Our 100% manual harvest
Patrice our snail breeder in Albon in the DrĂŽme is the first snail farmer in France to have been certified in Organic Agriculture. It is therefore important for him to take into account the well-being of the snail by disturbing it as little as possible in its natural life cycle.
For the collection of mucus, we don't take, we wait for them to give us!
Mademoiselle Agathe's values ââare respect for people, animals and the environment. It is for this reason that we collect our mucus only and exclusively by hand, taking each snail one by one, with the dexterity that only a hand can offer.
The most important thing with snails is knowing how to take your time. More than any other animal, the notion of time is essential, since to flourish it needs to evolve slowly.
We defend here, our mucus harvesting process which is based on a French manual know-how unique in the world. And as often with nature, the more attention you pay to the animal, the better the quality of what it gives you.
We proscribe, the suffering of the snail, which from our point of view, is inevitable during the mechanization of harvesting methods. Indeed, it does not seem credible to us to maintain that the animal is âgently tickledâ or âgently stirredâ when a machine is used to collect its mucus. And what about those who use electric shocks, or even centrifuges.
All these methods do not correspond in our sense to the philosophy of the snail lifestyle and organic cosmetics. It is in any case contrary to our ethics.
Harvest snail slime manually
Patrice and Fabrice present the manual collection protocol for mucus for our cosmetics, because only Mademoiselle Agathe can certify organic snail farming with a collection of slime by hand.
This protocol is the result of more than 4 years of research and development to guarantee the well-being of the snail and the high protein content of the mucus thus collected.
What mucus do we need?
The snail produces several types of mucus depending on its needs.
By exerting different torsion efforts with its foot on the mucus, the snail can modify its properties. If the foot stretches over a small area, the bonds between the proteins break down and the mucus acts as a lubricant, allowing the foot to slip. If the foot contracts, the chemical bonds between the proteins reform and the mucus becomes sticky.
There are at least 5 different ones:
1
creeping mucus
The snail moves with a mode of locomotion in which its foot progresses only forwards by group movements. Indeed the snail advances slowly with only one foot in the glue. Because the viscous mucus that snails produce for this movement is not only a lubricant, it is also a glue. It can even be described as âviscoelasticâ.
2
epiphragm mucus
Ectothermal animals (cold-blooded, unable to control their internal temperature themselves) adopt a slower lifestyle, ceasing to feed. The snail then closes its shell with an operculum called âThe epiphragmâ. This mucus is essentially made up of limestone in order to ensure with its shell a barrier against frost.
3
breeding mucus
The mucus covering the snail's "stinger" doubles its chances of fertilization during mating. The snail's fertility appears to be attributable to chemical reactions associated with the mucus rather than the stinger itself. The snail, as everyone knows, is hermaphrodite, that is to say it has both male and female organs. Its mating can last about ten hours.
4
Defense mucus or stress
It is a very liquid mucus and of low protein quality, it is the mucus mainly harvested by the cruel mechanical methods of "disgorging or milking" or even "fresh slime".
5
Egg-laying mucus
The snail leaves a nutrient-rich mucus that covers the hole where it deposited its spat. Newborns will be able to feed on it during the first days of awakening. This mucus is thicker and very rich in biological macromolecules such as allantoin, glycolic acid and vitamins with the essential function of optimizing spat development. It is this mucus that we collect.
We declare here in view of our experience and our numerous researches on the different mucus, that the mucus collected by hand in the respect of the natural cycle of the animal, is the richest in natural enzymes and their bio-availability is much higher.
Because despite the fact that it is not very glamorous, it is the viscosity rate of the mucus which gives all its richness in proteins, peptides or vitamins. And it is precisely this protein richness that we need for our cosmetics.
All the difficulty at this stage, in order to take full advantage of the benefits of the proteins naturally present in the harvested mucus, is to break the chemical bonds between the proteins without destructuring the proteins themselves.
Indeed, it is above all the structure of the proteins of interest in space which gives them an activity function. A protein that is processed too extreme will eventually break down and be of no further use to the skin.
Raw, fresh, pure or extracted snail slime?
Only harvesting by hand, snail by snail, can guarantee animal welfare.
Our technique of harvesting by hand and extracting at low cold pressure comes in total opposition to certain mechanical techniques which claim "fresh" or "pure" slime, see "pure fresh snail slime 100% organic filtered". It is also difficult to understand how it would be possible to incorporate a pure ingredient such as snail slime into cosmetics without triggering bacterial proliferation.
Industrial harvesting with a machine
Why don't we use âFreshâ or âPureâ slime? Because that implies that these are industrial machines which are responsible for stimulating the snail more or less gently depending on the machines used. Some of these machines can even be certified organic, but on AB (Organic Farming) specifications, therefore intended for food, and therefore much less looking at animal well-being since it is intended to kill animal to eat it.
Mechanization to the detriment of the living
These principles of mechanical industrial harvesting, harvest a very liquid mucus, which moreover has nothing to do with drool or mucus and with a less good bioavailability of enzymes. The definition of a mucus is a state of matter that is neither a solid nor a liquid. It is a state between the two which is guaranteed by strong protein and peptide bonds which ensure a high degree of viscosity.
Then, this "liquid mucus", although very fluid, is filtered by nano-filters. This increases the pressure and heats up the snail's stress secretion to immediately break the bond chains of the few remaining proteins. It is then irradiated by UV.
Finally, enough preservatives must be added to also reduce the bacterial flora to less than 100 PPM (Part Per Million), which aims to destroy microbes, but also molds, spores, yeasts, sugars, or the whole of life. So, yes indeed no solvent is added so everything is degraded by nanometric filtration and UV.
Artisanal harvest by hand
At Mademoiselle Agathe, we have chosen to collect our mucus exclusively by hand for 2 main reasons. The first is obviously for the animal, indeed during the harvest, some snails do not want to give, so we can discard them, moreover the pressure exerted on the animal is measured by the human that it adapts to every moment. The second reason is the quality of the harvested mucus, since we manage to harvest a very heavy mucus with a saturation of binding proteins. It is therefore as rich as possible in the protein of interest, because it is these proteins that interest us. And as often in nature, the more attention you pay to the animal, the better the quality of what you get.
Determine protein richness in mucus
We performed a shear thinning test on an industrial mechanical mucus and our own mucus. Shear thinning is a characteristic of a fluid composed of long molecules. At rest, these are entangled randomly, all the more strongly as the fluid is viscous. Under shear, the chains tend to align and slide more easily, which results in a decrease in viscosity.
With a manual harvest, we obtain a Viscous mucus (G'') more than 200 times higher than a mechanical mucus (Figure 1 & 2), and an elasticity rate (G') more than 10,000 times higher. This proves that not only do we have 3.5 times more proteins present in our manually harvested mucus, but in addition the quality of the proteins present are more entangled than in industrial mucus and form a much more structured network.
Viscosity comparison between manually harvested mucus and mechanically harvested mucus.
The mucus collected by hand for Mademoiselle Agathe cosmetics (Artisanal Harvest) behaves as a more viscous liquid than honey, and ends the test at the highest shear rates with a higher viscosity than oil.
Mechanically harvested mucus (industrial harvest) gives the viscosity at the start of the shear test of an oil and ends the test with practically the viscosity of water, ie a viscosity 200 times lower than manually harvested mucus.
Only the dexterity of the hand can harvest protein-rich mucus.
In the agricultural environment, whether in viticulture or arboriculture, traditional harvesting by hand benefits the production of the greatest vintages or for delicate grape varieties such as Pinot Noir, whose skin is very thin. And it seems obvious to us that our snails deserve at least as much attention as a bunch of grapes.
Our manual harvesting process is certified under the COSMOS Organic specifications, that is to say that our main active ingredient is harvested for cosmetics taking into account the well-being of the animal.
Finally, our snails, once harvested, return to the grassed parks to resume the cycle of large reproducers and will never be introduced into the food chain and therefore never eaten.
So yes, this artisanal technique is longer, more tedious, and much more expensive in terms of labor required and time invested than mechanical harvesting, but above all it is much more respectful of life and much more in line with our philosophy: "Learning from nature rather than taking from nature."
EXTRACTION: fundamental step, it allows to recover the active ingredients contained in the snail slime but also to concentrate them.
~~~~~
Gentle low-pressure cold extraction
Cold low pressure extraction consists in isolating the compounds of interest in the mucus by bringing them into contact with a fluid called a solvent, in which the proteins, peptides and other vitamins will dissolve. This step is fundamental because it makes it possible to extract the active ingredients contained in the snail slime but also to concentrate them.
Since the dawn of time, humans have used extraction methods from plants, the oldest known are decoction, maceration or hydro-distillation, in order to obtain aromas, perfumes or even pigments. Polyphenols, well-known antioxidants from grape seeds, are obtained by extraction, not by incorporating the grape seed directly into the cosmetic, another very telling example: a cup of tea, if you want to be able to enjoy the aromas, the solvent is essential.
Scientifically proven effectiveness
In order to guarantee a snail slime extract that is very rich in active ingredients, we carried out a series of studies in mass spectrometry with the Museum of Natural History in Paris, and chromatography with the University of Rouen. This research has demonstrated a great richness in proteins.
SEE THE COMPOSITION OF SNAIL SLIME EXTRACT
Snail slime reveals fantastic cosmetic properties.
A moisturizing and nourishing action with the collagens and elastin present, they determine the properties of suppleness and elasticity of the skin.
A regenerating action with hemocyanin and RNA helicase which act on the aging process as well as cell renewal of the skin.
A purifying action , antimicrobial peptides and cytokeratins, serve as a support point for the immune system and limit the proliferation of bacteria on the skin.
A healing action , allantoin and actin are involved in the wound healing process and promote tissue repair.
An antioxidant action thanks to vitamins D and serine proteases which reduce inflammation and neutralize the action of free radicals.
An exfoliating action which, with glycolic acid, restores radiance to the complexion by eliminating dead skin and reducing skin spots.
