Mila Products, an antiaging skin care maker in Beverly Hills, is hoping to turn back the clock by going back to the womb.
The company’s EMK Placental treatment line is made of amino acids and other chemicals derived from purified human placentas. The placenta is the kidney-shape organ that develops in the uterus during pregnancy and is a conduit for nourishment, oxygen and hormones between mother and fetus. The eight-product line includes herbs, vitamin antioxidants and proprietary and patented antiaging formulations.
Mila Products was founded in 2001 by Emilia Karsh, president, when one of her friends in Russia suffered second-degree burns to her face when a tea kettle ruptured. The woman was given a placental treatment that helped heal her burns with no scarring. Placental extracts have been used at least since the Thirties for various skin therapies.
Karsh said in an interview that placental hydrolyzate can improve metabolic processes, firm and tone skin, and speed tissue regeneration. The placental extracts can help skin recover from damage, moisturize, prevent inflammation and wrinkling, heal wounds, bolster the immune system and improve the capillary blood supply. Karsh said EMK products help prevent wrinkles and sagging skin and maintain skin elasticity.
EMK Placental products include a face cream at $85, an eye gel at $60, a face serum at $175, eye patches at $18 per pair, a face mask at $35, a facial cleanser at $30, a hand treatment at $20 and a hair treatment at $85.
EMK sells its products online at emkplacental.com, and has tentative plans to expand within the next year into color cosmetics that contain placental treatment ingredients.
“We’ve had sales gains of nearly 30 percent this year and are expecting even higher growth in 2007 as more medical professionals and aestheticians discover our line and recommend it to their clients,” said Karsh.