Due to the increased environmental awareness from industry and consumers, there is an increasing number of natural cosmetics and ingredients of natural origin on the cosmetics market. One such ingredient is snail slime, which allows snails to lubricate their body, adhere to the substrate, regenerate in case of an injury and protect them against predators. Snail slime has been known since ancient times, when it was used to heal wounds, reduce inflammation and rejuvenate skin. Due to its diverse composition, snail slime provides moisturizing, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory action on the skin, controls and inhibits the secretion of sebum from the pores, and stimulates and accelerates the proliferation and migration of fibroblast cells, making it a desirable ingredient in many cosmetic products. In the graduation thesis, we collected 179 cosmetic products from online sales that contained snail slime. We determined the type and technological form for each of the selected products and analyzed them according to their country of origin, advertising and certificates of natural cosmetics.
We found out that most products with snail slime come from Europe, more precisely from Italy, while a large part of the market is covered by South Korea, which is also the most famous for this type of cosmetics. Almost half of the brands (46,7 %) have launched cosmetic lines with 5 or more cosmetic products, indicating that the market in this area is expanding. The products appear in different technological forms and for different purposes of use. Most products are found in the form of creams, intended for face care. In the formulations analysed, snail slime mostly occurs in the form of snail secretion filtrate or snail secretion filtrate ferment filtrate and is usually the active ingredient in most products. Analysis of the method of advertising showed that almost all manufacturers (92,7 %) emphasize the content of snail slime and advertise it in the name of the product or in the description on the packaging. Among the products, we also checked the presence of certificates of natural cosmetics and found that most products do not have obtained certificates. Among those who have the certificate, the most common certificates were COSMEBIO and ECOCERT, which are 2 of the 5 agencies that compose the COSMOS certificate and comply with the requirements of this unified certificate.
To conclude, snail slime is an ingredient with great potential for use in cosmetic products, which is also confirmed by the constantly growing market. It is possible to find more and more products on the market that come from Europe, including Slovenia.
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