Snails on the Face to Make You More Beautiful

Snails are a familiar sight in the garden. Certain snails can also be a delicious appetizer in French restaurants (escargot) and are a common viand in other places in the world. But have you ever heard of snails as a beauty treatment?

“Snail” is a term used for most members of the molluscan class Gastropoda, and they can either be land snails, fresh water snails, or sea snails. They usually have a coiled shell big enough for the animal to hide inside. They can be found in a range of environments, from deserts to moist ditches. Most snails have microscopic teeth-like structures in their radula, or what we think of as a tongue. The radula works like a file as it turns food into tiny pieces. A lot of snails are herbivorous but  a few are predatory carnivores and omnivores.

In Tokyo, a beauty salon called Ci:z.Labo offers a unique service using live snails. Snails are made to crawl on women’s faces for five minutes to remove dead skin, clear the pores, or for an anti-aging miracle. According Ci:z.Labo spokeswoman Manami Takamura, “Slime from snails helps remove old cells, heal the skin after sunburn, and moisturize it.  In this way, you can have 100 percent pure snail essence directly on the skin.”

The slime from snails is said to have anti-aging effects on human skin, and some cosmetics that are sold have essence of escargot as an ingredient. Ci:z.Labo beauty salon is the pioneer  of the live snail treatment in Japan called “Celebrity Escargot Course”, which includes a massage and other types of facial treatments aside from the five-minute snail therapy. The snails alone cost 10,500 yen, about $106.

Sayaka Ito, a customer of the beauty salon, said the treatment was relaxing and she had almost fallen asleep. She also said; “You can feel the snails moving on your face. At first, it is surprising, but it’s actually rather nice. My skin really does feel smooth and moist.”