Snail mucin, often known as snail slime, is the mucus trail that snails leave behind when they travel across the ground. When applied to your skin, its complex blend of proteins and organic compounds may offer anti-aging, moisturizing, and anti-inflammatory properties.
Everything you need to know about snail mucin is right here, including its possible advantages, disadvantages, hazards, and more.
What Is Snail Mucin?
When a snail or slug crawls, it secretes a fluid called snail mucin. Snails can adhere to the ground more readily and move more smoothly thanks to the lubricant. Along the way, it hydrates them, guards against infection and inflammation, and shields their delicate skin from harm.
It turns out that people may benefit from snail mucin in some of the same ways. Indeed, the ancient Greeks utilized it to combat inflammation, heal dry skin, and stop the early indications of aging skin. It has also been utilized in surgical glue and alternative medicine over the years. These days, it's frequently found in skincare products like masks, serums, and creams.
Potential Benefits of Snail Mucin
There is little and continuous research on the possible advantages of snail mucin. Snail mucin, however, may aid in skin hydration, wound healing, cell turnover, and the prevention of infections and skin cancer, according to preliminary research.
Hydration
Hyaluronic acid, the active component of snail mucus, has strong moisturizing properties. By promoting water retention and halting transepidermal water loss, hyaluronic acid hydrates your skin from the inside out. Particularly if you have dry skin, this might make your skin look younger, plumper, and firmer.
Snail mucin may also aid in preserving the skin barrier, which protects your skin from the drying and harmful impacts of pollutants from the outside world, when it is added to skincare products.
Anti-Aging Effects
Snail mucus may offer anti-aging properties due to the presence of copper peptides and glycolic acid, a naturally occurring alpha hydroxy acid (AHA) commonly found in cosmetic products. This might be as a result of glycolic acid's ability to promote collagen synthesis, cell division, and proliferation (the creation of new skin cells). Additionally renowned for its antioxidant properties, snail mucin can shield cells from oxidative stress and free radical damage.
According to a 2020 study, a group of women between the ages of 45 and 65 showed improvement in the visual indicators of skin aging when snail mucin-containing products were used regularly. In addition to enhancing the elasticity, brightness, texture, hydration, barrier function, and firmness of the skin, snail mucin has been shown to dramatically lessen the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles.
Antimicrobial Activity
Snail mucin may have antibacterial and antifungal qualities when applied to humans because it shields snails from pathogens while they crawl on the earth. Snail mucus secretions, particularly when applied to wounds, have been shown in several trials to kill bacteria and stop skin diseases from getting worse. Snail mucin even outperformed standard antibiotics in several instances.
Wound Healing
Allantoin, a calming natural chemical molecule, is probably one of the reasons snail mucus has anti-inflammatory qualities. It accelerates wound healing and supports the skin's natural healing process following trauma because of its capacity to reduce inflammation, stop infection, and promote cell turnover.
Research suggests that snail mucin could play a role in controlling the healing process of wounds in both humans and animals. In reality, persons with persistent wounds may employ snail mucus as a natural adhesive to "seal" and protect their skin.
Prevention and Treatment of Skin Cancer
According to preliminary studies, snail mucin may even be able to prevent melanoma, the most deadly kind of skin cancer. According to studies, snail mucin may eradicate skin cancer cells and stop them from spreading. Due to its antioxidant qualities, there is some evidence that it may also stop the growth of some malignant cancers.
How to Add Snail Mucin to Your Skincare Routine
You don't need to be an expert in skincare to use snail mucin, which is frequently used in multi-step K-beauty skincare procedures. If you want to benefit from snail mucin's alleged benefits, it's simple to include in your regular skincare routine.
A typical anti-aging skincare routine involves the following products:
- Daily sunscreen of SPF 30 or higher
- Daily moisturizer
- Daily gentle cleansing
- At least one anti-aging skin product, such as a serum, per day9
Many people incorporate snail mucin into their moisturizing step, as it’s safe to use on a daily basis. Others may use a brightening serum or mask with snail mucin a few times a week.
Who Should Avoid Snail Mucin?
There are currently no known adverse effects of snail mucin. However, if you have a snail or mollusk allergy, you should avoid using snail mucin. To ensure they don't have a negative response, people with extremely sensitive skin might wish to start with a little amount of any skincare product, even ones that contain snail mucus.
A Quick Review
Many individuals vouch for the anti-aging, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, moisturizing, and wound-healing qualities of snail mucus, despite the fact that it may appear like an unusual skincare component. It may even be able to prevent some forms of skin cancer, according to preliminary data.
Consider performing a "patch test" of your selected skincare product on a tiny section of your skin before deciding to try snail mucin. As usual, if you need assistance creating a skincare regimen that addresses your unique requirements and concerns, get in touch with a dermatologist.