IF you’ve ever had the misfortune of finding snot-like trails on your living room carpet due to pesky damp in the house, you may not be the biggest fan of snails. However, there’s more to that annoying slime than meets the eye apparently...
The trend has, this week, made its way over to the UK, with an East Midlands salon offering it up for £50.
In Tokyo, where the most obscure beauty ideas tend to be conceived, snail facials are reportedly all the rage.
Tokyo-based beauty salon Ci:z Labo use snail slime to remove old cells from a person’s skin. They also believe snail slime to be a great moisturiser and skin repairer with anti-ageing properties thanks to the hyaluronic acid found naturally in the snail’s secretions. New York beauty brand Labcconte is so taken by the slimy idea, they’ve even bottled it.
Labcconte - bottled snail slime But if you want the slime in its purest form, straight from snail’s undercarriage, it’s the trendily named Celebrity Escargot Course you’re after.
Otherwise known as the Snail Slime Facial, whichever way you sugarcoat it the process still involves letting four organically farmed snails glide across your face for the best part of an hour. Let’s not forget snails are considered to be one of the slowest creatures on the entire Earth, but if you have the patience the secretions can then be massaged into the face and the results are said to be glowing.
The trend has, this week, made its way over to the UK, with an East Midlands salon offering it up for £50.
All creatures great and small isn’t a particularly new concept in the beauty industry. Remember it wasn’t too long ago that fish pedicures were the in thing with pop up shops with rows of tanks appearing in shopping centres nationwide until people started to question the hygiene of the whole thing, not to mention the welfare of the hardworking fish.
Fish pedicures were all the rage in 2010
The Health Protection Agency (HPA) eventually had to issue guidance after a panel found fish tank water contained a number of micro-organisms and that infections could be transmitted either from fish to person (during the nibbling process), water to person (from the bacteria which can multiply in water), or person to person (via water, surrounding surfaces and the fish).
Speaking about similar concerns with the use of snails on the face, Simply Divine salon owner Diane Gower told to Daily Mail this week: “The snails' well-being is very important to us. Once they have been used on a client we make sure they’re not used again for at least four days. We constantly monitor them.”
It probably won't be long before more UK salons are recruiting snails as pat of their anti-ageing offering. Ashley Guthrie, owner of City Spa Escapes in Spinningfields, Manchester isn't convinced her customers would be pleased.
She said: "There are so many other treatments and products that give you results but don't involve having a creature crawl all over your face. Treatments should be enjoyable, plus surely these snails would be much happier roaming about a garden? There's also the hygiene issue. I just hope the therapists doing snail facials also do very indepth consultations first.
"Bee venom is used in some beauty products and facials too so what next, putting bees on our faces in the name of beauty?
Ouch.
Will you be shelling out for a snail slime facial?
