Live Snails as a Beauty Treatment

Well, g'day to you! I`m running a tad late today. Drove home from an overnight visit to my brother Terry and his wife Lynne's in Sharbot Lake...where I didn't have Internet access. Yes there still are a few places on the planet where that can happen. Help yourself to a mug of coffee and a virtual muffin. If where you are is anywhere like where we are, you'll want to make that an icExpresso! 34 C here this afternoon. Whew! Shades of Thailand, eh! Say, what do you think about a snail facial?

I thought you'd say that...but it's happening in Japan (where else, eh?).Snail slime is believed to have an anti-ageing effect on human skin and beauty product companies have been using as an ingredient for around two decades. Now, a Japanese beauty salon is taking things to a whole new level by offering a treatment where live snails are put directly on clients’ faces to cover them in slime.

For a lot of women, having snails crawling on their faces is the stuff of nightmares, but the owners of Tokyo-based beauty salon Ci:z Labo are hoping some will actually be willing to pay for it. According to Ci:z Labo spokeswoman Manami Takamura, snail slime removes old cells from a person’s skin, moisturizes it and treats sun burn effects. 

The treatment, called the Celebrity Escargot Course, costs Y24,150 ($241) and involves four snails bought from an organic snail breeder in Japan and kept in sterile conditions. An assistant gently places the snails on the patient’s previously washed face and let’s them crawl freely. If they get too close to the person’s mouth, eyes or nostrils, she picks them up and places them back on an area where they feel less uncomfortable. 

The slimy facial is a central part of this 60-minute treatment and is followed by a series of massages, masks and electrical pulse machines using creams infused with snail mucus which ensure the secretions penetrate the skin properly.

When they get through crawling all over your face, can you dip them in butter and gulp them down?  Not sure I'd want to do that either!

See ya, eh!

Bob