Is snail's slime the next big thing in facial beauty treatment?

As you can see from the above picture, here is a supposed customer receiving a facial treatment with about four snails secreting their slime as they slither around her face. This is said to be done at a snail farm in Chiang Mai province of Thailand.

It is believed that the slime being secreted by these snails help to smooth out some wrinkles and otherwise give a younger-than-one's-age look.

That this latest addition to the global beauty and wellness craze – snail facials – should surface in the hills of northern Thailand is only natural. 

This south-east Asian country ranks among the world’s top spa destinations, with massage treatments of every description offered around just about every corner. 

While these facials are new, concoctions made from snail mucus are said to date back to ancient Greece, when the great physician Hippocrates reportedly crushed snails and sour milk as a cure for skin inflammations. In recent times, the French have turned this essence of escargot into assorted creams and lotions.

The fluid, exuded by snails when under stress, is known to contain beneficial nutrients and antioxidants, but Bangkok-based Dr Dissapong Panithaporn and other dermatologists say that there has been no significant scientific research on how these actually work when applied to the skin.

A lady who just received her facials from the snails' slime said she had earlier tried laser and other techno-treatments but after some research decided that “natural therapy” was better. She said snails helped clear her acne when she was stressed during her studies.

“My face is firmer and softer,” she said. “But you don’t get immediate results. It shows gradually.”

...TheGuardianUK