Snail mucin or snail slime is one of the buzziest ingredients in the beauty zeitgeist.
Yes, those sluggish, slimy creatures that have been crawling in your backyard are no longer a unique addition to the menu at fancy French restaurants.
They’ve made their debut into your night creams and serums and have even gained a reputation for their ability to zap wrinkles and fine lines and leave your skin incredibly hydrated.
While there might not be, yet, a slew of scientific studies to back snail mucin as a potent anti-aging and hydrating agent, it’s essential to sort out the science from the hype.
Below, we help you determine if it’s worth making the ingredient a part of your skincare routine.
Quick Facts
Ingredients Used: Collagen-stimulant & moisturizer
Primary Benefit: boosts collagen production, helps in skin healing and regeneration, moisturizes skin, and reduces the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles
Perfect For: All skin types. However, its moisturizing properties are especially ideal for individuals with dry skin
Not Suitable For: Individuals allergic to snail mucin and vegans
How Often Can You Use It: That depends on your reasons for using it – it’s loaded with a laundry list of benefits – and the type of product it’s included in. Nonetheless, you can use the ingredient once or twice a day
Works Perfectly With: Antioxidants and retinol, as well as popular skincare ingredients like glycolic acid, vitamin C, and other hydrating elements
Shouldn’t Be Used With: Since research is still limited, it’s unclear if snail mucin interacts poorly with a specific skincare ingredient. The best thing you can do is do a patch test before committing to it
What is Snail Mucin?
Snail mucin is the excretion from your regular garden snails, which is why it also appears as snail secretion filtrate or SSF on your product labels.
It’s naturally extracted and used by snails as a means of protecting themselves.
While it’s a trusted Korean skincare ingredient, the hydrating champion dates back as far as 400 B.C.
However, it gained traction in the 1980s when Chilean snail breeders found their palms to be soft after handling the snails, leading to the production of snail cream.
So, while you might view snails as a backyard nuisance, their excretion has been shown to have serious beautifying powers.
It contains potent properties like glycolic acid, glycoproteins, and hyaluronic acid, all of which have been shown to have incredible skin benefits.
Worth noting – the mucin extraction today, at least, is cruelty-free. Snail breeders place the sluggards on a mesh sheet in a dark, quiet room (snails thrive in this environment).
As they crawl, the mucin drops through the mesh onto a tray, where the skincare powerhouse is collected.
It’s then processed to stabilize the magical skincare elixir and make it suitable for cosmetic use.
Perks of Using Snail Mucin
The organic element is a skincare staple touted to do everything from moisturizing to stimulating collagen production. Here’s more about its incredible benefits:
Locks in Moisture
Snail mucin is loaded with moisturizing agents like hyaluronic acid to help seal in moisture. It also helps protect your skin’s natural barrier to keep out irritants and keep your skin hydrated.
Fine Lines Blaster
As we age, the skin starts losing its ability to lock in moisture and retain firmness.
So, what makes snail mucin a potent anti-aging ingredient is that it contains humectants that help plump the skin for a radiant, dewy look.
Plus, it incorporates peptides, tiny amino acids that help in collagen formation, making your skin look supple, radiant, and plumper.
Boosts Collagen Production
Since the skincare champion is a stress-induced excretion, it contains ingredients known to help repair and safeguard your skin from injury.
These include elements like glycolic acid that stimulates the growth of new skin cells and enhances collagen production.
As you know, improved collagen levels allow for wrinkle-free and youthful skin.
Soothes Irritation
It also contains Allantoin, a powerful skincare ingredient that features healing agents that calm irritation, smoothen the skin, and stimulate cell regeneration.
Acne Eliminator
The acids present in snail mucin are incredible acne fighters. They get rid of the excess oil without stripping your skin of the natural oils. It also contains anti-inflammatory properties that reduce redness.
Side Effects of Using Snail Mucin
There are no well-documented side effects triggered by using snail mucin. However, if you think you’re allergic to it, you should do a patch test first before slathering it all over your face.
If you’re on any prescription-strength treatments, you should ensure to consult your dermatologist before adding snail mucin into your skincare routine.
How to Use Snail Mucin
Before we dive into using it, you need to ensure you have the right product first.
To do that, experts recommend going for products that contain more than 80% snail mucin so that you can reap the incredible benefits it has to offer.
Effective snail mucin-infused products should include natural ingredients like antioxidants or retinol and skincare staples like vitamin C.
As for how to use snail mucin, that primarily depends on your skin concerns and what you hope to achieve from using it.
Most people prefer using the powerhouse ingredient as a moisturizer, in which case, you need to invest in a night cream that incorporates it.
Nighttime is the perfect occasion to reap the hydration, restorative, and regenerative properties of snail mucin).
Therefore, be sure to include it in your nighttime routine, preferably layered over your toner or serum.
However, if you’re looking to reap snail mucin’s benefits are a fine lines blaster, you should seek it out like a serum, as these have the highest concentration.
Apply the product every morning and night, right after cleansing and before using any other ingredient.
Now that you’ve got the gist, go ahead, slather that mucin on, and get the skin of your dreams!
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