14 DAY TRIAL // Men often remark that women are willing to basically put anything on their faces (cow dung is often referred to at this point with various degrees of derisiveness), provided that those particularly disgusting ingredients come with a nicely wrapped promise of helping our skin stay fresh-looking and young for longer. At which point, us ladies don't bother to bite back our tongues and come up with sharp replies that usually end with a muttered "I'd never put cow dung on my face, ever". How about snake venom or snail slime, cow's milk or placental proteins?
No, I'm not joking, nor have I gone completely insane for the sake of this argument. A recently compiled database of beauty products available around the world proves that as much as we'd hate to admit it, manufacturers at least seem to be convinced women are willing to buy the most bizarre skincare products, made with the strangest ingredients. British company Syence Skin Care, for example, is marketing a face cream aptly called "Snake Venom Memory Cream", which costs a whopping $350 per bottle and is said to contain a "mirror ingredient" to snake venom which allegedly helps melt away fine lines, wrinkles and crow's feet.
"There are now so many skincare products to choose from and manufacturers are increasingly having to look at the world around us in a new light to find bizarre new ingredients to make their products stand out from the crowd", explains Alexandra Richmond, a market research analyst with the company that compiled this unusual database. "By using these off-the-wall formulas, manufacturers are playing on the hope that something this wacky might just work", she added in an interview with the Daily Mail.
Also on the wacky side are a face cream manufactured in China from bee mucus extract and which has dubbed itself "a balancing and anti-wrinkle essence", as well as a Colombian-made moisturizer manufactured from purified snail slime, which promises wonderful skin regeneration if applied every night. A slightly more down-to-earth but equally uncomfortable option is a US-manufactured Placental Anti-Aging Serum which claims to be the perfect treatment for post-cosmetic procedures such as chemical peels due to the fact that it is "safe, sterile and completely digestible by the human body". So, how about it - if you were to choose one of these products, which one would you go for?