Snail secretion
Names
Snail mucus, mucin or mucine, slime, elixir, extract, essence.. maybe there other terms used out there.
They all refer to the same thing: snail secretion. And "snail secretion filtrate" is the standard name used in the industry.
The stuff
Snail secretion is a natural product and, of course, there are huge variations in quality depending on how one produces it.
As an active ingredient for the production of skin care products, it is a very expensive material when produced right. In order to obtain a high quality product, specialized know-how and specific methodology protocols are required not only in extraction but in processing and standardization as well.
Quality
Escargot de Crete, being a snail secretion producing company, uses - among others - this indicative factor to properly inform its customers regarding the quality of its snail secretions.
PANACEA3 uses a snail secretion having a natural allantoin concentration of at least 25 mg/Kg for its Silver Line, Snail Harmony and Mysterious products, and a snail secretion with natural allantoin concentration of at least 50 mg/Kg for its Gold Line products.
Both of these concentrations of allantoin are by far the highest in cosmetics or skin care products produced worldwide. Furthermore, other very important components for skin health, such as elastin and total phenols levels are measured regularly and always range to very high levels.
Quantity
The snail secretion percentage advertised on the PANACEA3 products, refers to the final product weight.
It follows that "snail secretion filtrate" is always on top of the ingredient list on PANACEA3 products, as opposed to some other products advertising super high snail content, but when looking at their ingredients, "snail secretion filtrate" is nowhere to be seen near the top (or even at all in some cases) as it should (according to the law the order of listing of ingredients must be from the one with the highest concentration to the one with the lowest concentration).
So the position of "snail secretion filtrate" on the ingredients list of a product, is always a serious primary indication of the real secretion percentage in it. Check for it when considering snail secretion products.
Snail secretion and the human skin
Human skin is a versatile tool. It is proportionally the largest organ of the human body. It is a vital organ as it is responsible for a number of very important functions while at the same time it is an indicator for the manifestation of diseases in various organs. It has been proven that it can absorb substances from the environment by the application of cosmetic or pharmaceutical products in the form of patches. It is a natural barrier that either passively or actively prevents the entry of germs into our body.
In summary, its main functions are: protection, thermoregulation, sensory, vitamin D production and participation in immune mechanisms.
The skin is constantly renewed every 21 days. With age, the rate of renewal slows down and it takes 28 or even 35 days or more as we get older for a complete cell renewal. So the skin is constantly renewed with the removal of dead cells (keratinization) constantly producing new cells in its basic layer while the older ones go up to the skin, slowly losing their functionality until their fall out.
Snail secretion is involved in an amazing mechanism thanks to the glycolic acid it contains and which is a natural exfoliator for the skin. Thanks to its low molecular weight, it penetrates deeply, expels dead cells that have accumulated and accelerates the once slow cell renewal to its full rate. Thus, the skin deeply absorbs the rest of its beneficial ingredients such as allantoin, which has healing, anti-irritant, soothing, epithelial properties that regenerate and reproduce tissues, contains collagen, elastin, natural skin antibiotics, vitamins A, C, E, high molecular weight proteins, glycoproteins, peptides, calcium, lipids, metal ions, hyaluronic acid. It also contains significant amounts of zinc, iron, manganese.
The snail secretion functions in various ways: it activates the skin to produce collagen and elastin which are necessary skin components for the youthfulness and firmness of the skin. Softens the signs of photoaging, minimizes the damage caused by free radicals that are responsible for skin aging. It acts as a protective shield, helps cure skin damages such as infections, dryness, oiliness, protects against UVA rays, repairs damaged tissues, burns, scars, wrinkles, stretch marks, moisturizes, fights acne and its symptoms as well as rosacea disease.
It also does something unique: it renews the basic stem cells thanks to the function of the peptides it contains by reprogramming the basic functions of the skin. The peptides contained in the snail secretion are small protein parts made of amino acid chains. Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins and therefore of our body so they are recognizable by the skin. Studies have shown that they play a key role in sending messages to cells, thus turning them into regulators of many different functions regarding post-surgery, burns, general accidents, as well as preventing and correcting signs of aging.
Peptides are switches that make the skin recognize and produce what it needs. Most of these elements produced by the skin are also elements of the snail secretion, which could be said to be nature’s magical potion for a young, strong and healthy skin. The other good thing about the snail secretion is that it can be tolerated even by hypersensitive skins and it does not induce allergies.
Snail secretion has been proven to trigger reduction of wrinkles around the mouth and periocular wrinkles, smoothing, shine, brightness, softness, firmness, uniform color tone, enhanced skin barrier, increased hydration of moisturized outer skin, outer and inner layers of skin. It contains ingredients that force - remind - wake up - activate - re-educate the skin to perform those functions that over time have become inactive, thus rendering it self-sufficient and capable of taking care of itself.
The skin functions are the following: 1) Keratinization 2) Hydration 3) Oxygenation 4) Protection from the environment and external conditions 5) Renewal
When all these functions are being performed, we have healthy skin, without wrinkles, youthful, bright, radiant, firm, hydrated without marks of aging. If one of these functions is interrupted, then we have a problem.
The best active ingredient for skin care
Snail secretion is the component with the largest scientific literature regarding the properties it displays on human skin but also in various diseases that have nothing to do with the skin.
Scientific research has shown that the biological fluid secreted by the Cornu Aspersum (a.k.a. Helix Aspersa) snail species, has natural properties that are not easily found in nature. Mass spectroscopy conducted at the University of Padua has shown that snail secretion contains microproteins and micropeptides, vitamins, aromatic amino-acids and water, and more specific analysis shows that this snail secretion is too complex to be artificially reconstructed in a laboratory. It contains multiple glycoconjugates, which are very important chemical compounds that fall into many different categories, such as glycoproteins, glycoppeptides, peptidoglycans, glycolipids, glycosides, allantoin, collagen, elastin, glycolic acid and vitamins A, C and E, proteins, antioxidants and hyaluronic acid.
The most important thing is that all the substances of the snail secretion are in a directly bio-available form, i.e. they immediately penetrate the skin because their chemical composition is compatible with that of human skin.
Its skin-cosmetic properties are unique, which is why snail-based creams are used postoperatively to regenerate tissues and eliminate scars by removing dead and damaged cells.
A 2005 study in Evangelismos Hospital, Athens, highlights its amazing properties against burns and scars, as well as stretch marks, wrinkles and skin blemishes. Mucopolysaccharides have a strong and long-lasting moisturizing effect, glycolic acid has a disinfectant and exfoliating effect, allantoin relieves, nourishes and protects the skin by activating all the substances that can penetrate the lower layers of the skin, continuing the cellular regeneration of them.