Snail mucin is pretty much exactly what it sounds like: it is a slimy secretion that comes from everyone's favorite garden critter, snails.
According to popular K-beauty blog The Klog, snail mucin is harvested from species of edible snails like the Roman snail (the kind most often used in escargot), the garden snail, and the giant African snail. By only using snail mucin harvested from edible snails, beauty brands can ensure that the snail mucin used in their products are safe for topical application.
The snails are grown in captivity for sanitary and sustainability purposes, and snail farmers from Chile to Italy have developed ways to extract the magic goo without harming the snails. As featured in a short documentary by Great Big Story, Italian scientist and snail farmer Simone Sampo created a machine that he calls a "spa for snails" that helps the snails produce batches of mucin before they are re-released into Sampo's garden.
It is worth noting that the snail mucin used in beauty products is not the same goo snails produce to help them move. In an interview with Byrdie, Austin-based dermatologist Dr. Ted Lain describes the skin benefits of stress-induced snail mucin.
"Because snail mucin is a stress-induced excretion, it's comprised of ingredients meant to repair or protect from injury," Lain told Byrdie. "These include growth factors, which work by triggering the growth of new skin cells and new collagen."
