Placental Creams and

Serums
In 1958 Lambert-Hudnut introduced Elixir Natale and Cream
Natale into the American market through their Du Barry line. As
announced in the trade journal American Perfumer & Essential
Oil Review both cosmetics contained Placentine, a placental
extract.
Utilizing placenta extract, a combination of the proteins,
hormones, vitamins, enzymes and esters that help promote
skin cell growth before birth, as a basic ingredient the LambertHudnut division of the Warner Lambert Pharmaceutical Co. will
launch on the market next month two new cosmetics. So far as
is known this is the first time cosmetics formulated with
placentinea highly concentrated placental extracthas been
employed in formulating cosmetics in this country.
(AP&EOR, 1958)

Shipments of the cosmetics were almost immediately seized

under the 1938 Food, Drug & Cosmetic Act (FDCA) as having
labels with false and misleading representations which
included statements that the cosmetics contained a Vital
Substance which could provide rebirth of the skin, thus
enabling the skin to remain in the bloom of babyhood;
would provide one with a younger appearance and with a look
that was incredibly younger; would provide both a softening
effect and a tightening effect on the skin; would overcome
the effects of age on the skin, age signs around the eyes and
mouth and wrinkles; and would impart a youthful elasticity
to the skin which would banish the drying, faded look of age.
The firm of Richard Hudnut should have known better; after all,
they had been through similar problems with the American

Food and Drug Administration (FDA) a few years earlier when

they released Du Barry cosmetics containing royal jelly.
See also: Royal Jelly
This does however, point to one reason why biological
compounds, like embryo extract, placental extracts, hormones
and royal jelly, were more widespread in European cosmetics
than those sold in the United States. The 1938 Food, Drug and
Cosmetics Act made it difficult for cosmetic manufacturers in
America to make the sort of broad claims for their products that
were generally accepted in Europe. To do so put their cosmetics
at risk of being seized and the company being involved in a
lengthy legal action. Richard Hudnut capitulated fairly quickly
and rebranded their product as Crme Paradox. It still
contained Placentine but most of the earlier claims for its
effects on the skin disappeared.

European rejuvenation treatments

In addition to having weaker laws covering cosmetics, Europe
also had a stronger tradition in the use of organ extracts
(including the placenta) in rejuvenation treatments, coupled, in
the case of skin treatments, with a belief in their ability to
penetrate the epidermis. It is not surprising then that most of
the industry articles encouraging the inclusion of placental
extracts into cosmetics in the 1950s and 1960s came from
European (particularly French) sources. Unfortunately, much of
the experimental evidence cited in these articles was seriously
flawed; some being mere conjecture.
This did not stop European cosmetic companies from including
placental extracts in their cosmetics, and companies with
strong European ties, like Helena Rubinstein and Richard
Hudnut, introduced them into the American market as well. Nor
did it stop the Europeans from investigating other tissue
sources, including extracts from bovine embryos and amniotic
fluid; neither of which proved to be a magic elixir for skin
rejuvenation.

Above: 1967 Extracting bovine amniotic fluid.

Placental extracts
The road to the use of placental extracts in cosmetics began in
1933 with some research carried out by Vladimir Petrovich
Filatov best known for his pioneering work in corneal and tube
flap grafting at the Ophthalmological Institute of Odessa,
USSR. He believed that many previously untreatable eye
conditions could be improved by injecting biological tissues that
had been stored under unfavourable conditions, which, he
asserted, stimulated the production of biogenic stimulators.
Although some commentators have suggested that biogenic
stimulators might be related to enzymes, exactly what Filatov
thought these agents were is unknown; they were not
hormones or vitamins. What is known is that Filatov used a
number of different tissues in his experiments to stimulate the
production of these biogenic materials, including placentas.
When Filatovs work was taken up by German and French
interests it contributed to the development of tissue and serum

therapies in cosmetics. Given the placentas function as an

intermediary between the mother and the developing foetus,
its numerous active substances made it an ideal candidate for
rejuvenation research; so it soon found its way into skin
rejuvenation creams, following a path well trodden by other
biological compounds like hormones, vitamins, embryo extracts
and royal jelly.
See also: Embryo Extracts and Hormone Creams, Oils and
Serums
Although European researchers did not discount the possibility
that Filatovs mysterious biogenic stimulators were present in
placental tissue, by the 1950s they were more likely to stress
the presence of placental hormones, vitamins and other more
identifiable materials.
The literature which treats of the active substances contained
in the placenta is likewise very abundant. The presence in the
placenta of a mixture of the most important sex hormones now
known, of hormones of the anterior lobe of the hypophysis, of
vitamins, of ferments, etc. has been definitely proved, but in
many cases the combined effects of these cannot explain the
therapeutic successes. Filatov too believes that biogenic
stimulins which have nothing in common with the hormones or
with analogous substances, which appear only eventually after
a beginning of decomposition, provoke a specific event.
(Gohlke, 1954, p. 97)

Extraction
In order to be used in cosmetics the material first had to be
extracted. Given that the placenta is a complex tissue, extracts
in the 1950s and 1960s were mostly prepared using cold
extraction from human or animal placentas. These were then
preserved using a range of preservative agents so that they
could be used in creams, lotions and serums (Sterba & Zenisek,
1961). Needless to say, the amount of extract that actually
made its way into any given cosmetic was very, very low.

Uses
A wide variety of cosmetics containing placental material found
their way onto the market. These included bust creams, eye
creams, face creams, masques, cellulite treatments, hand
creams, toilet waters, lipsticks, soaps, hair products and even
weight loss cures (Bureau, 1960). In some cases human
placental tissue was used but bovine placenta was also popular.
The curative properties of placenta creams were widely hyped
and there were even claims that they were effective in treating
some skin disorders such as psoriasis.
The surprising successes recorded for the treatment of common
acne and acne rosacea are surely not due solely to the better
blood supply involving a reinforcement of the defense against
infection. The normalization of the acids of the surface of the
skin, the regulation of the secretion of the sebaceous glands,
and the economy of the vitamins, ferments, and hormones of
the skin are important factors that may be influenced by the
Placenta solution.
(Gohlke, 1954, p. 99)

Some applications
When used on the face as a cream or mask, the skin was
cleansed to remove any barriers to penetration before the
extract was applied. These days we would increase the
likelihood of penetration by exfoliating the skin before
treatment.
Senescence: Dried up, flabby, pigmented etc., skins.
In the case of an accentuated senescence, one can use
applications of human placenta extracts, reconstituted, on all
the face using an impregnated gauze and leaving it for 10 to 15
minutes on the skin after having cleansed the face thoroughly.
After removing the gauze, follow with light massage.
(Bureau, 1960, p. 38)

When used in the salon, placental treatments were sometimes

combined with ultraviolet light therapy or iontophoresis (an

electrical treatment which can increase the penetration of

material across the epidermis).
See also: Iontophoresis and Desincrustation
When used at home, the creams followed well established
practices but, of course, more was usually better.
Daily care of the face: The daily care of the skin must vary
according to the state of the skin.
In the case of young skin, a light massage at night, before
going to bed with a cream rich in placental extract, or with
reconstituted extract, will be sufficient.
In the case of damaged skin (through atmospheric condition
sun, wind, cold) or in the case of over tired skin: 2 applications
daily, one in the morning and one at night, are necessary.
For more effective results, it is necessary to use a cream in the
morning and at night and to apply the extract under it in the
form of a film, every evening preferably or at least three times
a week.
(Bureau, 1960, p. 38)

Current practice
Unlike the use of hormones where a good deal of investigative
work was carried out by the cosmetics industry over decades
the evidence to justify the use of placental extracts in
cosmetics remained consistently weak, as it did for royal jelly.
In general, the advertising tended to rely on the natural feeling
that if it was good for the foetus it must be good for you.

Above: 1960 The RITA Chemical corporation advertising freeze dried

human placental extract for use in skin creams.

The inclusion of placental extracts in cosmetics peaked in the

late 1950s and early 1960s and then declined, with most of the
cosmetic industry moving on to other discoveries. However,
even bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) mad cow
disease did not scare people off completely and it is still
possible to purchase a wide selection of cosmetics with
placental extracts in their ingredients list.
Updated: 9th January 2015

Sources
Bureau, A-M. (1960). Biological tests demonstrating the activity
and cosmetic applications of the total human
placenta. The American Perfumer & Essential Oil Review.
April, 37-39.
Cotte, J. M. (1959). A contribution to the study of some organ
extracts. The American Perfumer & Essential Oil Review.
May, 60-63.
Coote, J., Guillot, B. & Gattefosse, H. M. (1967). Tissue proteins
for cosmetic use. The American Perfumer & Essential Oil
Review. April, 47-52, 55-58.
Gohlke, H. (1954). Use of placental extracts in cosmetics. The
American Perfumer & Essential Oil Review. February, 3739.
Myddleton, W. W. (1960). Modern trends in cosmetic
formulation.The Journal of the Society of Cosmetic
Chemists. 11(4). 192-203.
Sterba, R. & Zenisek, A. (1961). Placenta in the light of current
endocrinology. The American Perfumer & Essential Oil
Review. July, 19-21.