Smells a little funky, too.
That’s what Cate Blanchett said.
Georgia Louise is a facialist to the stars who’s been attracting attention recently
for using a peculiar product.
When you see how good it is to your face, you
too will run to your local facialist and say, give me the penis.
Even though the nickname is called the penis facial, what we're doing is we're using cloned
baby foreskin cells.
We're all trying to live to 101 and if everyone
wants to look 26, then the future is for sure stem cells.
As a senior beauty editor for Refinery29, I'm no stranger to the extremes the beauty
world will go to on its quest for eternal youth.
In the early 1900's, radioactive beauty
creme was all the rage.
In the 1940’s, contraptions called glamour bonnets claimed to
stimulate circulation with atmospheric pressure.
Today, the cosmetic industry is seeking the fountain of youth from inside our own stem cells.
Stem cells are simple, undeveloped cells that help to repair our bodies.
When activated, they can become new, specialized cells, repairing muscles, nerves, even collagen.
Stem cell activity declines as we age, but doctors like Dr. Karyn Grossman, say their
procedures will reactivate stem cells and rejuvenate the face.
Okay, are you ready for your treatment today?
I am very ready.
Okay.
Dr. Karyn Grossman is a board certified dermatologist
and thought leader in the field. She’s developing a new platelet-rich plasma, or PRP treatment,
that combines filler with the patient’s own blood to erase under eye circles. She
offered to give us an exclusive look.
This has been crazy. This is now becoming our most rapidly requested procedure.
Okay, deep breath in.
We actually draw your blood, so that we can spin that blood down.
We want to get the platelet rich plasma part.
Then we put eye shields in the patient.
Now close your eyes and relax.
Dr. Grossman claims, by flooding the face with platelet-rich plasma, specialized proteins
called growth factors will activate stem cells to create new cells and collagen.
Combined with Poly-l-lactic Acid, or PLLA filler, Dr. Grossman says her treatment takes
facial regeneration to the next level.
We use microneedling to create holes in the skin.
When we're done with that, we create our little magic potion with the PLLA and
the serum, and then we apply that to the skin and we let it sink into the holes.
You doing okay, Dale?
Mhmm.
Do you know exactly why it works so well?
I really think we're in the infancy on how to use our own body to repair and to help itself.
I think there's a lot that we don't know that we're going to kind of see evolve over time.
These cosmetic procedures are still so new, that no one has a sense of how big this field actually is.
But the regenerative medicine market as a whole is expected to more than
double in the next ten years.
Regulation of this controversial new world falls to the FDA, who’s had some trouble keeping up.
Because this industry is so new, the extent to which this is on the FDA’s radar is — they’re probably a bit behind.
Simply because they're super overburdened.
Their actual ability to intervene in any kind of suspect cases is going to be limited.
It’s left the industry free to experiment, which is exactly what they’re doing.
MiMedx is a company that takes donated human placentas, sterilizes, and strips them to
their innermost layer, the amniotic membrane, for the high concentrations of valuable growth
factors that they then use in an array of products.
MiMedx tells donors their placentas can help to treat a variety of wounds and soft tissue injuries.
But in New York, we met a doctor using it in a very different capacity.
Hi, Dr. Maercks, how are you?
Nice to meet you.
Oh, wow, you've got everything all set up for us.
Dr. Rian Maercks is a plastic surgeon based in Miami, but licensed in both Florida and New York,
who's known for cutting edge and sometimes controversial experiments.
So here we are at 21 syringes in my face.
As a researcher for MiMedx, he’s been testing out a placenta product, called Amniaphill, in his practice.
He agreed to let us sit in on a procedure, while he was in town seeing patients.
Just lay your head back.
So we are not in a medical office, we're here in a hotel room.
Is that something you do often, is that normal, is it allowed?
I don’t think I should answer that question.
Put your chin slightly down, look straight ahead. Good.
26 year old Melissa Klein is here for what Dr. Maercks calls aesthetic facial balancing,
which involves using large amounts of filler to shape the face, and can cost more than ten thousand dollars.
I've always been very self-conscious about my under eyes and always found myself editing my pictures.
Now I’m finally doing something and I’m very excited.
Dr. Maercks believes the placenta product Amniaphill, will attract stem cells.
Those cells will speed healing and, in theory, extend the effect of the filler.
Of course, none of that is visible.
But what I am seeing in this New York City hotel room, is the very edge of cosmetic dermatology.
Okay so we’re gonna get started. Can you just relax? I’m not gonna hurt ya.
Okay.
You’re just going to feel cold stuff, like this.
Mhm.
That hurt you?
Mm-mm.
See? Amazing, right?
So we’re kind of layering in, very precisely, in the layers around her bone of her orbit,
and making those bags disappear and lifting her cheek.
So you’re not in any pain at all right now.
No, I don’t feel anything.
Wow. I feel like I’m in more pain than she is right now.
I had to wonder, donors were told their placentas would heal bodies and change lives.
How would they feel, knowing their donation might end up being used like this?
And the good news is we’re done.
We know that placenta and cord blood have rejuvenating properties.
It’s one thing to know that in theory, but we’re still kind of shooting in the dark,
hoping that this is safe and effective, not really even knowing the long term outcomes.
Does using Amniaphill present any risks?
There’s a potential for it to get infected, there’s a potential for, in the healing process,
for it to cause calcification if there’s bacterial contamination, things like that.
But it’s a really inherently safe product.
How long will these results last for her?
Well I don’t make any guarantees, but for example, I treated myself six years ago
and I look a lot younger and better than I did six years ago.
But there’s 100% certainty there’s no product left in my face.
It’s stimulating the local cells.
That’s why I believe my results last years and years.
I’m still a little confused how your results can last so long.
Well I don’t use the products out of the box.
As the beauty industry continues down this path, it's important to remember that
our pursuit of eternal youth comes with unknowns.
And with limited regulations and research, it’s hard to say at what cost.
It’s so crazy.
You know, we’re gonna have to take the mirror away from you soon.
I know!
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