Bizzarre Facials!

Caviar, Snails & Fire Facials

Everything but the kitchen sink

A few years ago, I was in the clinic at Paul Mitchell with a group of Future Professionals (PM lingo for student) and one of them brought up a bizzare facial she heard about and was wondering if there was any truth to it. I've read a little about the Japanese Snail Facial, where a large snail slims it's way around your face, the enzyme it is said to secret has anti-aging benefits (www.dailymail.co.iuk) weird but possibly accurate.

The infamous Snail Facial, wonder if the snail gets benefits from this too…

But wait! The Japanese Snail Facial is not even the most bizarre one out there. There are skin treatments like the Caviar Facial, The Gold Facial and the Fire Facial, which according to the Huffington Post is a ” treatment growing momentum in China”. Let me just say, there's a towel, alcohol, and a special elixir which is then set on fire. So do they actually work? It is hard to decipher what is truth and what is fluff, but there is some truth to some of these.

For the Snail Facial, it does make sense that there is an enzyme in snail excretions and that it can digest dead skin, but so can fruit enzymes which smell better and aren’t alive….. When it comes to fire facials, caviar facials and blood or plasma facials, again some truth but overall are you willing to pay and put yourself through that? Take care of your skin daily, eat right, drink loads of water and sleep well. See your esthetician once a month for maintenance and hopefully you wont need extremes like these for your skin’s health.

No matter which of these you find intriguing, the chances that you can get them here, in this country, might be small. Many of these treatments are done overseas where skincare laws are quite different, and some can only be found in metropolitan cities like LA or New York where the demand for them would be higher. The snail secretions have even found their way into skincare products! This year at the Face & Body Show in San Jose, there were a few vendors showing snail, goat placenta and animal collagen skincare. You be the judge on what you want to put on your body, but for now manufacturers will continue to make any and everything to sell beauty.

Till next time, be good to your skin and even better to yourself,

xx eri