Thai snails kept 'happy' and healthy for their cosmetic slime

[snoop1130]

Thai snails kept 'happy' and healthy for their cosmetic slime

Juarawee Kittisilpa

 

A snail is seen at a snail farm at Nakhon Nayok Province, Thailand May 11, 2018. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun

 

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Giant African snails endemic to Thailand are getting the red carpet treatment to keep them producing top-notch slime, say farmers harvesting the mucus for use in cosmetics.

 

At a farm in Nakhon Nayok province, a two-hour drive north-east of Bangkok, Tawatchai Maneemart tends to some 3,000 snails.

 

He lets them roam freely in a 21-square-metre (226 sq ft) enclosure that mimics their natural habitat, and feeds them with organic cucumbers and green leafy vegetables.

 

These snails, about three inches long, are bred by farmers for their mucus, made popular in large part by a South Korean beauty trend that uses the filtered slime in face serums and moisturisers.

 

“If we nurture them well and keep them happy by providing them with a pleasant habitat and good food, they will be healthy,” said Tawatchai, explaining that healthier snails bred in a stress-free environment are more likely to produce high-quality mucus.

 

Advocates of the snail cream say the mucus is filled with collagen and other compounds that aid in hydrating the skin, and which, over time, can fade skin imperfections, such as wrinkles and scars.

 

To extract the gel, Tawatchai and his team hold a snail over a petri dish and drop water on it to stimulate its production of mucus. The secretion is extracted and bottled.

 

Once collected, the slime is sold to Aden International Co., a Thailand-based business that turns most of it into a powder, which it sells to cosmetics companies in South Korea and the United States, its Chief Executive Voranun Puttarathuvanun said.

 

Aden International also makes its own face serum using the mucus, which it says is popular in China.

 

The company declined to name its customers.

 

Voranun said the best part of the snail slime business was its minimal cost.

 

“You don’t even need to buy the snails as they can be collected, especially in the rainy season”, she said of the land snails from the Achatina genus.

 

Tawatchai said his snails earn him an average monthly income of $940, almost five times the country’s $193 minimum monthly wage.

 

Cosmetic brands popular in Thailand that use snail mucus include products by Do Day Dream, which uses slime extracted in South Korea in its skin-whitening cream, and Beauty Buffet’s Lansley Magic Snail White Cream.

 

Other countries including Chile, Italy and France also breed snails for their mucus.

 

There are about 85 snail farms in Nakhon Nayok province where farmers say they extract the mucus no more than once a month to maintain the animals’ health.

 

The snails even get a break from having their slime extracted for four months each year - to keep them healthy and “happy”.

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-5-18

[snoop1130]

Snail cream, smelly fruit: Thai cosmetics, food firms tap into Chinese tourism boom

Chayut Setboonsarng

 

A man waters a snail in the process of producing cosmetics at a snail farm at Nakhon Nayok Province, Thailand May 11, 2018. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun

 

BANGKOK (Reuters) - The label on the pink and white box of face cream sold in a Bangkok hypermarket proudly declares that it is based on a “snail secretion filtrate moisture system”. The Snail White branding - plus some positive internet reviews - is enough to have Chinese tourists recently lining up to buy the slime-infused product.

 

Alice Chen, 21, a Chinese college student, says she saw the face cream reviewed online and wanted to try it out because she couldn’t get it back home. And a 22-year-old Chinese tourist also at the Big C Ratchadamri store, who only gave her name as Yvonne, said she bought some - it retails at about $40 a box - because “a blogger said it was good and inexpensive.”

 

Meanwhile, at a dessert cafe just up the road in Bangkok’s upscale Siam Paragon shopping centre, another group of Chinese tourists take pictures on their phones of whimsical treats made from durian - the yellow fruit known for its sulphury smell that is mainly grown in southeast Asia.

 

About 11 million Chinese tourists are expected to come to Thailand this year, up from just over 1 million in 2010, making China by far the biggest source of tourism here. And they are spending more per head than previously, according to Thai government figures.

 

And it isn’t only the hotels, tour operators and airlines that are benefiting. A big slice of this spending is with retailers, restaurants, and food and cosmetics makers that target the Chinese audience.

 

Investors have taken note, driving up the share prices of many of the companies concerned to high price-to-earnings ratios. So far, in some cases, that securities analysts say they are wary of valuations, especially as tourists’ tastes can change rapidly.

 

Do Day Dream Pcl, the company behind the skin-whitening Snail White cream, is one.

 

Boxes of the firm’s signature cream, which the firm says it makes from snail slime extracted using a process done in South Korea, are stacked high at Thailand’s airports and malls as it has become a must-buy item for many Chinese visitors who covet paler skin.

 

Sales of the Snail White products have been skyrocketing since 2014 as beauty bloggers in Hong Kong and Singapore gave them rave reviews, according to Do Day Dream Chief Financial Officer Piyawat Ratchapolsitte.

 

In 2017, the company’s revenue ballooned 35 percent to 1.7 billion baht ($52 million) as the company also built a strong Thai domestic market and grew online sales direct to Chinese consumers. It also sells other snail secretion-based products, including shower gel and lotions.

 

The sales to visitors are at risk, he said, if for any reason there is a sudden drop off in Chinese tourists. That happened briefly in 2015 and 2016 when the Thai government made it much more difficult for the tour operators offering really cheap packages to the Chinese - known as “zero-dollar tours”.

 

Exports to China produced 30 percent of its revenue last year, Piyawat said. That is more than the 10-15 percent that comes from Chinese tourists buying in Thailand.

 

There is also increasing competition in the niche world of snail slime products. Reuters visited a snail farm in Thailand that provides the secretion to a manufacturer that sells it either in its original form or after turning it into a powder for use in cosmetics around the world.

 

FORBES’ RICHEST LIST

 

Another Thai beauty firm that sells colour cosmetics and skincare products, Beauty Community, is also seeing substantial growth.

 

Chief Executive Suwin Kraibhubes said he expects tourists from China and Southeast Asia to account for 15 percent of revenue, which will help him reach a 20 percent growth target this year.

 

Suwin, a physician-turned-businessman, and Do Day Dream founder Sarawut Pornpatanaruk both for the first time made this year’s Richest 50 Thai’s list compiled by Forbes.

 

Another sweet success story is After You. The popular dessert restaurant has 28 cafes throughout Bangkok, with six in popular tourist destinations such as shopping malls and along the skytrain line.

 

The cafe, known for long queues and its Shibuya Honey Toast - a block of bread served with ice cream - was initially popular among Singaporean and Malaysian customers.

 

But in 2016, Chinese tourists began to pour into the cafes, said After You Chief Executive Maetup T. Suwan. “Tourists see our long queues, a picture on social media or read a great review and want to try,” he said.

 

After You has capitalised on the flow of Chinese customers to set up ‘durian rooms’ last year offering fresh durian desserts specifically aimed at the fruit’s lovers. Durian is often banned in taxis and hotels and airlines around Southeast Asia because of its pungent smell.

 

The company plans new branches and durian rooms in top Thai tourist destinations outside of Bangkok and it also plans to start a franchise model in Malaysia next year, said Maetup.

 

Chinese tourists are also snapping up savoury snacks. Taokaenoi’s crispy seaweed snack has been a hit for years.

 

About 20 percent of Taokaenoi’s 2017 domestic sales were to tourists, the company’s Head of Investor Relations, Koosoon Rattanaporn, said, while 60 percent came from exports, nearly half of them to China.

 

COMMANDING PREMIUMS

 

The benefits of Chinese demand and expectations of further supercharged growth are clearly reflected in share prices.

 

Investors are paying 52 times earnings for the Do Day Dream shares, well above the Thai personal product industry average of 21 times, and After You’s shares are trading at 79 times earnings, while Taokaenoi’s prices are 43 times earnings.

 

There is expectation of higher earnings because these companies are in the “growth stage of their business life cycle,” said CGS-CIMB Securities Thailand analyst Uraiwan Tantisuwannakul.

 

Domestic consumption has slowed in recent years so investors are willing to “pay a premium” for firms with plans to diversify to the Chinese market, she said.

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-5-18

[coulson]

1 hour ago, snoop1130 said:

Once collected, the slime is sold to Aden International Co., a Thailand-based business that turns most of it into a powder, which it sells to cosmetics companies in South Korea and the United States, its Chief Executive Voranun Puttarathuvanun said

In the wake of multiple scams involving natural health products ......nevermind.

[faraday]

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/23652894/

 

CONCLUSION: Daily application of topical products containing SCA proved effective and well tolerated for improvement in coarse periocular rhytides and fine facial rhytides. Subjects noted a significant degree of improvement in fines lines at the 8-week time point on the SCA-treated side (P≤.05) but did not report a significant difference in the quality of their skin.

 

Rhytides are wrinkles.

 

[ratcatcher]

And now for something completely different. Escargots. Maybe these snails can be cooked and eaten as well as providing mucus for the snotty elite.

[johng]

I got tons growing in our garden I keep joking with my wife ..you dont have to buy that expensive "snail white" stuff just pickup one from the garden and rub it on your face.... [emoji3] she won't though.[emoji14]

 

[DrTuner]

I've heard sperm is good for the face. No I didn't, but hey feel free to distribute it as gospel to young Korean chicks.

[smedly]

Is it also a cancer cure and can maybe replace Viagra for erectile disfunction

 

 

or maybe it is just the slime that snails produce

 

there is no doubt that people will believe in this shit (slime)

 

if you are a snail in Thailand your days are numbered...…………….and when you are all gone they will still claim it is snail slime you are putting on your face

 

 

Oh and if you have snails in your garden right now, yes those pesky slime making buggers...………..collect them up and put them on Lazada, snail slime is gonna boom, who would have thunk it

 

Thailand is a laugh a minute

 

Maybe snail slime can make the air in Bangkok breathable ……. something they have overlooked - or maybe that is not important

[Juan B Tong]

Yikes!

Just what Thailand needs.

More slime!

[MyFriend You]

Uuuggh!!  snail snot, lamb placentas, human baby foreskins, wild cat sweat and whale sperm in cosmetics.............whats next??  Human poo-poo rub??

[George Bowman]

Rice farmers around Phitsanulok are probably not fans of snail slime.  Why? These creatures love rice seedlings and can eat 24 hours a day. Instead they spend a lot of Baht every year on pesticides trying to kill the giant African land snail and the Apple snail. Walk along any paddy field after the farmers have sprayed and piles of snail shells can be seen.

 

Neither snail is native to Thailand. They were brought here to be raised as food and as aquarium pets. And some escaped. 

 

When I find them in the garden they are sent to snail heaven using the footicide method.

[mikebell]

They'll be saying next rhino horn gives you an erection; and eating bits of a tiger can take the place of viagra; and talking buffalo can give you next month's lottery numbers.  Amusing Thailand.

[smedly]

1 hour ago, mikebell said:

They'll be saying next rhino horn gives you an erection; and eating bits of a tiger can take the place of viagra; and talking buffalo can give you next month's lottery numbers.  Amusing Thailand.

well I got the horn tonight had an erection drank some tiger skipped the Viagra lost the horn ended up talking like a buffalo ………...but most important - bought a lottery ticket

 

Must be a winner...…..if I had remembered to buy a ticket lol 

[worgeordie]

Giant African snails,are not  endemic to Thailand,but Africa as the name

suggests.

Years ago someone had the bright idea to farm snails,as like the French

Thai's also eat them, so they choose  the African snail,which grows very

big compared to other snails,I don't know what happened,maybe tasted no

good,whatever,so they either escaped or were set free,and now are a serious

pest,so they have come full circle are farming them again,not for their meat,

but for their mucus.

 

regards worgeordie

[ChouDoufu]

amazing what people will do to be "pretty."

 

friends back home ask why thai ladies love foreigners.  they assume it's because of our bulging wallets.  no, i explain, we don't spread snail snot on our faces.  would you wanna kiss that?

[Lupatria]

On 5/19/2018 at 5:45 AM, smedly said:

Is it also a cancer cure and can maybe replace Viagra for erectile disfunction

 

 

or maybe it is just the slime that snails produce

 

there is no doubt that people will believe in this shit (slime)

 

if you are a snail in Thailand your days are numbered...…………….and when you are all gone they will still claim it is snail slime you are putting on your face

 

 

Oh and if you have snails in your garden right now, yes those pesky slime making buggers...………..collect them up and put them on Lazada, snail slime is gonna boom, who would have thunk it

 

Thailand is a laugh a minute

 

Maybe snail slime can make the air in Bangkok breathable ……. something they have overlooked - or maybe that is not important

I know, dentist’s worldwide want me dead for this. Now, for the first time and only in Thailand (no other country would give me a FDA approval), I’m selling a mouthwash consisting of shark sperm, that’ll make you grow a third set of teeth. It is priced slightly cheaper than one Kg of volcanic Durian for a 50 ml. dose. I desperately need HiSo celebrities, actors, and high ranking officials to promote the product.

[smedly]

5 hours ago, Lupatria said:

I know, dentist’s worldwide want me dead for this. Now, for the first time and only in Thailand (no other country would give me a FDA approval), I’m selling a mouthwash consisting of shark sperm, that’ll make you grow a third set of teeth. It is priced slightly cheaper than one Kg of volcanic Durian for a 50 ml. dose. I desperately need HiSo celebrities, actors, and high ranking officials to promote the product.

LMAO