Now Kanye’s lyrics in his song “Gold Digger” are sexist, but the beat really slaps. In a similar vein, this makeup primer from Guerlain is loaded with gold, a heavy metal a.k.a. something known to be toxic to the body, but it’s super-pretty. I personally have never tried it, but I can only imagine how luxurious I would feel using it. Rubbing a potentially toxic heavy metal into my skin? Bet.

But what are the touted benefits of using gold on the skin? How much is too much? And what are other uses of gold as a biomaterial?

According to this article from The Klog, a Korean beauty blog, the director of clinical and cosmetic dermatology at Mt. Sinai Hospital Joshua Zeichner says that “gold skin care may help reduce inflammation, improve the appearance of wrinkles, and brighten dark spots.” But Mara Weinstein, a dermatologist at Schweiger Dermatology Group in New York City, says that the effects of gold in skin care products needs to be tested more in order to determine the true benefits. “The truth of the matter is we haven’t seen any controlled scientific studies looking at the effects and absorption of gold when used in skin care,” she says.

Some immediate benefits are increased luminosity and brightening of the skin due to the reflective properties of gold, and possibly a bit of warmth as well.

Now I doubt anyone is slathering toxic amounts of this $74 primer on their face, but gold poisoning can occur and manifests itself as: dermatitis, nephritis, vasculitis, lymphadenopathy, low blood pressure (BP), nausea, with long-term symptoms being bluish-grey discoloration of skin on the sun-exposed areas, mouth sores, and hepatitis. Nope.

But gold has other applications in the body as well. Gold is commonly used in the composition of nanoparticles for controlled drug delivery, cancer treatment, biomedical imaging, and diagnosis. In pacemakers, gold can be used for the wires for their low resistance properties. Gold-plated stents have the benefit of supporting weak blood vessels as well as having the best visibility under an X-ray; however, this paper reports the higher incidence of gold-placed stents versus uncoated steel stents. Gold also has a high degree of antibacterial properties; it resists bacterial colonization because the metal ions denature protein of the target cells by binding to reactive groups resulting in their precipitation and inactivation.

So if you want a gold tooth, you’re good. Gold is often used for dental applications. You can look like Kanye yourself. No risk of inflammation of your tooth because you’re trying to look like a baller.

Regarding gold in skincare, there still needs to be a lot more testing to observe the exact benefits not only on an aesthetic level but the biological/cellular level. How is it absorbed into the skin? People get gold facials all the time to get a little extra ~glow~, but is that psychological or is something actually happening? And branching off of skincare, can we apply gold elsewhere in beauty? Perhaps haircare? Heck, people even eat gold. I ate a finger sandwich in Singapore once with a little gold leaf on it. Didn’t taste like anything, but I definitely felt more expensive.