I’m not going to judge anybody else for what they decide to put on their face or in their body, even if it grosses me out or seems like an unnecessary risk. What’s creepy to me about all of this is the “don’t ask, don’t tell” attitude Bio-geek refers to, which seems bizarrely common across this industry. I guess that because the beauty industry is selling dreams — of eternal youth, of transformation, of quick fixes — they’re able to get away with being hazy on the specifics in a way that, say, the auto industry can’t. (Putting placentas in a product with no hard evidence of what they do is a bit like selling a car with airbags that have never been crash-tested.) But women — and men — should be smart and empowered enough to realize that’s not acceptable and demand greater accountability from the companies whose products they buy.

Can our ace beauty investigator tell us anything about Bobbi Brown and Lauren Bush and what they are up to? How many $$ of $50 purchase goes to World Food Program?….. What’s with the cute little copies of “feed bags” for farm animals? –Is this mix of faux-farm and “feeding women” appeals creepy, or what? And what’s the story with whether these are environmentally/humanly safe cosmetics? Who makes them, where, under what conditions?

–Admittedly I’m in a knee-jerk anti-marketing mode here. Interested in whatever you know about this brands and your thoughts….

On the topic of the Glamour Aborted Fetus cream, let’s be realistic about it. A woman has an abortion (“reportedly out of medical necessity”) and is offered the opportunity to help burn victims (and other causes) by using the tissue of the life that was never able to come to be. She thinks about it and, like organ donating, realizes that the end of one life can improve others. So, she does and that tissue sample is grown in a lab. What was once a few cells from the fetus is now a bank of millions of cells, their origin is now a distant memory.

Then we consider what works well with the human body. Well, the molecules produced by the cells, yes? So, those can be produced by stem cells and voila, you have a cream that has a certain synergy with your skin. It’s also important to remember that just because something is a hormone, doesn’t mean it’s testosterone or estrogen related. Even cholesterol is a hormone.

Is it right that, in addition to being used to help burn victims, etc, these fetal cells are being used to make ladies pretty? I don’t know, that would take a longer debate for me. But is it bad for you simply because it was produced by human cells? Certainly not, being a series of connected organs, we sort of use human cell created compounds all the time.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that it’s good for you either…