An employee gives a medical-cosmetic massage to a client using an African
snail at a beauty salon in Russia's Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk March 23. The
beauty salon is the only one in the region using the snails' method, which is
believed to help in speeding up regeneration of the skin, eliminating wrinkles,
scars and traces of burn marks, according to the owner Alyona Zlotnikova. (Ilya
Naymushin / Reuters)
Beauty clinics and spas across South America and South Korea are turning to
snail extracts that is believed to be good for the skin. Packed with glycolic
acid and elastin, a snail’s secretion protects skin from cuts, bacteria, and
powerful UV rays, making mother nature’s gooeyness a prime source for proteins
that eliminate dead cells and regenerate skin. Typically beauty clinics employ
products made from the sticky mess, but one beauty salon in Russia's Siberian
city of Krasnoyarsk decided to cut out the middleman by placing the snails right
onto their clients' faces.