Good geek! What will they think of next? There is no end to the barrage of emails I receive about the latest new wonder ingredient. Most of them I glance at, yawn over and move past but occasionally the craziness of it makes me do a double take and then, because it's bonkers, I have to share it.

Top selling Korean and Japanese skin care brands claim that the ingredient that's going to save our skin is the slimy snail trail left behind by actual real-life snails (don't worry...it's not the other kind of snail trail!)

Apparently the gooey gift left to us by our crunchy friends is rich in protein, glycolic acid and elastin meaning that, in theory, it's supposed to aid skin regeneration, help heal cuts, fight infections and even combat UV rays. It supposed to be particularly effective at helping to reduce acne scars, soothe sunburn, moisturise and strengthen skin.

Japanese brand Missha have already released products containing the snail stuff and there promises to be more products on the horizon. I can't even begin to imagine how they go about collecting it?

Until then...geek on!

The Ed.

Ewww, not sure I even like the sound of it.

When I was a kid, my brother kept Giant African Land snails and our father alwasy told us it was really good for your skin. Nobody ever listened to him though haha perhaps we should have could have beated the Japanese to it

that's pretty tame to what I've heard is in some products. Google whats in Cellcosmet. It's a line that has active cells (animal based) and I've been told (not confirmed though) that some of their products contain whale sperm....that's a job I don't want! lol

as much as the thought of snails roaming free along my face makes me feel ill....the substance in a product doesn't seem to bother me...we eat honey and think nothing of it

I think this has been around for a while? A French brand, I'll find out which.
I'm really interested in the bee sting/venom creams that are being touted as the next wonder ingredient!
Anyone have any info?

It's reading stuff like this that makes me very glad to be vegan. Snail goo?? GROSS!

It's put me off my granola! x

Hi Geeks, not sure if im correct on this but im sure holland and barrat do something along this line in the skin care range?? I definately remeber a friend of mine talking about this and my reaction being yuk!

Yep my friend had some of this balm way back in 2003 - it was French though I don't know the name

Boak.

Yeah now that you mention it I'm sure I've seen something like this in H&B.