....When cosmetics executives describe the purported benefits of gold for the skin, they seem to be reading from the same PowerPoint slide: anti-aging, anti-inflammatory, anti-acne. People who sell creams with visible gold flecks talk about the ability of those flecks to warm the skin and make it conducive to other ingredients. People who sell gold in nano form — that is, in microscopic particles suspended in a liquid mixture known as a colloid — look down on this crowd, saying that gold can confer benefits only when it is broken down small enough to penetrate the skin. .....

...La Prairie has just come out with a line of products that contain colloidal platinum — including a cream that costs $1,000 an ounce — and plans this fall to introduce a gold-infused sunscreen/moisturizer that will cost $425 for 1.7 ounces. “Our customers are waiting with bated breath,” Ms. Genovese said....

Dr. Judith Hellman, a dermatologist in New York City, did research into gold face creams after enough magazine beauty editors pestered her about them. “At best, they do nothing, and at worst, they can give you irritation of the skin,” she said. “I would tell people to put that money into gold that they can wear around their neck or on their fingers.”

My mother had gold injections for rheumatoid arthritis. It is a standard of care injection for severe RA. It did help her. But, that was internally, not externally, of course.