skin. Although at around £185 for a 75 minutes treatment (and only available at Harvey Nichols), we won’t be getting one any time soon.
Liquid Gold Facial
Out of all the weird and wonderful skin treatments this one at least seems decadent in a good way – just imagine the selfies you could get.
Although the offerings differ depending on where you have it done, a gold facial will generally involve the aesthetician massaging sheets of 24-karat gold leaf onto your skin. Or, they might coat your face with colloidal gold, a liquid solution with gold nanoparticles in it. Either way, it’s extra AF.
Snail Facial
And if you aren’t satisfied with using weird parts of human bodies in your skincare routine then why not use some animals or insects instead? This facial launched in Japan in 2013 involves live snails crawling all over you.
Supposedly it’s good for you because the mucus has a powerful mix of antioxidants, hyaluronic acid and proteins. All of which help the skin retain moisture, soothe any inflammations and even act as an exfoliant for dead skin cells. Take it from us: we won’t be slugging you out for this one.