NEW YORK — Bird poop for beauty?
That’s what goes into facials at a luxury New York City spa.
Women and men visit the Shizuka New York skin care salon for the traditional Japanese treatment using nightingale excrement mixed with ground rice bran. It costs $180.
Shizuka Bernstein owns the spa and applies the poop potion in zen-like rooms graced with orchids. She says nightingale poop is preferred because nightingales eat seeds that produce an enzyme that exfoliates the skin.
The treatment has been known for centuries in Japan but is relatively new in the United States. A spa in Santa Fe, N.M., offers a Nightingale Facial for $129.
Bernstein is a Tokyo native who learned the treatment from her mother.
People always ask her if the poop potion smells.
Yes, she says — like hay.
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