It’s uncommon to find TikTok beauty tips to have the trust of doctors of dermatology and cosmetics. It doesn’t matter if they’re absurd (#lubeprimer #snailfacial) or risky (#diymoleremoval and filing teeth) Most TikTok “beauty hacks” are quickly discredited by experts in skin care with the sole exclusion for “slugging.”
Slugging is a catchy phrase which refers to the application of petroleum jelly, as the final step in your skin care routine. The process leaves your face looking as slimy as mucus from a slug (hence its name).
It was initially thought to be as a trend that was initially a K-Beauty trend,”slugging” is believed to have first been seen on the internet in the United States in a 2014 posting in an Reddit group. However, it wasn’t widely known before Charlotte Palermino, a New York City-based licensed aesthetician who is also the co-founder of the skin care business Dieux introduced the idea on the world via TikTok as well as Instagram users in September of 2020 she told them it caused her dry skin to become “juicy.” As of press time the hashtag #slugging is currently having 235.5 million users on TikTok.
Petroleum jelly, sometimes referred to as petrolatum, and was first offered through Vaseline It is a yellowish or white semisolid substance that is an amalgamation of complex hydrocarbons, which is created by the process of dewaxing oil from crude. According to Joshua Zeichner, a dermatologist and associate professor of dermatology at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, it is an occlusive ingredient: “It forms a seal over the stratum corneum (outer layer of skin or skin barrier) to protect the skin from the environment while preventing water loss.”
In forming this sealwhich keeps bacteria and dirt out, and moisture inthe petroleum jelly creates an ideal environment that allows your skin heal its own, Zeichner said. He as well as Palermino explained, slugging does not require a lot of petroleum jelly. You can apply a pea-sized portion of the face, instead of the one you see in the clip below (you do not wish to damage your clothes).
While slugging may be a novel name the process using petroleum jelly to the skin as an anti-skin protectant is not new. Since the fifteenth century from the Native American Seneca tribe, who worked in oil mines throughout northwestern Pennsylvania applied petroleum jelly on both animal and human skin to heal the wounds, speed healing, and ensure that the skin was moisturized. In the latter part of the nineteenth century American chemical engineer Robert Chesebrough was exploring oil fields within the exact region of northwestern Pennsylvania was able to observe oil workers applying the residues from their drills with oil on their wounds. Chesebrough returned a sample to his Brooklyn laboratory, filtered it, then tested on self-inflicted wounds, and in 1870, he named the “miracle jelly” as Vaseline.
The moment Tiffany Clay, dermatologist based in Atlanta, noticed the trend of slugging advertised on Instagram and was amused, she was. “I laughed because I’ve been doing it my whole life.” Clay says she has “Black grandmothers who slathered Vaseline on my cousins and me when we got out of the bath.”
Today, Clay finds herself recommending petroleum jelly to the dermatology clinic “at least 10 times a day” – for dry skin and wound care, surgical post-operative care in addition to “especially for my eczema patients who have a compromised skin barrier and tend to be on the dry side.” The signs of a compromised skin barrier could be dryness, redness, peeling and flaking, burning, or the sensation of stinging..
Ranella Hirsch Dermatologist based in Cambridge, Mass., shares her thoughts. “I tell parents to coat their kids with Vaseline when they first get out of the tub to seal in the moisture,” Hirsch stated. “We’ve been using that as standard practice because the petrolatum really functions as a top coat, trapping in the moisture and preventing transepidermal water loss.” Research has proven that, in along with reducing transepidermal hydration loss (TEWL) in the range of 100% it also is antimicrobial and helps speed up the healing process of skin..
Palermino suggests making use of petroleum jelly as an ” moisture sandwich” to capture the maximum amount of water. “In aesthetician school, one of the first things you learn is you hydrate your skin, you moisturize your skin, and then you trap it all in with an occlusive.”
However, due to its characteristic occlusive properties, Hirsch cautions against applying any active ingredients for example, the retinoids, exfoliants or topical vitamin C prior to applying the product, since you could cause damage to the skin. “You can take an ingredient that is fairly mild, and turn it into something very potent by sealing it with petrolatum.”
While petroleum jelly is regarded as non-comedogenic (meaning it doesn’t block pores) because its molecular structure is too big to penetrate your skin Hirsch cautioned that using slugs isn’t for all. “Generally I wouldn’t recommend it for those who suffer from acne, milia or oily. I’ve found that occlusives don’t make an ideal match for these conditions.” Hirsch recommends patch-testing to determine if you have these skin conditions and also if you’re susceptible to reactions from allergies.
For extremely dry skin, Susan Taylor,a dermatologist based in Philadelphia and the creator of the Skin of Color Society warns that using petroleum jelly alone does not provide any moisture to the skin. “I have my patients put the petroleum jelly over a moisturizer that has humectant and emollient ingredients.” Taylor recommends that patients apply petroleum jelly when the skin is damp in order to “trap in the moisture.”
The Food and Drug Administration regulates petrolatum as an ointment sold over the counter and considers it secure and effective skin protection in the range of 30-100 percent. However, there are some concerns about petrolatum. One concern is contamination from Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) These are chemical compounds naturally occurring found in crude oil which have been identified as probable human carcinogens.
A few of the experts I spoke with confirmed that although refined petroleum jelly (which isn’t permitted within the United States) can be affected by PAHs however, the petroleum jelly that you find in the aisles of your local pharmacy has been extremely refined. “Petrolatum is essentially a waste product from the petroleum industry that goes through several rounds of refinement until all the impurities have been removed,” said Victoria Fu, a skin-care scientist, cosmetic formulation chemist, and the co-founder and founder of Chemist Confessions, a skin-care brand. “Petrolatum has been around for so long and scrutinized by regulators for so long that refined petrolatum has gone through the gamut of testing to ensure safety before it hits the shelves.”
Another worry raised by critics of slugging is the fact that petroleum jelly, which is an byproduct that comes from oil production, isn’t an environmentally friendly product. However, Anthony R. Kovscek is an Stanford University professor and senior researcher at Precourt Institute for Energy, said Precourt Institute for Energy, stated that stopping the sale of petroleum jelly will make little difference in reversing the climate’s warming. “Changing your driving and commuting behaviors, as well as driving the most fuel-efficient car you can afford is far more likely to have an effect on the fossil fuel industry than tamping down sales of Vaseline.”
There are several other alternatives for petroleum jelly like mineral oils plants oils, animal waxes. Although Hirsch and Zeichner suggest Waxelene however, they warned that other products than petroleum jelly aren’t as occlusive, and are more expensive , and carry the risk of contamination.
“Plants are bio-accumulators so something like shea butter needs to be highly refined before it hits the market,” Palermino explained. She also concluded that this processing of refinement results in a huge carbon footprint.
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