Artisanal Soapmaker in France Uses Snail Slime to Make Soap

Damien Desrocher is a soap-maker, known also as a soaper, in France who uses a special ingredient to craft his artisanal bars: snail slime.

To achieve this, Damien Desrocher uses a very gentle technique where he tickles the snail. Afterward, the snail laughs and laughs. No, it doesn’t. But it does excrete a slimy fluid that Damien harvests.

The slime is part of the formula for his line of “Escargot Desrocher” products, also known as snail soap.

The snail farmer has about 60,000 of the gastropods in his 'stable.’ And he never has to worry about them straying too far.  It’s a good thing, too, as it takes the slime of about 40 snails to fill one little bowl. 

Snail slime is a popular ingredient in some beauty products from South Korea. It contains elastin and collagen, and some claim it has anti-aging properties.

It’s less common in the West. But Damien, who once served in the French Air Force as a computer technician, is all in. And he hopes to produce around 3,000 snail-slime soap bars this year. 

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