Almost since the dawn of time, women have been searching for different ways to look and feel more beautiful. Even the legendary Cleopatra left nothing to chance and was enhancing her gorgeousness with dead sea salts, body sugaring, milk baths, honey, sesame and moringa oil, and burnt almonds. An interesting choice of beauty product ingredients, right? Oh, you haven’t seen anything yet. The ingredients we use in cosmetics today might draw some origin from the ancient period, but they are far more peculiar. If you don’t believe us, here are five popular beauty product ingredients today that are very weird at first glance, but also, very effective.

Cultured human skin cells

You see what we are talking about? Using harvested skin cells to take care of your skin sounds more than strange, but the effects of this ingredient on one’s skin are nothing short of marvelous. Cultured human skin cells are used to induce healing of burn wounds. The products made with this ingredient usually contain a mixture of growth factors and proteins, as well as other useful ingredients that have shown great success in improving the skin’s overall appearance and health.

Snail mucus

The very thought of this ingredient may make you want to throw up, but give it the benefit of the doubt. Putting snail slime on your face is probably the last thing you want to do, but it might just be the very thing you need. You know how the slime protects snail’s feet from environmental dangers such as bacteria, rough surfaces, and UV-rays? Well, it can do the same for your skin. Snail mucus is packed with nutrients such as proteoglycans, glycoprotein and copper peptides. It also contains 91-98% water. All of this will make your skin protected and youthful.

Charcoal

One of the unlikeliest and hottest ingredients in beauty products today is the highly beneficial activated charcoal. Although this ingredient has gained its glory by being used for grilling, we are finally tapping into its full potential. Now, we can find it in anything from shower scrubs to detoxifying face masks. Charcoal has many benefits including making skin pores smaller and cleaner, balancing out oily skin, treating acne, soothing and healing skin irritations and remedying scalp conditions such as dandruff and itchy scalp.

Bee venom

If you think putting venom on your skin is downright crazy, remember that injecting Botox is still the most popular road to younger skin. Well, we say farewell to Botox and hello to the new best method of returning the elasticity and youthful look to your skin, and it’s called bee venom. This ingredient shares some healing properties with honey, which  is still one of the most used ingredients in skin and hair products, especially in organic hair care products,  but also has a lot of its own perks, including tricking the skin that it is stung and causing a tightening effect, which diminishes the effects of aging. Furthermore, bee venom has anti-inflammatory and antiseptic effects. It also enhances some important tissue functions like lubrication, hydration and cell function.

Fish enzymes

This one sounds really gross. Nevertheless, fish enzymes do a pretty amazing job when it comes to the appearance of one’s skin. For now, some beauty lines are using salmon egg enzymes, which are remarkably effective in gentle skin exfoliation. This is a healthy, non-toxic, naturally-derived and nourishing alternative to harsh chemical exfoliation. These enzymes eat their way through dead skin cells and make the skin look naturally young. The effects of this ingredient are also similar to microdermabrasion because it penetrates the first two layers of the skin.

Women would go to great lengths for their beauty, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that some of these weird ingredients found their way to cosmetic products. However, the products containing these substances are actually worth a try, since they can be really beneficial for your skin. So, even though some of them are gross and a bit insane, try them out!