How to make money from slime: A snail farmer explains at the Balmoral Show 2025
Among the more unusual products on offer at the Balmoral Show this year was a range of beauty items derived from… snails.
The business in question is Bragan Skincare, and the stand in the Eikon Centre is manned by Kieran Corley, who offers bottles of it for sampling beneath the words: “Irish snail mucin.”
Noticing his stand, this reporter asked: “Mucin? Does that mean...”
"Slime, yes,” replied Mr Corley, pre-emptively.
He picked up one bottle, and revealed that it was 98% snail mucin.
His farm is just on the Monaghan-Fermanagh border. It has been running for about five years, and producing beauty products for the last three.
So how did he get into this business?
He explained that he formerly ran two petrol stations: one on Belfast’s Antrim Road, and another in Banbridge.
Before that he ran a building management firm in Newtownabbey.
He said that he wanted a different pace of life, and initially thought that he could rear snails for sale as “meat” to France and parts of Asia.
But he switched tack soon afterwards to cosmetics.
“I have one million snails on the farm,” he told the News Letter.
"I harvest the snail slime to make skincare products – especially for people who suffer from eczema, psoriasis and dermatitis.
"Two-and-a-half thousand years ago they were using snail slime to combat these problems.
"A guy called Hippocrates, the guy who invented the Hippocratic Oath, he was the first one to document and to use snail slime in skincare, because he didn’t have a chemist round the corner.”
He decided to switch from snailmeat to skincare because, three months into his farming, he noticed the slime was helping to heal scarring on his arms.
"Then came lockdown, and I spent lockdown researching what was in snail mucin [pronounced ‘moo-sin’] that was so good for skin,” he said.
"A snail heals its own shell if he cracks it – using the healing power of snail mucin."
How does one go about rearing snails?
He said that he has a roughly 16m (52ft) by 30m (98ft) “tunnel”, covered with netting to keep birds at bay and surrounded by steel to protect them from mice.
"I feed them and keep them watered – because they love moisture, humidity,” he said.
"I’ve sprinkler systems going, feeding bays going, and they’re fascinating to watch.”