Is this the giddy limit?

In the book I am reading it says that Irish women used to rub their faces with the first urine-soaked nappy from their baby each morning because it was said to make their skin soft.

Human Placentas have always been saved and sold to cosmetic companies as far as I know. How they use them I don't know.

Urine is good for softening skin. When my mum was little she suffered from very dry hands and my Grandma told her to wee on them before she went to bed to soften them. She says it worked.

Regarding the OP would I want sheep placenta rubbing on any part of my body esp my face so even if I was stupid enough to pay Selfridges £125 for a facial treatment it certainly wouldn't be that one.

The Times Style Supplement always gives me a laugh.

Why would anyone pay £125 for a treatment when drinking water regularly is equally effective?

A good time of year to market this one though as due to central heating and being indoors more dries our skin.

The journalist says British women crust over between October and March.

Hadn't heard about placenta but have seen snail slime advertised a lot recently. Apparently you let them crawl over your face and it does wonders for your skin. Anyone fancy it/tried it? My own view is "yuk!" but it could be a profitable solution to the snail problem in my garden.

I think I will stick with my 'Simple' moisturiser.

I'll stick with Oil of Olay thanks

I agree with you, tanith we know what we are buying and it is cheaper.

Speaking of placentas - the midwife said that my 3rd baby's placenta was the healthiest she had ever seen!!

My diet was Pizza, oranges and chocolate.

I've been using Oil of Ulay (Olay) for over 30 years. Not many wrinkles on this 65 year old face

Slightly side tracking but still about placenta..... immediately following delivery of baby and presentation of the placenta, it (the placenta) is collected by a particular company which quickly converts mum's placenta into pills which new mum then takes daily for (don't know for how long). This is supposed to help prevent post natal depression.

Presumeably it's about the hormones, which would also be the aspect when used on the skin.

Totally off the point. Cats – and probably other animals – usually eat the placenta(s) after giving birth, presumably for the nourishment after the hard work of giving birth. I know of someone whose cat didn't immediately tuck in, so he carefully cooked it with a little garlic and herbs and then gave it to her. She yummed it down with enthusiasm. OTT or what?

I would assume that apes eat their placentas so it makes sense.

Cats eat the placenta because in the natural life they would not be able to hunt for a few days. Eating your own placenta is a cure for post-natal depression. The placent is packed with hormones and should be sliced and then frozen and then eaten fried like liver bit by bit.
I have never done it -how could we, we never got hold of it. But in a home birth you can do it and it is too valuable to throw away.

Eurgh!

I would have eaten the placenta given half a chance but they took it away, that was in the 70's but as a Vegetarian I'm not sure about the ethics of it.

I guess as I made it and it's not technically alive, it would have been OK.

My obstetrician took away the placentas for his rose garden. Not sure if he fried them up or just buried them.

Oh yuck!
Once had a new dad ask for his wife's placenta to fry up......too shocked to refuse!
Umbilical cords were collected in the Maternity Unit for some sort of research, as (apparently) was nuns' urine for skin creams...... This was in the mid-70s so probably all changed since then!