The quest for anti-ageing treatments is an ongoing pursuit for celebrities. The latest skin care trends making waves in the world of celebrity facials incorporates Snail Slime, Nightingale Excrement, Bee Venom, Viper Venom, Placental Extracts , The Vampire Facial, Black Diamond serum and toxin free Botox.
Snail Slime Facial:
Hot off the press is the recent launch of the ‘Celebrity Escargot Facial’ by a Japanese spa group in Tokyo. The facial includes the application of live snails to the skin. Snail slime contains a unique blend of proteins, anti-oxidants and hyaluronic acid. This special blend assists in moisture retention, healing and has an anti-inflammatory action on the skin.
Five snails are kept on the premises and are fed a healthy diet of organic vegetables, ensuring that they are clean, healthy and ready to work.
The facial consists of cleansing, after which the snails are applied and allowed to roam freely on the skin whilst a watchful therapist ensures they do not roam onto the lips and eye area. Use of an electrical pulse machine and snail slime infused creams ensures full penetration of the snails’ anti-ageing slime.
Nightingale Excrement
In the popular New York Shizuka Day Spa, frequented by some of Hollywood’s top celebs, including Tom Cruise, Jessica Simpson and Victoria Beckham, is a unique treatment called ‘The Geisha Facial’. It uses powdered Nightingale excrement in some of the products. Previously rumoured to be the secret of only the Geisha’s and Kabuki Actors, this is how the facial got its name.
Nightingale excrement is high in ureic acid which gives the skin a healthy and radiant glow.
Bee Venom Facials
Apparently the Duchess of Cambridge managed to achieve a luminous glow about her on her wedding day with the assistance of a bee venom facial. It works by gently stinging the skin, which makes it tingle and encourages blood to flow to the area. The beauty and spa world went crazy for bee venom after Kate’s mother-in-law, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, confessed to using the bizarre sounding facial treatment that was said to have left Camilla with a rosy glow about her.
The Vampire Facial
This particular facial has just recently resurfaced thanks to Kim Kardashian posting pics of herself on Twitter with her face covered in her own blood. In this facial the active ingredient is the clients own blood.
Upon arrival at the salon 3 phials of blood are drawn from the client and put through a centrifuge to separate the different components of the blood. This process takes about 20 minutes. The sought after ingredient is the blood derived growth factors.
The clients face is then anesthetized through a local anesthetic cream application, thereafter the blood components from the blood are injected back into the face. The injecting (which is painful) may result in some bruising and sensitivity for up to 3 weeks. The vampire facial is said to encourage new collagen growth, to refresh and rejuvenate the complexion.
Black Diamonds
Diamonds may already be a girl’s best friend, but black diamonds could be even more precious. Many celebrities have been on the waiting list for a facial serum which contains particles of the rare gem which claims to leave skin smoother, brighter and sparkling with youth.
Unlike paler diamonds, which reflect and bounce away light, black diamonds absorb light, helping even out skin tone and improve the complexion, say the makers.
Black diamonds convert normal UV rays, invisible to the naked eye, into blue light, which is scattered across the surface of the skin, emitting a subtle blue glow. This makes the complexion appear more youthful by helping reduce the appearance of shadows, wrinkles, pigmentation and discoloration. In clinical trials on around 1 000 women, the black diamond serum was said to reduce fine lines and wrinkles by up to 65 percent in 28 days.
Toxin Free Botox
Instead of injecting toxins into the face, a new technique, Lovera, uses ‘Focused Cold Therapy’ to literally freeze wrinkles into submission. It works instantly so, unlike Botox, there’s no five to ten day wait and the results last for about three months until the frozen section of the nerve re-grows.
Lovera is a good alternative for people who don’t want actual Botox. To chill the nerve, liquid nitrogen is passed into the needles (but not the skin) and the probes fur up with ice. When the chill-down cycle starts, it feels painful, rather than cold. FDA trials for the cosmetic, wrinkle-freezing aspect of the technique are into their final stages.
