Japanese Spa Treatment Comes to NYC - It's full of crap.

The lengths New Yorkers will go to for beauty. Shizuka Day Spa in New York City, a high-end Japanese day spa in midtown manhattan, has just introduced a new "Geisha Facial," which promises to cleanse, brighten, and exfoliate a patron's face - thanks to a secret ingredient: bird poop. For centuries in Japan, both Kabuki actors and geishas used uguisu no fun, or nightingale droppings, to clean off their thick white makeup and soothe their faces; apparently, guanine, found in the droppings, helped their complexions. Shizuka's poop has been sanitized through exposure to ultraviolet light, then finely milled and mixed with rice bran.  It's applied as a mask and costs $180 for a 50-minute treatment. "The smell is neutralized," maintains a spokesperson for the spa. - B.L.

New York Magazine - The Intelligencer

April 7, 2008

Other Shizuka New York Day Spa 2008 Press Releases
Les Nouvelles Esthetiques features Geisha Facial - Skin ingredient technology, specifically the uguisu no fun (nightingale droppings) in the Geisha Facial at Shizuka Day Spa in New York City, is the focus of this article from Les Nouvelles Esthetiques and Spa.
Bird excrement facial hits New York spa - The Geisha Bird Poop Facial was featured in the June 18, 2008 Los Angeles Times for its use of powdered nightingale droppings.
Geisha Facial on Mezamashi - Video from Fuji TV featuring Shizuka NY Day Spa in New York City.
New York's weirdest spa treatments - Weird spa treatments from the New York Daily News in NYC including Shizuka's Geisha Bird Poop Facial and the fish pedicure from Alexandria, Virginia.
New York Daily News, Sep. 18, 2008 - She's guano have it! Trendy Japanese facial features bird droppings.
New York Magazine - Japanese Spa Treatment Comes to NYC - It's full of crap...
Perez Hilton - In two separate posts, celebrity blogger Perez Hilton has poked fun at the nightingale poo facial - Shizuka's Geisha Facial.
New York Daily News, October 7, 2008 - Are bird droppings the secret to Posh Spice and David Beckham's good looks?
All Shizuka NY 2008 Press Releases