Live Snails Crawl on Faces in New Beauty Treatment

Having live snails crawling on your face sounds like the stuff of nightmares, but in Japan one company is hoping people will be prepared to pay for it.

Published

8 months ago

Categories

Seriously?, Lifestyle, World

Topics

Seriously?, Beauty & Style, Asia

Places

Japan, Tokyo

Transcript

SHOTLIST: TOKYO, JULY 13, 2013, SOURCE: AFPTV - VAR of beauty salon staff Manami Takamura applying snails on the face of model Sayaka Ito SOUNDBITE 1 Sayaka Ito (woman), model (Japanese, 14 sec): "You can feel the snails moving on your face. At first, it is surprising, but it's actually rather nice. It is relaxing as well, I almost fell asleep." SOUNDBITE 2 Manami Takamura (woman), spokeswoman for Tokyo-based beauty salon Ci:z.Labo (Japanese, 12 sec): "Snails have three main properties : they get rid of hard skin, can heal small wounds and cool down sunburn." SOUNDBITE 3 Manami Takamura (woman), spokeswoman for Tokyo-based beauty salon Ci:z.Labo(Japanese, 12 sec): "We have more and more demands from people who want to try. We can only accept one a day at the moment and the waiting can be long." /// -------------------------------------------------- AFP TEXT STORY: Japan-lifestyle-health-cosmetics Snails face: Japan beauty treatment offers slime power TOKYO, Tokyo province, July 14, 2013 (AFP) - Having live snails crawling on your face sounds like the thing of nightmares, but in Japan one company is hoping people will be prepared to pay for it. Staring Monday, women who want to slough off dead skin, clear their pores or roll back the years can submit themselves to five minutes of molluscs. "Slime from snails helps remove old cells, heal the skin after sun burn and moisturise it," said Manami Takamura, a spokeswoman for Tokyo-based beauty salon Ci:z.Labo, as she placed three gastropods on a woman's face. "In this way, you can have 100 percent pure snail essence directly on the skin." Snail slime is believed to have an anti-ageing effect on human skin, and some cosmetics are already sold with essence of escargot. But Ci:z.Labo beauty salon is going one step further in what it says is the first live snail treatment in Japan. As part of the salon's "Celebrity Escargot Course" customers will get five minutes of snail therapy, along with massage and other facial treatments. The snails alone cost 10,500 yen ($106). Sayaka Ito said she had found the treatment so relaxing that she had almost fallen asleep. "You can feel the snails moving on your face. At first, it is surprising, but it's actually rather nice," she said. "My skin really does feel smooth and moist." END