This Anti-Aging Serum Is Made With Sheep Placenta, and What?

Okay, let's just cut to the chase: There's a skincare product on the market, and it's made with sheep placenta—you know, that organ that naturally comes out of the uterus after someone (or something) gives birth, because biology.

Yes, sheep placenta is the main ingredient in the anti-aging MZ Skin's Restorative Placenta & Stem Cell Night Serum. The wrinkle-reducing serum is made with a blend of ovine placenta and stem cells, along with the usual peptides, vitamins, and moisturizers, and promises that your skin will look "20 percent more hydrated after 30 days," according to the website.

Which, I'm going to be honest, doesn't seem like a high percentage, considering water can make my skin 100 percent more hydrated in just 30 seconds. Still, maybe the magical combo of stem cells and placenta make for a time machine–level anti-ager? Then again, maybe not.

"Placenta extracts have be used for centuries in Chinese folk medicine because of their ability to promote wound healing," said dermatologist Joshua Zeichner, M.D. in an interview with Refinery 29, adding that those extracts may also help stimulate your cells to act like they did when they're younger, speeding up collagen production.

But of course, this is all speculation. "Ovine placenta in skincare hasn’t officially been studied," says Mona Gohara, M.D., dermatologist at Yale University, "so although it’s packed with nutrients and growth factors that may, in fact, promote skin rejuvenation, there are many other effective anti-agers on the market that are already proven to work."

But if you want the alleged magical results of rubbing sheep placenta on your face, you're going to have to shell out a whopping $320 to get it.

Either that, or you can opt for some way cheaper options to reduce wrinkles and get that from-the-gods glow, like my favorite Origins High Potency Night-a-Mins Mineral-Enriched Renewal Cream, or Kim Kardashian's favorite serum, The Ordinary’s Granactive Retinoid 2% Emulsion.

Or, you can just embrace your skin the way it is, and invest in a really good foundation, like these editor favorites, below. Either way, it's your face, and you can slather whatever you want on it.

24 Best Foundations for Every Skin Type