People have put a lot of wild things on and around their faces in the name of smooth, blemish-free, youthful-looking skin: Leeches! Horse oil! Bee venom! Snail mucus! Bird poop! Animal placenta! Literal neurotoxins!

But it seems Cate Blanchett decided to one-up us all with something she referred to as a "penis facial" (not the X-rated kind).

"Sandy (Bullock) and I saw this facialist in New York, Georgia Louise, and she gives what we call the 'penis facial,'" she said in an interview with Vogue Australia when asked the most outlandish beauty treatment she'd ever received.

The lines in question were quietly removed from the article, but it was too late. A cached version lived on, and the internet's fascination was piqued.

Blanchett herself wasn't quite clear on why it was nicknamed the penis facial — maybe the smell?

"I don't know what it is, or whether it's just 'cause it smells a bit like sperm — there's some enzyme in it, so Sandy refers to it as the 'penis facial,'" she told Vogue Australia.

Would that it were so simple. Alas, the story of the penis facial does not end with the smell.

Louise, who also reportedly counts Emma Stone, Katy Perry, Alexander Wang and Karly Kloss among her clients (no word on whether any of them have gotten the penis facial, though) was happy to clarify things in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. The facial is derived from cells that are clones of baby foreskin cells.

"The foreskin is collected during circumcision and the stem cells are then harvested and extracted through a centrifuge," she told THR. "I am always very mindful to explain radical serums and potions that I carry in my back bar, so I always explain that EGF is derived from newborn baby foreskin, but cells were taken and from that, new cells are cloned from a laboratory."

It costs $650.

Filipa Ioannou is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at fioannou@sfchronicle.com and follow her on Twitter