Réelle Skincare | Deep Repair and Moisturizing Snail Cream (Normal Skin) Review

Snails. I’ve talked about them before (here) with regards to skincare and despite how gross I think they are, I am actually a cheerleader for them when it comes to having their “juices” on my skin. I generally see snail extract in Asian skincare products so when the opportunity arose to try a French skincare brand called Réelle, who better than the people whose specialty is escargot to spearhead the latest in snail skincare technology!  Réelle specializes in using a high percentage of 100% snail extract in its products and was founded just 2 years ago by Dr. Arnaud Decroix and Mr. Luc Champeyroux.

The Réelle Deep Repair and Moisturizing Snail Cream (€33.00) comes in three different formulations for oily, normal and dry skin. I feel like my skin has been headed in the normal direction from dry so I opted to see how the normal formulation fared on my skin.

Reelle Deep Repair and Moisturizing Snail Cream

Reelle Deep Repair and Moisturizing Snail Cream (2)

The packaging looks very luxe with a faceted cap and feels like it’s made with acrylic or lucite. I keep wiping my fingerprints off of it because I love the way it looks!

Reelle Deep Repair and Moisturizing Snail Cream (3)

The normal formulation contains 5% of 100% pure snail extract which is composed of: collage, elastin, allantoin (for soothing redness) and glycolic acid. This is interesting because it’s actually a moisturizer that has a gentle chemical exfoliant in it. I should add that no snails are harmed during the extraction process. They are imported from France and raised on their own farm in Thailand while being fed only organic food and aloe vera so that the extract harvested is just as healthy. Is it sad to say that I think these snails are having a better time than I am some days?

Ingredients: Water, Mineral Oil, 5% Pure Snail secretion filtrate, Glyceryl stearate, Stearic acid, Ceteareth-6, Glycerin(Centella extract), (Pomegranate extract), Ceteareth-25, Polysorbate 60, Methylpropanediol, Ethylhexylglycerin, Fragrance, Caprylhydroxamic acid, Triethanolamine

Final Verdict: I really wanted to like this moisturizer, but I think I may have chosen the wrong formulation as I found it far too rich for my skin. Skincare is SO TOUGH because you really don’t know if something is/isn’t right for you until weeks later. I liked the consistency, but it just would not fully absorb into my skin. I also started to break out a little bit on my cheeks about a week after I started using it and even though I pushed forward another full week to see if my skin would clear up and it did not. I also stopped using it twice a day and opted for using it as just a night cream.

I don’t normally have skin breakouts from using product so I am open to trying to figure out what may have gone wrong. Maybe I shouldn’t exfoliate as often when I use this moisturizer since there is already glycolic acid in it? Maybe it was the mineral oil? Although I’ve never had a problem with it before. To be honest, I would have lived through the breakouts and tried to narrow down what was wrong if it weren’t for the fact that I work for a well-known skincare/beauty company now and let’s face it. You can’t sell skincare without good skin. I would be open to trying the oily skin version of this moisturizer since the normal version was too intense! I do believe that snail extract is a GOOD thing and from my experience with Réelle, I do trust them as the leading snail extract experts. I am not done with snails yet and believe that this particular moisturizer was just not quite the right fit for me and as we all know with skincare, it’s just a matter of going back to the drawing board!

Stay tuned because Réelle has been generous enough to let one lucky reader experience snail skincare at its best! INTERNATIONAL giveaway deets will be coming later this week! 

PR sample sent for review.

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