Rumor has it, in a never-ending to find a miracle product to hold back unforgivable wrinkles and banish your hideous over-twentysomething skin, cosmetics companies may have unearthed the magic ingredient: snail slime. The demand for it is certainly , with reports that snail farming in Italy has increased by more than 325% over two decades, with 44,000 tonnes of snails produced every year. ‘In the last 10 months alone, we’ve seen a 46% increase in snail slime, due to from the cosmetics industry,’ according to Simone Sampo, the president of Italy’s National Heliciculture Association. Snails as skincare have been around since the ancient Greeks, who used them crushed as an ointment. In more recent years, products have been including the slime with that it can help heal acne and reduce wrinkles. In 2013, by treatments in east Asia, you could pay to have snails slither over your face at one spa in Northamptonshire. Marginally less yucky, other salons offer facials where the skin is pricked with tiny needles before a serum containing snail is applied. You can also buy skin products mollusc slime.