Slugging skincare isn’t simply the newest craze; you may have first heard the phrase “slugging” on Reddit or TikTok. For a long time, K-beauty regimes have included this technique.
Slugging doesn’t truly involve slugs, for those slugging wondering who aren’t yet completely informed about this moisturizing method. To achieve radiant skin, you must slime your face with an occlusive, such as petroleum jelly, before night. However, this does involve acting somewhat like a slug. On your skin, occlusives function as barriers to keep moisture in.
What is Slugging?
Slugging is the practice of using petroleum jelly as the final step of your nightly skincare routine to your face. The K-beauty community popularized the habit on social media, but it’s crucial to remember that many civilizations have been doing this for years. The idea is that this helps keep the moisture from the other products you placed on top of the skin and prevents water loss. The texture is thick and slimy, resembling the slug’s mucus, which is how the style got its name.
Benefits of Slugging Skincare
The primary objective of slugging? keeping your skin moisturized.
In other words, you might simply have radiant, plump, and dewy skin when you awaken following a night of sluggish, slug-like sleep.
Here are some more benefits that go beyond the obvious ones that help make slugging a worthwhile beauty hack.
It stops moisture evaporation:
Occlusives rest on your skin’s surface. This substantial top layer guards against the process of water evaporating from your skin, known as TransEpidermal Water Loss (TEWL). TEWL is a normal biological process that becomes better with age. Your skin may naturally grow drier as you age and your skin barrier function may deteriorate.
A rough night can help stop some of that TEWL so your skin retains moisture and reveals the difference.
It shields your skin from potentially harmful factors:
Do you like to turn up the heat as you sleep? Your skin may get dry as a result of the heated, dry air sucking away too much moisture. Skin can become dry due to environmental factors as well as ingredients in skin care products.
In order to prevent these elements from sapping your skin of its essential moisture, you can help protect it by applying the protective layer of an occlusive of your choice.
It replenishes lipids:
Skin lipids, or the natural fats found in your skin, are crucial to the health and structure of your skin. They support healthy skin suppleness, prevent germs and other noxious intruders from entering, and help your skin remain hydrated.
The lipids on and in your skin can be impacted by the same elements that cause moisture to be drawn out of the skin.
However, according to research, using moisturizers with occlusives like petrolatum can restore lipids and repair the skin barrier.
How to add Slugging to your skincare routine?
1. Cleanse Your Skin First
It’s crucial to start your skincare routine by cleaning your face. Because there is no need to rinse with micellar water, it is quick, simple, and hassle-free. Utilize a cotton pad and the Micellar Cleansing Water to thoroughly clean your face.
2. Apply a Smooth Serum
It’s all about layering on hydration when slugging. Apply a hydrating serum containing hyaluronic acid.
3. Using a moisturizer
Applying a moisturizer will add an additional layer of hydration after that. It works simultaneously to moisturize the skin, firm the skin, and diminish wrinkles.
4. Add Petroleum Jelly on top
Apply a thin layer of petroleum jelly to your skin with your fingertips. The ultimate result will be glossy and slimy, but that’s the point.
5. Get up and shower
When you wake up in the morning, use your face wash and a moist cloth to remove the petroleum jelly to reveal gorgeous, glowing skin.
How is it different from Moisturizing?
While petroleum-based treatments are occlusives, meaning they trap in the moisture you apply to your skin, moisturizers hydrate your skin. Occlusives are impermeable, which lowers transepidermal water loss and improves skin moisture retention.
On the other hand, despite the fact that products like petroleum jelly help to keep moisture in, they don’t truly moisturize the skin. Slugging doesn’t provide any moisturizing advantages of its own, but it can increase the advantages of your already-effective moisturizer. The two techniques are not interchangeable.
Finally
Skin care and beauty influencers on TikTok and other social media platforms may be responsible for slugging’s viral success. However, using occlusives like Vaseline to seal in the moisture of the skin is nothing new.
Slugging is a secure beauty tip you may practice at home if you’d like to treat skin dryness or simply enhance your radiance.
Want to get some general advice on establishing a unique skin care routine or seek treatment for ongoing skin issues? A board-certified dermatologist can provide more details on available therapies and assist you in beginning a skin care routine.
