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Snail Mucin On Lips

In this post, I will discuss what snail mucin on lips can and can’t do.
In the final section, I will discuss whether and when you should consider using snail mucin on your lips.

Let’s get started…

How can snail mucin help lips?

Snail mucin helps snails heal. Snails constantly move on rough surfaces, sometimes on surfaces with harmful microorganisms, and snail mucin helps them recover from injuries caused by this movement. The mucin heals them because it has many healing ingredients.

While snail mucin’s healing properties may not be as potent on human skin as on snails, its unique composition still offers some benefits.

Some of these healing ingredients are hydrating to the skin.
These ingredients attract hydration to the lips, hydrating them.

Snail mucin has an exfoliating ingredient, glycolic acid. Glycolic acid exfoliates the skin (lips in this case).
Exfoliation removes dead skin cells. If we don’t exfoliate our skin regularly, it becomes dull and eventually loses hydration, which makes it further dry.

It is easy to overlook that our lips, like the rest of our face, also need exfoliation. However, the delicate nature of lip skin makes using a typical exfoliating serum a bit harsh. This is where snail mucin can help. With its gentle yet effective exfoliating properties, it can be a great alternative for lip care.

Snail mucin is not just about healing and exfoliating. It also contains a variety of wound-healing ingredients that can rejuvenate the skin. These rejuvenating properties are particularly beneficial for the lips, as they help strengthen the skin’s barrier. When the skin’s barrier function weakens, lips can become dehydrated and crack. Therefore, any ingredient that can help fortify the skin’s barrier function on the lips is a valuable addition to your skincare routine.

Snail mucin can’t help when…

Snail mucin on lips has a few limitations. You must be aware of them so you know when not to use them.

The ingredients in snail mucin hydrate the skin, but they don’t contain any ingredients that can retain that hydration. When lips lose hydration, they become dry. There are two steps to hydrating them back: adding hydration and adding ingredients that help keep that hydration in the skin. Snail mucin cannot help on this front. It can add hydration but can’t help retaining that hydration.
Snail mucin has many ingredients, but the hydrating ingredients are only a part of this list. Lips, especially when dry and cracked, need products that primarily have good hydrating ingredients and keep hydration sealed in the lips. Lips, especially when dry and cracked, don’t need a product with as many ingredients but rather a high-strength of hydrating and hydration-retaining ingredients.
Snail mucin is not harmful to use on lips, but it is not a substitute for a good lip balm.
Snail mucin can dehydrate your lips if you live in a dry climate. Let me explain…
When lips are dry or cracked, if we apply only ingredients that can add hydration, like snail mucin, in dry climates, these ingredients can make skin lose water.
The ingredients that add hydration belong to a class of skin care ingredients called humectants, which are water magnets. In a humid climate, they draw water from the atmosphere and add that hydration to the skin. In dry climates, there isn’t much humidity in the air. So, they draw water from the deeper layers of the skin and bring that hydration to the surface of the lips. Since snail mucin has no ingredient to seal hydration, the hydration these humectants bring to the surface will evaporate into the atmosphere. If lips are dry, their barrier function is weak. So, in such cases, hydration evaporates more easily into the atmosphere.
If your lips are cracked, snail mucin is not a good idea. It has glycolic acid, which can be harsh on cracked lips.
If you are allergic to seafood, the chances of you being allergic to snail mucin are also very high. So avoid it if you have a seafood allergy.

So should you buy snail mucin for lips?

Don’t assume snail mucin is a substitute for regular lip balm. A good lip balm has two sets of ingredients: the ones that add hydration and those that retain hydration. At the risk of being repetitive, I want to mention one more time that snail mucin does not have these two sets of ingredients.

Before incorporating snail mucin into your lip care routine, take a moment to understand why you’re considering it. Is it because of its exotic appeal, and you think it’s a magic ingredient?

Snail mucin can work on the skin (provided you are not allergic to it), but it is not the magic ingredient for your lips.

If you already use snail mucin on your face, there is no harm in using some on your lips. But don’t assume it is a substitute for a good lip balm. And also, don’t buy snail mucin just for your lips.

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