Next time you see a slimy snail in the garden and go to throw it over the hedge, stop a moment. New research shows that snails could be the latest anti-ageing innovation and that these creepy crawly creatures could actually help to preserve the wellness and wellbeing of your skin as you get older.
Joining the ranks of strange treatments alongside semen facials, placenta facials and other such things, the snail facial is a brand new treatment which has originated in Japan. This treatment involves allowing live snails to crawl all over your skin, as the mucus in snail slime is thought to have a powerful mixture of hyaluronic acid, proteins and antioxidants. All of these help to soothe any inflammation of the skin, prompt it to retain moisture and act as an exfoliant to remove dead skin cells.
The patient lies on their back while snails are placed on the face and allowed to roam free over the skin. The snail slime is then allowed to lie on the skin and thus help the skin cells on the face to recover, which can help to heal damaged skin.
These aren’t common or garden snails, however, but snails that are specially bought from an organic farm. These snails subsist on a better diet than most humans: spinach, carrots and Swiss chard.
Lasting for 60 minutes, the treatment has been named the Celebrity Escargot Course. After washing the face of the patient, therapists place live snails on their face and then follow up the snail crawling experience by applying massages, electrical pulse machines and topical creams which contain snail mucus. These snail creams have been popular in Japan and Korea for many years now, and Katie Holmes recently revealed in a newspaper interview that she uses snail products to help improve her complexion.