It goes against every one of my older-millennial instincts to smear my face in petroleum jelly in the name of beauty.
I was a teenager in the late 90s and early 2000s, after all, when matte was life, and the more my face resembled an impenetrable mask devoid of all moisture, the better. I used to carry blotting paper on me at all times, tucked into my teeny-tiny trendy backpack next to my Starburst candies, roll-on eye glitter and travel-sized ?Dream? Gap scent.
But today?s beauty standards?not quite content with the emotional damage of bringing back mom jeans, which on me, an actual mom, hug all the wrong curves (like my womb)?have deemed we must now also be dewy.
Enter slugging, the viral K-Beauty trend that?s all over TikTok and Reddit (and soon, your pillowcase). And it is just as slimy as it sounds. So what exactly is slugging"
Slugging means to slather your face in a petroleum jelly (like Vaseline) before bed, and then wash it off in the morning to reveal, in theory, a glowing complexion. Picture what your grandma used to do with cold cream, except now you?re using the goop you keep on hand to lube up your baby?s rectal thermometer.
It?s really quite simple, and while it may be viral, it?s not new. ?I hadn?t heard of it referred to as ?slugging? until recently but it?s something dermatologists have been doing for decades,? says Julia Carroll, a board-certified dermatologist in Toronto, and co-founder of Compass Dermatology.
How does it work"
Petrolatum (petr...