Mo’ Money, Mo’ Honey: Biologique Recherche Serum Placenta
Who likes money? I don’t know about any of you guys, but I do. I don’t really believe that quantity is quality: product price isn’t necessarily an indicator of a product’s efficacy. There are lot of products that affordable, well-formulated, and work well. Why should I spend my money on a product that is insanely expensive? There’s only one reason why: because the product is just that good.
Biologique Recherche is a high-end French brand best known for their cult-crazed P50 exfoliating potion. In the United States, the only physical locations to actually buy Biologique Recherche products are in New York and in Philadelphia (there are, however, a bunch of online retailers). I picked up two Biologique Recherche products last winter while visiting a friend up in New York, out of sheer curiosity. I mean, what warrants the price tags that Biologique Recherche is slapping on their bottles? Are their products really that effective? I was advised to pick up the P50V exfoliating potion and the Serum Placenta to help with my PIH (aka post inflammatory inflammation). When I rang them up at the cashier at Paul Labrecque Spa & Salon in New York, the cashier probably saw the look on my face as she rang up my products and gave me a reassuring smile.
“They’re really great,” she smiled, as my bank account gaped, with spent funds and betrayal. “Enjoy!”
I spent over $60 for 8 ml of product; I was damn well going to enjoy it, even if I grew a sentient mole on my nose from using it.
(Spoiler alert, I did not grow a sentient mole on my nose from using it).
Biologique Recherche’s Serum Placenta boasts a pretty gangster ingredient list. Literally, it’s just water, hydrolyzed boar’s placenta, phenoxyethanol, and ethylhexylglycerin. For some context, phenoxyethanol and ethylhexylglycerin are both preservatives, and water is the solvent. That means that only active ingredient is the hydrolyzed boar’s placenta. Oh, you don’t know what that is? Don’t worry, it’s not a big deal, it’s just the afterbirth of a boar that’s been boiled in acid.
This GIF is so underrated. Credit to Gifer.
Okay, it sounds a lot scarier when I put it that way, but it’s afterbirth. Personally, I have no qualms with that; I’ve got a stomach as tough as pre-crossbowed-on-the-chamber-pot Tywin Lannister. But in case you’re wondering, this product is NOT vegan safe.
Why placenta? According to science, placentas are extremely nutrient dense, particularly in amino acids and peptides. In general, amino acids and peptides encourage skin regeneration, improve surface hydration and elasticity; larger peptides and protein molecules form a barrier on the skin that reduces trans-epidermal water loss. The combination of all of those results in healthy, firm skin.
As far as a user experience goes, the serum has a pretty noticeable scent that fades away quite quickly; it’s not a pleasant smell, it honestly reminds me a little bit of BO. But again, it’s not strong and it’s totally bearable for me. The texture of it is very watery, and it has a light yellowy tan sort of color. It’s a slightly sticky, but it sinks it quickly. The applicator is pretty clever; the bottle comes with an attachable liquid dropped and screw-on cap, so you just turn the bottle upside down and squeeze the neck of the applicator to dispense product (I’m honestly ashamed of how long it took me to figure that out). The watery texture lends itself to a slightly more stressful user experience, because every drop is just so expensive and you just can’t afford to let it drip on the floor.
The product itself claims to do a lot; I honestly really doubted these benefits, because it just seems to good to be true, but Biologique Recherche is famous for its super-potent (and super expensive) products. It promises to be a healing product that can help with PIH, dark circles, and acne scars. And I’m not going to lie, I was kind of hoping that it would just get rid of all of my PIH for the amount of money that I spent on it.
It didn’t, of course, because that’s just an unrealistic expectation to have and I honestly didn’t really see any really tangible results for the first month. It definitely made my skin feel firm and look healthy, but for $69, I expected much, much more. For a while, I was annoyed and disappointed. I had spent $69 on 8 freaking milliliters of some pretty stank-smelling water with hardly any results to glean from it.
And then, I picked at a pimple (I know, I know; it’s one of the cardinal sins of skincare). But I didn’t just pick it. I damn near gouged out a chunk of my forehead over a tiny blackhead. It…wasn’t a cute look and it didn’t feel so good. I basically used my nails to really aggressively scrape a patch of skin off of my forehead (and yes, lesson learned, never doing something like that again). Surely, it would leave a hyper-pigmented mark, maybe take up to 4-5 days to visibly scab over. When I washed my face, it felt warm and raised, and stung. While wallowing in my dismay over my inflamed, almost bleeding forehead, I glanced over to my drawer.
Maybe…
Yes. I put the placenta on my forehead; just a single drop.
While it may not shine particularly when it comes to PIH, Biologiqe Recherche Serum Placenta cannot be knocked for its regenerative properties. A single drop on my skinned forehead patch applied in the morning and at the night, and by the next morning, the stinging was gone, and it looked like there was an delicate layer of healed skin over it. The redness had faded into a slight pink-brown, and the swelling had gone down completely. After another day or so, it had healed over completely, leaving only a slight brown mark that is almost unnoticable.
At first, I thought it was a fluke. This couldn’t be a thing. Maybe it was a coincidence, or maybe something I ate, or I had just gone to bed extra early?
A second chance to test it out came soon afterwards. While cooking dinner shirtless, my boyfriend had been on the receiving end of a hot oil splatter on his abdomen). He moved very quickly to wipe it off, but the incident left him with a smattering of slightly raw, red marks on his abdomen. They were small first degree burns, but I think they would have been worse if he hadn’t moved so quickly. We figured that it would take over a week for it to weep, flake, and scab over, when it hit me. Why not try the Serum Placenta on him? He didn’t really think it would do much, but he was willing to offering himself up for experimentation.
This was the burn, after a night.
I dabbed a drop of it on his abdomen, on one of the bigger burn marks, right before we went to sleep. The smell of it made him balk a little, but it faded pretty quickly. By morning, the mark looked like it had completely by-passed the weeping and flaking stage, and had just started the scabbing phase. We reapplied it that night, and by morning, it looked like it was midway through scabbing. It did leave a pigmented mark, so I think it’s PIH-fading powers aren’t all they’re hyped up to be.
This was the burn after about 4-6 weeks.
Sometimes, more money really is more honey.
Would I repurchase this? At the present moment: no. I would only really repurchase this under special and specific circumstances. I feel like I get better results fading my PIH from more affordable and economical products, than this one. Maybe if I was an uncontrollable face/wound picker, I would repurchase this. But it doesn’t serve my current needs at the moment. But this product has some really, really impressive healing (dare I say, regenerative) properties. If you’re in the market for some hardcore healing, this product is really expensive, but it’s efficacy isn’t to be questioned. This could be a total magical unicorn holy grail product, depending on your needs. So, if you have a really bad habit of picking at your face or maybe you have a mild first degree burn, I would recommend this.
If you want to purchase this product, you might need to jump through a few hoops. In the US, there are only two physical retailers and all of the online retailers require a membership/account. It’s pretty painless to sign up for them, but keep in mind that some places might be sold out because Biologique Recherche is so popular (will I ever get my hands on the Masque Vivant?). Rescue Spa, Aida Bicaj, Joanna Czech, and Paul Labrecque all have online stores that sell Biologique Recherche’s products.
If you’re interested in some barrier healing products, check out out my barrier repairing masterlist here!
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