Fancy some snail slime?

A spa in Tokyo is offering a facial that basically involved snails crawling all over the face leaving an allegedly nutrient-rich slime in their wake. Sounds slimy? It is. The legend behind this is that snail slime is a youth-boosting cocktail of proteins, anti-oxidants and hyaluronic acid. Snail slime is said to help the skin retain moisture thereby plumping out fine lines, reduce inflammation and slough off dead skin. Offered by the Japanese spa operator Ci:z.Labo, the spa has five such "beauty" snails that feed on a special diet of organic vegetables - each snail will cost 10,000 yen ($106). The facial is dubbed the Celebrity Escargot Facial after the much sought after French delicacy.

Urine therapy

If a woman was asked to pat her face with her own urine the first thing in the morning to get cleaner, clearer skin; she'd probably balk. But not Flora Peschek-Böhmer and Gisela Schreiber, authors of Urine Therapy: Nature's Elixir for Good Health. According to them, urine contains 95 percent water and 2.5 percent urea; the rest is a combination of salt, various minerals, enzymes, and hormones that contain essential nutrients. The best urine to use would be the morning one as the hormones are built overnight. Applied to the skin with a clean, damp cloth - the book claims that this urine beauty treatment can clear up eczema, acne as well as psoriasis. And best of all, it come with no cost whatsoever.

Vampire Facial

This would appease anyone with a serious hankering for blood. An ageing face is first given a more youthful shape with hyaluronic acid (HA) fillers. Then about two teaspoons of blood is extracted from the patient and centrifuged to get the platelets. These platelets are then supposedly "activated" by the physician and re-injected into the face, in a particular way to trick the skin's growth factors into thinking that there has been an injury. The skin begins to heal itself, thereby looking younger - effects can last 1-2 years.

The nightingale poop facial

Clean poop - sounds like an oxymoron, doesn't it. But the Japanese are at it again - following the traditions of the geisha who used nightingale droppings to get a bright, almost white visage, many spas have started offering the Uguisu no Fun facial - also called The Geisha Facial. The nightingale droppings are sterilized and then milled into a powder and mixed with various other lightening and brightening agents to turn them into a treatment in itself. The secret lies in the guanine, an enzyme secreted in the droppings that really polish the skin and the urea helps retain moisture. It's like a chemical peel without any redness or burning. 'Uguisi no Fun' sounds like no fun indeed!

Bee venom, without the sting!

When the Duchess of Cornwall attributed her glowing and healthy skin to a treatment made by bee venom - sales hit fever pitch. And when Kate Middleton followed suit - nothing was hotter than bee venom masks that simply flew off shelves! Any serum or cream or treatment that has bee venom in it follows a simple scientific explanation. Bee venom tricks your skin into believing its under attack - so the skin reacts by producing more collagen and elastin, plus the blood flow also increases. This results in a plumper, glowing and firmer skin. Care has to be taken that the user is not allergic to bee venom lest this results in anaphylactic shock. Oh and the venom is extracted in a harmless way to the bees.

Kate Middleton