Bird poop facials; the tradition has traveled from Japan to take New York by storm.
About 100 men and women a month visit the Shizuka New York skin care salon, and drop $180 on the excrement treatments, CTV News reported.
The spa uses imported Asian nightingale excrement combined with rice bran as an unusual facial exfoliate.
The birds eat certain seeds that contain an enzyme known for making skin baby-smooth, Medical Daily reported. Rice bran also has exfoliating properties.
The poop has a high concentration of urea. The chemical "helps skin retain its moisture" and improves the appearance of blemishes.
The "treatments" are sterilized under ultraviolet lights, which kill most of the bacteria. It is then powdered and sold for as little as $20.
The sterilization removes the excrement's odor. "It smells like toasted rice," Miyoshi said, CTV reported.
"I try to bring Japanese beauty secrets to the United States," Shizuka Bernstein, owner of the N.Y spa, said. Her mother taught her the ancient treatments.
The treatments were first used in the 1600s by Japanese Geishas and actors. The droppings were first introduced to the Japanese by Korea, who used it to remove stains from clothing, Medical Daily reported.
"That's why Japanese grandmothers have beautiful complexions," Duke Klauck, who owns a health spa in Santa Fe, N.M., which offers the treatments for $129, said, CTV reported.
"I'm a stressed-out New Yorker," Mari Miyoshi, a customer of the N.Y. spa, said, as she tried her first treatment.
Myoshi starts the treatment out with a steam to open up the pores. She then applies cream and "the nightingale part."
She leaves the poop to sit for five minutes before washing it off with a foaming cleanser. The treatment is finished off with a green tea collagen mask.
"[The treatment] definitely has some rejuvenating effect, I don't think it's any different than, say, an apricot scrub or a mask that you could buy in a local pharmacy," Dr. Michele Green, a Manhattan cosmetic dermatologist, said.
Tom Cruise apparently pays $180 a treatment for the "Geisha facials," The Huffington Post reported.
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