In recent years, snails have gone from garden dweller and French appetizer to practically ubiquitous skin-care ingredient: Their mucin (the slime they trail in their wake) forms the foundation for a recent wave of hyperpopular creams, masks, and serums.

Most of the snail mucin used for skin care involves the Cryptomphalus aspersa species, a.k.a. the common garden snail. Their mucin contains ingredients like glycoproteins, hyaluronic acid, and glycolic acid (which all have long-documented skin benefits), though snail mucin itself has not been the subject of rigorous studies. It has its enthusiasts throughout the skin-expert community, though.

Read the full article at nymag.com