Why Snail Slime Skin Care Products Are All The Rage

United States retailers started marketing Korean beauty products containing snail slime to the mainstream beauty industry, reported Bloomberg Wednesday.

Korean beauty retailers reported earlier this year they would be expanding their products to United States companies such as Target, CVS and Ulta. Over the years, Korean beauty products received a reputation for containing unconventional ingredients like egg whites, starfish extract or snail secretion. The latest craze, snail secretion, is credited with clearing and firming skin.

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“People used to talk about French skincare. We don’t really call it that anymore,” Sarah Chung, the head of Landing International Inc., said. “Right now we say it’s K-beauty, but it’s really just great skincare.”

South Korean beauty companies picked a key moment to expand internationally. According to the Korea International Trade Association, exports to the United States increased to $300 million from 2015 to 2016.

Despite the reputation Korean beauty products developed in regards to snail slime, the Bascunan family of Chile, who sold snails for food to the French in the 1980s, is probably credited with discovering the slime’s benefits.

“The discovery of the cream emerged due to a reaction our skin showed after getting in contact with snails on a snails farm we had at the beginning of the 1980s,” Fernando Bascunan Dockendorff said in a 2006 AP video.

The South Korean beauty industry has historically been innovative, so they adopted snail slime as an important component in many of their beauty products — including the ones they brought to the United States.

Landing International Inc. partnered with Ulta’s Korean collection available in Ulta stores. Ulta increased its K-beauty selections this March. Target began selling K-beauty products in about 850 stores and said the products represent around 25 percent of total premium offerings. CVS stocked 2,100 of its stores with K-Beauty HQ in April. Both Target and CVS joined forces with Alicia Yoon, the founder of K-beauty retail platform Peach & Lily.

CVS said introducing the products had been “very successful.”

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AmorePacific Corp., South Korea’s largest beauty company, brought five brands to the U.S. and is preparing to begin selling a sixth brand intended for millennials, innisfree.

First-time buyers may be discouraged from buying K-beauty products because of the cost, David Tyrrell, a global skincare analyst at Mintel Group Ltd., told Bloomberg. K-beauty products are listed at higher prices than drugstore brands and at similar prices as more high-end beauty products.

Certain products stocked include the $22 Missha Super Aqua Cell Renew Snail Essential Moisturizer at Target, the $24.99 Elisha Coy Skin Repairing Snail Cream at CVS and the $9.50 sample kit at Ulta.