Mother of Pearl, more properly known as pearl nacre, is the hard, shiny stuff that makes up pearl exteriors and the inside of some mollusc shells. It’s caught eyes throughout history for its polish and shine, but now that we’ve taken a closer look with chemical testing and powerful microscopes, it’s catching eyes all over again. OROGOLD Cosmetics also uses this luxurious wonder as an ingredient in its products.

The first thing that jumps out when analyzing nacre is that it’s both impressively strong and flexible for its weight. This is because it’s composed of alternating layers of aragonite (a type of calcium) and specialised elastic biopolymers. These naturally grow in a random but highly effective pattern. Unusual as this is, researchers just had to find out how and why. The answer, as they discovered, was fibroblasts.

Fibroblasts are regenerative cells that play a vital role in healing. They’re a living, growing framework found in all parts of the body that tell new cells how to grow and what they should be doing. They’re like the body’s chief designer, holding the plans, giving directions and supplying all the necessary raw materials. This means they’re all different, depending on which part of the body they’re in. The amazing thing about them is that when you transplant fibroblasts from one place to another, they’ll quickly adapt and start building different cells to suit the new location.

Using mother of pearl, scientists at the biophysics laboratory of Paris’ natural history museum were able to greatly enhance fibroblast generation in animal tests. Simply implanting pearl nacre into rat skin was enough to make it produce a lot more connective tissues. Because they have such incredible adaptive capabilities, the nacre fibroblasts were quick to change, at which point they started producing enormous amounts of collagen, giving the rats incredible skin healing capabilities. Theoretically, you could supercharge almost any body part with the fibroblasts in pearl extract. A number of studies, on both animals and humans, have shown that implanting pearl nacre anywhere kicks that body part into overdrive.

Currently, most nacre studies have involved surgical insertion of pearl. It actually needs to be right in whatever part of the body it’s trying to fix. So for non-intrusive skin care purposes, nacre would need to be very finely processed until each piece is mere nanometres in size. Then it can get through the epidermis and work its powers on the actual skin instead of just the outer layer. Evidence suggests that the functional effect of this would be quick skin regeneration through increased collagen production. It won’t be anything quite as dramatic as watching cuts heal before your eyes, but could in the long run be even better. The more damaged skin gets, the more quickly it keeps deteriorating. Using nacre to keep it in top condition would actively prevent most skin conditions while simultaneously ensuring that it always looks its best. The true cosmetic potential of mother of pearl lies not in fixing issues, but in stopping them from ever happening. We used to think they were just pretty stones, but the more we learn about pearls, the more lustrous they get.