It seems as if in a single day, everybody on #beautytok has added slugging to their skin-care routines. For the newly initiated, slugging refers back to the skin-care strategy of slathering a heavy occlusive, like petroleum jelly (aka Vaseline), because the final step of your nighttime skin-care routine to lock in moisture and hydrate the pores and skin. It gives superb water retention and hydration, leaving your complexion wanting supple and bouncy. Slugging additionally works to revive the pores and skin barrier and is a preventative in opposition to floor water loss.
Apparently, in contrast to most TikTok developments that stick round for just a few weeks, max, this one appears to be right here to remain. Pores and skin-care manufacturers like Jouer and Loops are embracing slugging, a lot in order that they’ve included slugging merchandise into their new launches. And it doesn’t cease there: Starface founders Julie Schott and Janet Park just lately launched Futurewise, a skin-care model devoted solely to slugging—one other indication that this development isn’t going away anytime quickly.
The Slug Life
Regardless of slugging’s current reputation on social media, it’s truly been round for hundreds of years. The hydration technique was first found by the Native American Seneca tribe within the fifteenth century and has since been handed down by generations inside completely different cultural communities and grow to be a Ok-beauty mainstay. Furthermore, it has been used as an efficient technique to restore the pores and skin barrier and supply hydration for very dry pores and skin in dermatology for many years.
Pores and skin slugging, as per the consultants, gives a mess of skin-care advantages. “If the pores and skin is dry, slugging might restore among the pores and skin’s pure moisturizing components, locking in hydration, defending the pores and skin’s barrier, and sustaining pores and skin integrity and elasticity,” says Jodi Logerfo, DNP, a nurse practitioner in New York. “Slugging might also assist enhance the indicators of growing old, like fantastic traces and wrinkles, as a result of it could possibly assist clean and plump up the pores and skin.”
The issue with slugging, warns Julie Russak, MD a board-certified dermatologist working towards in New York Metropolis, is that it’s not applicable for lots of pores and skin varieties.“When you have oily pores and skin, acne-prone pores and skin, or seborrheic dermatitis, you shouldn’t be slugging,” she says. “In the event you’re utilizing retinol in your skincare routine or should you’re utilizing exfoliating acids, slugging will seal them in and may result in irritation.”
Nevertheless, the apply might be significantly useful within the case of dry pores and skin with a broken-down protecting barrier. “When the pores and skin is sealed with an occlusive barrier corresponding to Vaseline or Aquaphor because the final step, it helps the lively substances in serums or moisturizers to penetrate into the pores and skin higher. It additionally decreases transepidermal water loss,” says Dr. Russak
Slugging goes past Vaseline
Whereas Vaseline is mostly used for slugging, it isn’t formulated particularly for facial pores and skin. So increasingly more manufacturers are creating slugging merchandise which can be extra cosmetically elegant than their predecessor.
Christina Zilber, the founder and inventive director of Jouer Cosmetics, has been slugging since her mom taught her to place Vaseline below her eyes within the Eighties and just lately launched Luminize In a single day Darkish Circle Slugging Balm ($30), a darkish circle slugging balm. “I believed Jouer might supply a extra trendy strategy by incorporating substances that concentrate on particular under-eye points, corresponding to vitamin Ok and caffeine for darkish circles and puffiness,” she says. “I additionally felt as if there have been stronger substances than petroleum, Aquaphor, or Vaseline to supply occlusive advantages, so we’ve loaded it with shea butter, jojoba seed oil, sunflower seed oil, and extra.”
One other frequent concern with Vaseline is that it could possibly get very messy. Meg Bedford, the CEO of Loops, needed to unravel that drawback, so the model launched Dream Sleep Nighttime Slugging Face Masks ($7 to $35), the primary hydrogel sheet masks particularly designed for slugging. “With a layer of the first-of-its-kind Slugging Serum delivering nourishing pure oils, nutritional vitamins, and antioxidants to your pores and skin in a single day, Dream Sleep works to seal, hydrate, and plump your pores and skin when you dream, making it each a purposeful barrier in addition to an lively serum doing the work when you sleep,” she says. “In simply ten minutes, earlier than you drift off to sleep, you let the masks do the work, and it gained’t go away any mess in your pillow like different occlusives.” It comprises lively substances corresponding to bakuchiol, ceramides, and niacinamide, which promote cell turnover, improve elasticity, protect in opposition to free radicals, brighten, and fortify the pores and skin.
And although sure TikTok developments come and go, Futurewise has banked its whole model on the belief that slugging is right here to remain. “We had been engaged on the model for some time, and definitely, the concept took place a very long time in the past, and it wasn’t one thing we determined to create due to the virality,” explains Futurewise co-founder Janet Park. “Slugging is a apply that actually works and is backed by historical past and medical professionals. We had been very considerate about creating high-quality merchandise that might stand on their very own aside from any development. And if something, the virality isn’t even doing justice to the efficacy of the method, which is why we have now created a ton of content material to assist educate folks.” The model has three merchandise, and you will get all of them—Slug Increase, Slug Cream, and Slug Balm—in a $66 package. This energy trio comprises humectants, emollients, and occlusives that work collectively to deeply nourish and revitalize your pores and skin, restoring its pure stability and offering intense hydration
Cocokind just lately launched the Ceramide Restoration Balm ($22) and it’s full of a mix of pure substances like ceramides, squalane, and vitamin E to nourish and strengthen the pores and skin barrier in a single day whereas locking in moisture. Ceramides “assist protect the boundaries of the pores and skin and lock in moisture in addition to protect the pores and skin from pollution,” Sheel Desai Solomon, MD, a Cary, NC dermatologist beforehand informed Properly+Good. For these allergic or delicate to petroleum jelly, this balm is freed from fragrances, preservatives, and different doubtlessly dangerous components, making it a extra pure and delicate choice for these with delicate pores and skin.
It will likely be attention-grabbing to see how the apply of slugging evolves and is included into new skin-care merchandise as extra folks uncover its advantages. As with all skin-care approach, in search of skilled recommendation is all the time a good suggestion should you’re not sure about what’s greatest in your pores and skin.
