Review: The Saem Snail Soothing Gel

Having lurked assiduously on several skincare and beauty blogs and subreddits for almost two years (1 year and 7 months if you want to be exact), I've learned a lot about how to read ingredients list on a skincare items. This allows me to be more critical, and look past advertising claims (since everything seems like the new "it" and wonder product these days) in order to determine where best to invest my money. This is important, because whether I use the product or not, every skincare and beauty product I buy will be sunk cost anyway (unless I manage to sell/swap it, but that's hard given my location).

My improved knowledge of ingredients has given me more confidence to venture out beyond blogger favorites, and explore lesser known products. This leads me to today's review of The Saem Snail Soothing Gel.

Look at dem snails, ain't they so cute?

I have had the hardest time trying to find descriptions for this gel online. The following is a description of the gel from the back of the packaging itself.

The SAEM Snail Soothing Gel soothes sensitive skin and makes it elastic

So not the most verbose description.

I managed to find a Thai description for the product online, which can be found at this website. I've paraphrased the key points, and translated it to the best of my abilities below.

• Multi-purpose gel that can be used for both your face and your body
• With snail secretion filtrate and aloe vera to moisturize and heal irritated, damaged skin so it can be smooth, healthy and firm once more
• **meant for very sensitive/very dry and damaged skin!**
• Free from 7 chemicals and parabens! (Paraben/ Benzophenon/ Formaldehyde/Artificial coloring/ PEG/ PG/ TEA)
• Light moisturizer
• Helps with sun damaged skin, acne-prone skin
• Can be used as a cooling pack, after shave cream, and hair gel

As always, marketed as a wonderful do-all "it" product. Let's see how it actually fares!

PERFORMANCE

Packaging

The gel comes in a very generous, sturdy tub. Otherwise, it's nothing too out of the ordinary. It contains 300 mL of product. When you unscrew the lid, there is a clear plastic divider, providing an extra layer of hygiene and sanitation. Many tend to not like tub packaging as they believe it is more unhygienic, but I personally do not mind since I always try to ensure my hands are clean when I take out the product.

Ingredients

The Saem Snail Soothing Gel ingredients

Hysterically, for something marketed as a snail gel, the most prominent ingredient is aloe vera leaf extract. This is not necessarily bad, because aloe vera is a pretty good skincare ingredient. I'd rather have aloe be the main ingredient instead of water.

Regardless, the second ingredient is snail secretion filtrate. This is followed by a whole host of common skincare ingredients like glycerin, before it is interestingly followed by a host of natural extracts. Some of these extracts include basil leaf extract, avocado fruit extract, and walnut extract.

I will admit, it was the fact that 1) aloe vera and snail secretion filtrate were so high up on the list; and 2) there were so many extracts (albeit much lower down on the ingredients list) that made me decide to spring for this item.

Since it wasn't on CosDNA, I added it to the database so you can see any potential irritants and acne triggers here. It seems to be a generally safe product, with only carbomer and butylene glycol possibly causing issues (rating of 1).

Smell

I absolutely love the smell of this gel. It just smells so fresh, and very aloe vera-y (not surprising given the ingredients list). The smell really makes me enjoy using this.

If you're adverse to fragrances, just know that the fragrance is a titch strong. However, it doesn't linger long once applied.

Texture

Jigglyyyy

The product itself is clear with a gel-like consistency. It's pretty jiggly in the tub, much like other aloe vera offerings from Asian brands.

I'm not sure whether this is an artefact of the weather or not, but sometimes the product starts getting runny and water-y. As in, when I scoop it out of the tub, I don't get any gel on my fingers. This may be because it's so damn hot here most of the time (average >30C).

Application

For face applications, I scoop out a quarter-size amount and rub it into my face. It feels light and moisturizing on my face, and only ever a little bit tacky if I have applied too much.

RESULTS

I use this product twice a day - AM and PM - as a light moisturizer.

Immediately upon application of this gel, any redness or flushing I may have from the heat dissipates. It does a wonderful job calming down my skin due to the heat.

It also does a great job lightly moisturizing my oily/dehydrayed skin, which I much appreciate! It layers well under the rest of my routine at night. Depending on the weather, this is sometimes the only moisturizer I use in the mornings. It does live up to its claims of moisturizing, even though I would not be able to use this product on its own as my sole moisturizer.

Sadly, I don't think it lives up to its other claims of speeding up the healing process.

Before and after, taken approximately three weeks apart

As you can see, after a month of use, I don't think it did much to help speed up the process of healing my acne marks or whatnot. Those acne marks and PIH are still pretty persistent, if not slightly fading.

Beyond using the Snail Soothing Gel on my face, I actually quite like it as a light lotion on my body as well, especially when combined with some coconut oil.

VALUE

This product is exceptionally cheap, compared to all other skincare products. The price and the ingredients list is what convinced me to buy this in the first place.

I purchased this for 249 THB, or approximately $7.50 USD. Yeah, I know. That means that this product costs 0.83THB/mL or $0.025 USD/mL. Ridonkulus!

The value of The Saem Snail Soothing Gel is even more ridiculous when seeing it on a cost per use basis. I am close to finishing up this product with twice a day application. I have been using it for 4-5 months. Using 4 months as a conservative benchmark:

Per month cost = 249 THB/4 months = 62.25 THB or $1.875USD

Use per month = 2 times/day * 30 days = 60 uses per month

Per use = 62.25 THB/60 = 1.0375 THB/use or $0.03125 USD/use.

What is this item? It is so rare to have a skincare item that isn't face wash be this cheap!

SUMMARY/TL;DR

The gel did a good job for immediate effects such as lightly moisturizing and calming down heat-related flushes. However, it did not do as well for healing acne scars and PIH. Even though it didn't really do what I hoped it would do (ie. heal damaged skin and PIH), I am overly fond of this item. I just enjoy using this, whether as a way to lightly moisturize my face, or my body. Although I am not planning to repurchase it immediately (since I'm currently in the process of destashing as much as possible before moving), I will most likely buy it later after I move.

Score

Application: 9/10
Easy to apply, and sinks in quickly. Leaves a tacky feeling if overzealous with application. Plays well with other skincare products, and under makeup.

Performance: 6/10
Minor lightening of acne scars, lightly moisturizes, helps calm down heat-related redness

Value: 8/10
This product retails at 2,400 THB/L or $80 USD/L. It took me approx. 3 months to use most of it up with once a day application, meaning it costs 13.22 THB/day or $0.44 USD/day. Considering its performance, I don’t find this to be the most cost-effective product. 

OVERALL: 7.67/10

I think this is a fantastic all-around product for all skin types, especially with summer coming up (unless you live in Southeast Asia, which in that case it is perpetually summer. If only winter was coming). I feel like I have said this at least 10 times, but it really, truly is a nice light moisturizer, especially when layered. And if you buy it and it doesn't work for your face, it still does a good job for all over body moisturization :)

Although I bought my product at a local physical store, you can buy this product online at TesterKorea and Korea Depart for 6,000 Korean won, and $5.26 USD respectively.

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What are your thoughts on this? Do you think you'll buy this?