Danielle Kinney’s organic cream contains stem cells and collagen from placenta, extracted and blended ready for use within three days of the baby’s delivery. Tony McDonough reports.

Merseyside beauty entrepreneur Danielle Kinney is creating anti-ageing face cream for new mums made from their own placenta – and she claims the results are “amazing”.

The organic cream contains stem cells and collagen from placenta, extracted and blended ready for use within three days of the baby’s delivery.

Danielle, herself a mum-of-three, created the anti-ageing super-moisturiser as an alternative to luxury brands, many of which have sheep or cow placenta in them.

“More women now want to know exactly what they’re putting into their bodies and onto their bodies and where it’s come from, especially when they’ve just given birth,” she said.

“The big advantage of placenta cream is it’s a woman’s own stem cells and her own collagen and so her body is going to react a lot better to something that it knows.”

Placenta pick-up

Women contact Danielle during their pregnancy and then once labour starts, she dashes to the maternity unit to be ready for a pick-up.

She explained: “The midwives put it in a placenta bag and put it on ice, and I’m there within an hour.

“Once it’s on ice, it’s actually fine for up to 12 hours and I have a refrigerated box which then plugs into my car so I can get it back to the lab.”

Danielle cleans the placenta, checks for abnormalities and then cuts it into fine slices with a sharp knife.

Most goes into a dehydration machine for 15 hours before being ground into a powder to make the capsules, but a couple of slices can be set aside to make the face cream.

“They get soaked for 72 hours in a high volume alcohol which extracts all the stem cells and collagen,” she added.

“That is blended with an organic base cream – along with vitamin C and other natural nutrients – it’s heated for three hours to combine everything, left to set for three days and then it’s ready to use.”

Celebrity customers

Danielle, who lives in St Helens, makes the face cream alongside placenta capsules in a sterile lab in her back garden.

She became her own first customer just over a year ago after having her third baby Harry.

Shortly after her business, Placenta Plus, created pills for Coleen Rooney in January last year and more recently Tanya Bardsley and Rebekah Vardy.

She said the most commonly asked question from mums-to-be is how much goes into each pot, and what colour the cream will be.

She added: “In order to make a 60ml pot of the cream you only need a tiny bit of placenta, it’s not like there’s a big chunk of it mixed in there.

“And it’s white – not pink, like some women think it will be.”

Mixed reactions

Danielle admits some people are still repulsed by the idea.

“I think that is odd because the footballer Ronaldo apparently had placenta injections in his knee for an injury this summer and no-one batted an eyelid at that, but if a woman says she’s going to use her own people think it’s disgusting.

“In a lot of branded anti-ageing products there’s sheep or cow placenta, and celebrities including Victoria Beckham have had sheep placenta facials, but we don’t know anything about the animals that are being used?”