At a beauty salon in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, an employee performs a "medical-cosmetic" massage on a client using African snails. The salon is the only one in the region using the "snails method", which owner Alyona Zlotnikova claims can speed skin regeneration and eliminate wrinkles. Photo: REUTERS/Ilya Naymushinclaimed.

  • Sister Asphalt

    Wasn’t this on “Penn and Teller’s Bullshit” as one of their experiments?

    • yaotl

      yes, yes it was.

    • http://twitter.com/KevSaund Kevin Saunders

      Hee’s Penn talking about it: 
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mALsYDaKEE0

      • http://lectiblog.blogspot.com/ lecti

        Why is he walking back and forth with his cellphone in front of him?

  • http://twitter.com/petitepoubelle petite poubelle

    Alyona Zlotnikova claims can speed skin regeneration and eliminate wrinkles.

    She later added that “gullible is not in the dictionary.”

  • http://echofox3.blogspot.com efergus3

    Soon after, the alien parasites left their shells and crawled through her ears to her brain. After that, things became VERY ugly.

    • abstract_reg

       And the only people who can save the world from this menace are some kids who can morph into animals.

      • http://echofox3.blogspot.com efergus3

        No, no – some teens and their talking dog. GO SCOOBY!

  • solstice2005

    Are the patients being made aware that these snails [Achatina fulica} carry a number of nasty parasites? Such as (from Wikipedia):

    Aelurostrongylus abstrusus, Angiostrongylus cantonensis – causes eosinophilic meningoencephalitis, Angiostrongylus costaricensis – causes abdominal angiostrongyliasis, Schistosoma mansoni – causes schistosomiasis, detected in faeces, Trichuris spp. – detected in faeces, Hymenolepis spp. – detected in faeces, Strongyloides spp. – detected in faeces and in mucous secretion

    • http://www.youtube.com/user/Freethinkersanon Christopher

      Oops. I thought some people kept these snails as pets. In fact for a long time now I’ve wished I could get one or two (although I’d make every effort to prevent breeding) to keep as a pet.

      I’d never use them to massage my face, though. I just because I think they’re cool.

    • C W

      “Are the patients being made aware that these snails [Achatina fulica} carry a number of nasty parasites”

      Hahahahhaahahahahahahahahahahahahaha of course they aren’t. Snake oil can’t be harmful because…

  • liquidstar

    I quite like these african slugs – they jumped ship some years ago in my area (far north east coast NA) and I enjoy seeing them come out on hot moist August nights – they are so large compared to other NA slugs and have interesting leopard spots. 

  • carlodog

    Doesn’t seem that inadvertent to me.  They were deliberately placed on the woman’s face in order to massage it.

    • Daemonworks

      Yeah… why is that word in the headline?

      • Antinous / Moderator

        The snails are not purposefully massaging her. The adverb modifies the verb which is performed by the noun. You would not have survived Mrs. Smith sixth grade parsing hell.

        • ocker3

           Exactly. The title isn’t “Woman inadvertently massaged by snails,” which would be ambigious about intent on both sides, it clearly indicates that the snails probably don’t know what they’re doing. Although I have seen video of cats pushing on someone’s shoulders and neck, in an apparent effort to provide some kind of comfort.

  • Halloween_Jack

    Rule 34, folks. 

    • Anon_Mahna

       http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhVi4Z6CjZk    Snail porn, awwwwww yeahhhhhh!

  • zuben

    The human hand you see in that image is actually under the direction of the Commander Snail overseeing things from the sternum.

    Also, does wearing all that makeup serve as a deterrent from being snailed on the lips and eyes?

  • Tracy Adams

     I created this idea back in 2007 with a Photoshop image manipulation. Snails were used to scrub away wrinkly skin.

    http://photoshopcontest.com/view-entry/117975/scrub-a-dub-dub.html

  • Sound Guy

    Me and my Significant Other love to sneer at and deride cosmetics ads, as well as the suckers who either believe or are happy to go along with the fake science BS.

    But then she fell for some of it after reading an article about something you can buy here in the UK called ‘snail face’.

    It works – the irony. No; neither of us are affiliated – yes, I’m already having second thoughts as I prepeare to post, and yes I’m aware that it couldn’t possibly reduce wrinkles/work as described – but it does…

    ‘Go’ and ‘Figure’, as some like to say.

    • Antinous / Moderator

      The snails deposit mucus on your face. It’s an emollient. So, no different than using a moisturizer. Unless maybe these snails ooze some kind of exfoliant acid.