Slimy Beauty Products

There have been lots of unusual beauty trends in the history of cosmetic products, but I’ve never heard of this one!

“Snail leftovers” have slimed their way into beauty products of all kinds. Michelle Phan posted an article on her site about the new craze, which is where I first heard of the new products. While most have been produced in places like South Korea and South America, you can also get them in the United States. Even Amazon has products with “Snail Gel”!

Snails are famous for their bodily slime, but most people don’t know why they have it in the first place. While snails do need the slimy substance to transport themselves, the slime also protects snails’ bodies from all kinds of harm. The mucus keeps the snails from cutting themselves while crawling along on their single foot, and also helps protect from bacteria and other nasty things.

So you can see why snail slime may be beneficial for use in facial products. It can help treat acne, protect against aging, heal abrasions, and remove dead skin. One of Amazon’s featured products, Collagen Elastin Cream with Snail Gel, has a listing of benefits that looks like this:

*Firm the skin

*Repair skin damage

*Improves skin elasticity

*Anti-Aging

That’s an impressive list of benefits, don’t you think? The cream is produced by Alfa Vitamins Lab and costs about seven dollars. To buy the product, click here.

It’s not really clear how beauty companies “harvest” the slime from snails, or how they clean it. My main worry is that companies use humane methods to get the slime. Maybe if they collect it from snail trails from snails they have in a habitat, that would be okay. But if they take it from live snails, I can’t see how that would be humane at all! And if you take slime from a dead snail, how gross is that? Those are the questions foremost on my mind, and ones I need answered before I try any snail product.

So what do you think? Would you try snail beauty products or not? I have a feeling the trend may get a little more popular in the U.S., but may not exactly be the biggest thing we’ve seen. Who knows? I have no clue how beauty gurus are going to react to the trend, so I guess we’ll just have to see! If you want to read Michelle’s entire article, go here.