The weird beauty practices of the Hollywood elite have become so bizarre they sound like parodies of themselves. Think bird poo and placenta facials, snake venom eye cream, and being stung by bees. Yet, the latest trend manages to take things one step further. Cate Blanchett credits her youthful glow to a treatment that uses the foreskins of Korean newborn babies. Aka, a penis facial.

"[We] saw this facialist in New York, Georgia Louise, and she gives what we call the penis facial," Blanchett told Vogue Australia. "It’s something – 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."

The Sandy she refers to here is her Ocean’s 8 co-star Sandra Bullock, a woman not new to the world of unusual anti-aging treatments. After all, she regularly applies hemorrhoid cream to her under eye area to reduce puffiness.

But back to the penis facial. What exactly does this special treatment involve?

Well, first of all, it’s not really called a “penis facial”. On the company website, it goes by a far more palatable name: the Hollywood EGF facial. It involves a cleanse, an intensive TCA peel, micro-needling, an electrifying mask, and, finally, FDA-approved Epidermal Growth Factor (EGF) serum.

“EGF is derived from the progenitor cells of the human fibroblast taken from Korean newborn baby foreskin – which helps to generate collagen and elastin,” Louise explains. So the EGF used in the treatment comes from skin cells produced in a lab.

“FDA approved stem cells and peptides are penetrated deep into the skin using a special electric micro-needling wand. This process allows the active ingredients to be transported deep in the skin by creating temporary micro-channel.”

It all sounds very sciencey, but how effective is it really?