February 19, 2020

Snail Serum + Its Many Uses

This week we wanted to highlight our Snail Serum, as it has been our top selling serum for the past 3 months! They say that you're not supposed to have a favorite child, but we might. Shh, don't tell.

Our Snail Serum's active ingredient is a biomimetic peptide known as XEP-018, which is based on Marine Cone Snail Venom. This main ingredient is known as an "instant line relaxer" because it acts as a modulator of facial neuromuscular transmitters. This essentially means that it slightly inhibits facial muscles that enable squinting and inevitably leave fine lines on skin. At the same time this amazing peptide plumps and promotes the creation of collagen and elastin within the epidermis.

An in vivo study showed that a single application of XEP-018 on 33 subjects resulted in visible and significant reduction of wrinkle depth and rugosity just two hours after application. Because of this, our Snail Serum is not only a great daily-use serum, but it is also great for mixing into your routine for priming before makeup application.

The below chart is a depiction of how this active ingredient works within skin:

And then the below chart is after 8 hours of application:

In addition to XEP-018, while creating our Snail Serum, one of our major desires was to maximize moisture retention. So, we decided to also use an ingredient known as Hyadisine; a marine alternative to your traditional Hyaluronic Acid. Hyadisine has skin smoothing and plumping benefits, similar to its cousin Hyaluronic Acid, but it just simply works better. Hyadisine is also known to protect against environmental factors.

See the below chart comparing Hyaluronic Acid and Hyadisine:

Going along with the Snail theme, we also added an ingredient that is a biomimetic version of Snail mucin. Hydraprotectol is a variant of the glycosaminoglycans derived from snail mucin for further firmness, support, and wrinkle reduction. This glycolic acid is said to help cells produce collagen and elastin, further supporting XEP-018's ability to even out skin tone and smooth its surface.

Another heavy hitter in our Snail Serum's formula lineup is Niacinamide (2%), also known as vitamin B3 and nicotinic acid. This new-age ingredient is going to be a big deal in 2020, so look out for it in tons of other serums (ahem, we did it first-ish). Niacinamide is a very effective skin-restoring ingredient that offers multiple benefits for aging skin. Among these benefits is the ability to visibly improve the appearance of enlarged pores, uneven skin tone, fine lines, dullness, and a weakened skin surface.

And lastly, while we wanted to plump, moisturize, and smooth, we wanted to also make sure that this serum did not clog pores or leave a sticky filmy residue like so many hydrating serums do. So in order to do this, we added an ingredient known as Sebuless, which controls skins natural oil production. So, regardless of if you are acne-prone or oily, Snail Serum's hydrating formula will not make you break out. An old wives tale is that oily skin needs to be dried out - quite the opposite. In addition to hormonal and gut-related factors, part of hyper-oil production is due to your skin over compensating for what it really needs; moisture.

So, whether you are loving your Snail Serum already, or are more of a Snake or Bee girl (or guy), we suggest implementing our Snail Serum into your routine before a big night out, or even just as a night-time serum!