Would you wash your face with snail slime soap?

Would you wash with snail slime soap?

One French artisan is betting on it becoming big in the beauty industry.

"Hi, my name is Damien Desrocher. I'm a snail grower and heliculturist, and I make cosmetic products out of snail slime."

The 28 year old says he's one of just three producers in France,

raising around 60,000 snails near Lille.

"Here, we have the amount of slime we get from around 40 snails. We needed around 40 snails to fill up this container of slime."

It may be uncommon in Western cosmetics,

but snail mucus has become a common ingredient -

especially in Korean beauty products -

and is noted for its anti-aging properties.

" .... in this material, we can find elements that are naturally present, such as collagen and elastin, which are anti-aging remedies. That's quite interesting. We also have healing aspects, since a snail repairs it shell using its slime."

The slime is extracted,

then heated at a low temperature to form soap bars,

which are then sold at local markets.

Desrocher says no snails are harmed in the process,

and he aims to produce 3,000 snail slime soap bars in his first year of production.

"Snails are quite an uncommon animal that is not very well known, so I really want to learn more about them. And it's true that once we observe and we see how they behave, they're actually very endearing, they're very cute. It's really an animal that I love. I love growing them, seeing them grow all summer in my parks, with all their seasonalities, so it's interesting."