Anti aging:From Baby Foreskins to Guano; Do These Nasty Ingredients Provide Anti-Aging Beauty? by Lorne Caplan

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I happen to be a big fan of finding new and exciting ingredients that work to provide anti-aging beauty and regularly attend trade and consumer events to seek them out.

While at the recent Natural Products Expo East, I came across a company that was using the slime from jellyfish tentacles to extract a protein that purportedly helps improve the memory links in humans by rebuilding the sheaths of our nerves and other claims. I used to carry a line of product called SkinMedica that had an ingredient labeled TNS that was supposedly from the foreskins of babies (synthetic, they didn’t go around collecting foreskins, I think…). It smelled awful, but clients swore it helped alleviate wrinkles.

I then got a wonderful email from a friend who brought to light the skincare benefits for anti-aging beauty of Poo. The detail of the article wasn’t in depth, but it did note the benefits of the active ingredient in poo, in this case  Uguisu no Fun, or Nightingale droppings. This wonderful, well at least unique, ingredient is used by Geisha’s and Kabuki actors. The active ingredient is an amino acid called guanine known to be a skin lightener and as in many cases with enzymes, a gentle exfoliator.

The list of “special” ingredients can go on for pages if not fill up an interesting novel such as one recently published under the title “Wicked Plants“. In this book by Amy Stewart, we learn the benefits and how dangerous simple plants can be to our health, just as how something perceived as gross can actually be good for our skin.

If we keep in mind that certain ingredients that seem unsightly, actually have actives that show improvement in wrinkles, skin whitening, acne and other conditions, then we can get past the gross factor. Which is what it appears many people tend to do. In fact, most of the large cosmetics and skincare companies welcome ingredients that are wacky or a stretch, since consumers expect the outlandish to provide assured therapy. 

The Japanese culture is far from the only one that finds Guano and animal excrement therapeutic for skin conditions. Indeed, if they only knew what ingredient it was that worked they wouldn’t have to slop on the whole load, which is what the Geisha’s do when they process it (no smell, no bacteria). Not to be outdone, the French company Arbonne feels that bat excrement would make a wonderful addition to anyone’s skincare treatment. Most likely the same enzyme is responsible for the skin smoothing, clearing function of the cream. Alternatively, the humectants and surfactants are the actual actives in the cream, retaining moisture and attracting it, with the bat poo a draw for being outlandish, rather than actually efficacious.

We can reach back to Roman times to study the benefits of mud baths. Except in this case, the Romans included crocodile excrement to add that special zing to the facial and body treatments. Is this any worse than pulverized fish eggs that is used in numerous high end skincare treatments? It depends on your view of what is acceptable to put on your face to solve your skincare problems.

Pigeons, turtles and the mounds of poo from elephants have all been promoted as a solution to skincare problems of all kinds. Most are touted luxury skincare regimens, so one might ask do you have to be rich to slather excrement on your face? Or just too easily sold on any suggested promise. If you’ve read any of my previous posts, you would know that I have a healthy level of skepticism that suggests a healthy dose of reality needs to be added to any purchase decision.

Can enzymes, proteins, acids and other active ingredients in excrement actually work? Indeed we know that they can and once cleaned up, they may work better than some other naturals such as AHA’s, glycolic and other acids. However, if I had the option, I’d rather spend far less on my treatment, not have the bragging rights with my friends that I spread poop on my face and came away smelling delicious, rather than wondering if a dog might start to hump my leg because he liked my scent for another reason.