10 Amazing "Natural" Beauty Treatments You Won't Believe Exist

Apologies in advance if any of these make you queasy, though I can't say I blame you. (Just be thankful I didn't include urine-as-teeth-whitener on this list ...)

If you've ever dreamed of getting one step closer to James Bond, Cleopatra, or King Midas, here's your chance. That's right, 24-karat-gold facials are officially on the menu at several spas around the world. Alleging anti-inflammatory, anti-aging, and acne-fighting benefits, covering your face in gold leaf is certainly one (very expensive) way to seriously pamper your skin.

It's the latest "It" ingredient to come out of the South Korean beauty boom, but there's no science to back up the claims, so proceed with slimy caution. I'll admit I've tried a mask and didn't hate the results, but I'm not in any rush to go for round two.

Ophidiophobics beware! In Israel, a hybrid farm/spa offers snake massages (apparently there's a long waiting list for an appointment) that involve non-venomous slithering masseuses. If you can get over the utter terror of having snakes moving around on your back, the massage is said to relieve tension and stress, with larger specimens kneading out knots with their movements, and smaller ones "fluttering" across the skin to calm and caress.

I don't know about skin care, but bee venom has been used successfully in the treatment of HIV, cancer, and other autoimmune diseases, so maybe there's something to be said for adding it to your beauty routine.

One of the more invasive practices on this list, a butter massage is a traditional Ethiopian treatment that involves nudity, a smoking hole in the ground, and, you guessed it, butter. After a head-to-toe rubdown, butter is applied everywhere (in and out) and women are instructed to squat above a smoke hole in the ground until the butter melts. Typically performed after giving birth, the practice apparently tightens, cleanses, and repairs vaginal muscles.

Once a favorite of Japanese geishas and Kabuki actors, this one involves using sterilized nightingale poop to lighten and balance skin tone. Chock-full of the amino acid guanine and its enzymes, the avian excrement is supposed to cleanse and soften skin. As the guano is harvested from caged nightingales in Japan, the birds' diets are controlled to produce the most nutrient-rich product.

It's not news that eating your placenta after birth is a growing trend as a way to replace vitamins and nutrients and recover faster from labor, but using animal placenta as a beauty treatment takes the idea to a whole new level, one I'm not sure I want to be on.

Saving the best for last, the "vampire facelift" involves taking blood from your arm and injecting it back into your face. It's a little more complicated than that (the plasma in your drawn blood is enriched with platelets before being returned via acupuncture needles), but the effects are supposedly meant to "rejuvenate the face" and erase wrinkles. But if Kim Kardashian's foray into sanguine beauty treatments is any indication, the procedure is incredibly painful and also downright bizarre.