The Green Beauty Guide

Is it my post-pregnancy hormones staging a riot or does the idea of smearing faces with sludge made of squished postpartum material is repulsive, revolting, and plain dangerous? Apparently, placenta was just about to become a hot ingredient in skincare, if not for some troubling scientific research.

Purified extracts of cow and human placenta, it has been claimed,  can condition skin and hair due to high content of proteins and bioavailable (close to our own) vitamins and minerals. Placenta is the lining of the womb that is expelled after birth. Placenta allows the transfer of nutrients and oxygen from the mother to the fetus and the transfer of waste products and carbon dioxide back from the fetus to the mother, acting pretty much like lungs and bowels combined in one. In some cultures, the placenta is eaten, a practice known as placentophagy, and in some countries, placenta is buried.

Placental cosmetics were first invented as an injection by Dr. Paul Niehans in the early 1930’s. Since then, placenta enjoyed steady niche popularity, until recently when Jennifer Lopez revealed she used placenta facial treatments for keeping her skin looking younger for longer.

Most of placenta-based products are labeled as natural, but as always, such claims have little base, for these products are usually loaded with preservatives and penetration enhancers.

Placenta protein is the basis of virtually all medicinal substances and treatments derived from placenta. It is known to improve metabolic processes, accelerate tissue regeneration, and stimulate immunity; it mobilizes the body’s own defenses to fight infectious illnesses, injuries, and radiation damage; and it helps the body rid itself of toxins, carcinogens, radio-nuclides, heavy metal salts, and other metabolic by-products.

www.emkplacental.com

However, same extracts when used cosmetics give the body a tremendous surge in hormones. Environmental Working Group says that the amount of hormones supplied by placenta extracts “may be enough to spur breast growth in toddlers, according to a few recent case studies.”

Placenta is very rich in hormones. It produces progesterone,  somatomammotropin (also known as placental lactogen), as well as estrogen, relaxin, and beta human chorionic gonadotrophin (beta-hCG). The reported cosmetic benefits are most likely caused by high concentrations of amino acid glycine, which is contained in placenta. There are many other perfectly safe plant-derived sources of glycine - and you don’t need to rub someone’s birth aftermath into your face.

In 1998, several girls in Texas developed astonishingly prematurely following the use of placenta-based hair care products, most likely conditioners and shampoos. (Premature sexual development in children following the use of estrogen- or placenta-containing hair products. Tiwary CM. Clinical Pediatrics (Phila). 1998 Dec;37(12):733-9.)

Four African-American girls aged 14 months to 93 months developed breast or pubic hair 2 to 24 months after starting the use of estrogen or placenta-containing hair products. Discontinuing the use of the hair products resulted in regression of the breast or pubic hair.

Do you really need something that can trigger acute hormonal surge in your cosmetics? Aren’t we suffering enough from hormone mimickers such as parabens? Consider giving placenta a boot.

Sometimes placenta is openly listed on the label and in the ingredients list (Reviva Placenta Mask, Hask Placenta Henna ‘n Placenta Complete Conditioning Treatment). It can be called placental extract (as in Z.Bigatti products) and placentagen. Sometimes it’s hiding under harmless and vague names as “collagen peptides” (Golden Sunshine Collagen Peptide Facial Mask).

There are many unknown dangers lurking in our tubes and jars. Science only begins to come up with answers, and who knows what tomorrow will unveil? For now, I hope you are well warned about dangers of placenta and you won’t fall prey to dubious celebrity endorsements.