Thanks to technology, there’s no shortage of weird things you can put on your face in the quest for clearer, brighter, plumper, blemish-free skin. There’s Nightingale bird poop (Tom Cruise enjoys a facial full of it), bee venom (the Duchess of Cambridge is a fan of this cream by beautician Deborah Mitchell), mud (see: every blemish-clearing mask), and now, there’s snail slime. Call it the slow beauty movement: Snail slime is being touted as a miracle face-fixer.

Snail creams have been around for years–they’re very popular in Korea, where beauty brand Missha first introduced a snail cream, snail serum, and sleeping mask–and Dr. Jart, who’s claim to fame is introducing BB creams to the US market, just launched a skincare line made with snail mucin.

I became intrigued when I noticed how popular slime-based creams were on a recent trip to the Côte d’Ivoire. There, snail creams are found amongst face wash and shampoo in all the local supermarkets, and the snails are as large as Chanel 2.55’s—maybe even bigger (see picture above). Snail mucin is believed to reduce pigmentation and scarring, but does it really do anything? We decided to investigate.