Korean sheet masks always boast strange ingredients—broccoli, caviar, egg, seaweed, placenta (seriously, not kidding).
The main ingredient in this TONYMOLY sheet mask is snail secretion filtrate – you know, the mucus-like substance snails leave behind on the ground as they move. It begs the question: who would think, “I guess I’ll put it on my face and see what happens”?
Oh, yeah.
Me.
I’m no stranger to Korean sheet masks.
I’ve bought them for $1 each, carefully choosing between the honey and rose and green tea masks at the Niles HMart near Chicago. I’ve also bought them in bulk, the way they are sold in little beauty shops all over South Korea.
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MYEONGDONG
On my recent trip to Seoul, being the K-beauty aficionado that I am, I entered pretty much all the major beauty retailers: Skinfood, Nature Republic, Innisfree, Banila Co, to name a few. Usually this meant dragging my husband in with me or my college roommate Jisu, an international student from South Korea who I lived with in Chicago.
If you haven’t been to Seoul, I’ll try to illustrate it for you in terms you can understand:
Imagine you come out of the subway and you see a Lush storefront with an employee waving from the doorway, dipping their hands enticingly in a caldron of bubbly water. Then, immediately next door, you turn and see a Benefit Cosmetics brow specialist beckoning you inside with the promise of freebies. You turn and see Sephora and ULTA, too, happily coexisting on the same little stretch of road, employees in their doorways handing out free samples. Later, on the next street over, you see Mac, Lancôme, Clinique, and then literally all the stores you just saw repeating again. As in, they have multiple storefronts one street over, a five-minute walk from each other. When you finally turn to leave this magical land, you descend into the subway and find yet another Benefit store underground beside three stores all selling cute socks for $1 each.
Swap those names out for K beauty brands and welcome to Myeongdong. I don’t know how many TONYMOLY storefronts stand within walking distance of each other. I honestly lost count. But I did see at least two Lush stores. That part was real. The sweet smell permeated the whole block, at least until the food vendors set up their booths.
First, we scoped out some of the competing snail masks. Jisu checked reviews on Naver (essentially South Korea’s Google), and ultimately, we decided on the TONYMOLY Intense Care Snail Gel Mask. TONYMOLY is one of the big giants of Korean skincare. I’ve even found their products in Chicago and I just discovered their products are now sold on Amazon. Earlier this year, I bought one of their foot masks from ULTA. It made the callused top layer of my feet literally fall off over the course of a few weeks. (Of course, having baby-soft feet was worth it.)
Honestly, a part of me was curious as to why snail sheet masks cost so much more than masks containing aloe or lavender or more common ingredients. So, I bought two packs of ten masks for 200,000 won. (At the time, 1 dollar exchanged for a little more than 1000 won, making these masks a little less than $10 each.) I even received a free full-size snail cleanser and snail serum with my purchase.
In addition to glycerin and snail secretion, these sheet masks also contain the roots of Moutan peonies and the extract of a swamp plant that looks like clover and only grows in Asia. It boasts 10,000 ppm of snail mucus filtrate, and while I’m not sure what that means, I will say this mask was the slimiest of all the sheet masks I’ve ever tried.
According to TONYMOLY’s website, snail mucus filtrate “provides intense hydration, radiance, and resilience to skin” and has anti-aging properties. Bring it on!
THE MASK
My pre-mask skin had more than a few blemishes, as well as some dry, flaky spots. Winter weather came early in Chicago (like it does every year), so my husband and I already had the heat running for days.
As much as I hate taking make-up free selfies, here it is. For science. Please study my imperfections and ignore that weird red thing on my forehead that I’ve had ever since surviving chicken pox in Kindergarten:
I washed my face and applied toner before putting the mask on. Using toner with moisturizing products helps the skin better absorb the nutrients, so I always make it part of my routine. You should too!
These snail masks contain separate masks for both the upper and lower parts of the face. At first, I thought it was a waste of packaging. But then, when I was actually able to get the mouth and eye holes to line up to my face, it made sense. Usually, the mouth and eye holes on full-face masks don’t line up. So thanks TONYMOLY! I appreciate you understanding that not all women are the same size! Please share this knowledge with every clothing manufacturer in Korea who believes free size clothes fit everyone. (Yes, one-size-fits-all is a thing in Korea. In the United States, we call it size small.)
As I stated above, this mask was slimy. But it didn’t smell like snails. I think that’s necessary to say for those of you still hung up on the fact that I applied snail mucus to my face for 30 minutes to let it seep in. In fact, the mask didn’t smell like much of anything. I forgot I was even wearing it after a while. The packaging also contained a lot of extra serum that I rubbed on my neck and chest—a nice bonus.
Another thing I found different about this mask was the time it took. In my experience, you’re supposed to keep most sheet masks on for 10-15 minutes—any longer and they start to reabsorb the moisture from your skin. Maybe because of how wet this mask was, the package directed me to leave it on 20-30 minutes. So, I dutifully set my timer for 30 minutes. The mask didn’t dry out during this time, as I half-expected it to. After I removed it, my skin took a few additional minutes to dry. The sliminess eventually absorbed into my skin.
As with any serum application, I followed with moisturizer and makeup.
THE RESULTS
I noticed a nearly immediate difference in my skin. I guess if snail secretion provides enough lubrication for snails to propel themselves forward, that’s reason enough for it to help my skin stay moisturized and dewy.
For the next week, I obediently used one mask every day, usually in the morning. I took a dry AF plane ride to Florida for a weekend wedding, where the humidity ravaged my curly hair. My skin, on the other hand, held up beautifully.
These masks cost me roughly $10 each. Were they worth it?
I took this picture after using mask #7. It was about 9:40pm and I had just left the wedding, taken my makeup off, and washed my face. My cheeks are a little pink from the Florida sun. But as you can tell from the picture, my skin was dewy. The mask also had positive effects of texture, tone, brightness, and in healing damaged skin on my chin and my cheeks.
While I wouldn’t recommend spending $42 in snail sheet masks per week on a long-term basis, I do plan to keep them as part of my skincare arsenal. I won’t use them every day. (Frankly, that’s out of my budget.) But maybe once a week, when my skin feels dry, or before an important event. I bought plenty of other—cheaper—sheet masks on my travels through Korea that I plan to alternate them with. That being said, I don’t regret the splurge. If it weren’t for the cost, I really would use these every day.
TL;DR: yes, you can apply snail goo to your face, and yes, its effects on your skin will be worth the gross-out factor.
Products mentioned in this post:
What weird sheet mask should I put on my face next?
Let me know in the comments below.
Heather Hobbs is a Korean skincare and toner enthusiast who writes freelance content and blog posts for companies and bloggers.
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Sarah
29 Nov 2018Wow! That stuff works!! Sign me up! 😄👍
Kassidy
29 Nov 2018Very interesting, I’ve heard a lot about this stuff, thanks for the insight! I’m going to have to check it out😁
Alex
4 Dec 2018Love using this stuff. I got the sheets in Korea for $1 each. Myeongdong is the place for k-beauty.
Chelsea
5 Dec 2018Hahah yeah $42 in a week for masks would get pretty expensive pretty fast! I have soooo many sheet masks that I bought when I was living in Taipei, and then I picked up a bunch in South Korea and Thailand as well. I’m stocked up and try to use them every week or two. They def make you look more fresh faced!
xo Chelsea | https://completelychelsea.com