Skin care

No Animals Harmed: 7 Most Bizarre Beauty Treatments

Spa treatments featuring live animals may be all-natural, but they're also squirm-inducing

by Erica Smith | COMMENT

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Brightening bird poop facial, $180 You know we're truly in the era of #FirstWorldProblems when people are dropping $180 to get their faces slathered in bird poop -- a treatment known as the geisha facial. "Why not stand next to my vehicle and volunteer myself as target practice?" you may ask. Because these aren't your average city pigeon droppings. No, these prized droppings come from organic-fed, Asian nightingales, whose poop contain the enzyme guanine. Even though you've never heard of it, chances are, you've used it in your beauty regimen. The amino acid is added to shampoos, lipsticks and nail polishes to get that pearly, iridescent shine. In facial form, guanine is said to have bleaching qualities due to its ability to gently brighten and exfoliate skin.

For centuries, geishas and kabuki performers relied on bird poop facials to cleanse their faces of the heavy, white makeup they regularly used, (the same makeup that was also loaded with dangerous zinc and lead, but I digress). Shizuka New York's modern-day version of the geisha facial mixes the poop with rice bran for extra exfoliation. The treatment is then finished off with a green tea collagen mask to up elasticity.

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