Animal slime may be gross, but it tends to translate into full, nurtured, vibrant human skin. Oily fish like salmon and oysters have long been hailed as edible skin care.
This is why applying snail slime, or snail mucin as it’s officially known, to your skin isn’t as preposterous as it may intuitively sound. It’s basically like topical oysters, only better.
Before we get into everything else, let’s first answer a burning question you might have – how did anyone think of using snail mucin for their skin? Who made the leap of faith? Legend has it that snail farmers in Chile in the 1980s noticed how soft their hands were, which isn’t exactly a common side effect of farm work, and came to the conclusion that it must be the snails’ doing. And they were onto something.
Snail Mucin’s Composition
Snail mucin composition is basically a cocktail of skin favorites like collagen, elastin, hyaluronic and glycolic acid, Vitamin C, and E, along with others.
Benefits
While studies on the effects of skin mucin on the skin are limited, since using it is a fairly novel practice, its aforementioned ingredients have come to epitomize skin care and rejuvenation.
But studies on skin mucin itself aren’t non-existent, either.
For example, in one study, a serum consisting of 40% snail mucin managed to significantly reduce fine lines and wrinkles over a 12-week period. [1] The study was small, consisting of only 25 participants, but it was randomized and double-blind.
In another study, be it an animal one, snail mucin “displayed anti-wrinkle activity by suppressing MMP-1/-13 expression with collagen restoration in mouse dorsal skin,” prevented water loss, thus confirming its skin hydration activity, and improved skin elasticity in a dose-dependent manner, thus mitigating UVB damage. [2] These results are made all the more impressive by the fact that snail mucin was administered orally, as this mode of consumption is better for even distribution throughout the body rather than targeting a specific area.
Moreover, snail mucin even displayed some anticancer potential in a study on melanoma cells. [3]
Or course, a lot more research is needed before anyone can make any definitive statements, but all this certainly makes for a promising start.
Gathering Snail Mucin
Snail mucin is gathered by having snails slide along a surface that’s suitable for collecting their slime, like mesh or glass.
Side Effects
What makes snail mucin an even more tempting proposition is that, like CBD, its side effects seem negligible, if any at all. In the aforementioned animal study, in which snail mucin was administered orally, it didn’t show any signs of toxicity. [2]
Bottom Line
At least from what we know so far, snail mucin seems to have all the makings of the next revolutionary skin product, namely tailor-made composition on the one hand and safety on the other.
References:
- Fabi et al., The Effects of Filtrate of the Secretion of the Cryptomphalus Aspersa on Photoaged Skin, J Drugs Dermatol 2013 Apr;12(4):453-7, Impact Factor = 1.464; Times Cited = 38
- Kim et al, Snail mucin is a functional food ingredient for skin, Journal of Functional Foods Volume 92, May 2022, 105053, Impact Factor = 4.451; Times Cited = 3
- Ellijimi et al, Helix aspersa maxima mucus exhibits antimelanogenic and antitumoral effects against melanoma cells, Biomed Pharmacother, 2018 May;101:871-880.
Epub 2018 Mar 22. Impact Factor = 7.419; Times Cited = 31
