'Slugging' Is TikTok's Latest Beauty Trend & It's Helping Vaseline Make A Comeback

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The latest beauty trend on TikTok is called "slugging," and no, it has nothing to do with the slimy, slow-moving animal.

Essentially, the trend involves slathering your face in Vaseline and then going to sleep, and those who do it say they wake up with baby-fresh skin in the morning.

According to "sluggers," when you sleep with a thick layer of a petroleum-based product like Vaseline on your face, it creates a barrier between your skin and external disruptions. As a result, it leaves you with super plump-looking skin in the morning, explains TikToker @therealfaithallison.

Faith explains that petroleum molecules are too big to be absorbed by the skin, so Vaseline acts like a barrier to help the skin stay hydrated.

Videos of the beauty trend have amassed millions of views on TikTok, and it seems to have increased interest in Vaseline products.

You're supposed to apply Vaseline as the very last step of your skincare routine and wipe it off the following day to witness the magic for yourself.

And while TikTok may have popularized the practice, there's a lot of history and science behind it.

Dermatologist Dr. Shari Marchbein explained in a 2020 Instagram video that slugging is totally legit, and that it's a great way to stay moisturized during the dry winter season.

"In truth, dermatologists have been ‘slugging’ for years," she told Teen Vogue last March. "I don't go to bed without it."

But the trend is even older than that.

Vaseline was first introduced to the world in the mid-1800s by chemist Robert Augustus Chesebrough, according to Vaseline's parent company, Unilever. He found that when you distilled crude oil, it left behind a substance that could help to heal burns and scrapes and decided to market it to the world, according to Bloomberg.

Initially, potential uses of Vaseline included oiling leather, as a hair pomade and as a lubricant for machinery.

Eventually, the product was advertised as a beauty product for women, and that's when its sales really took off.

An advert for the company from 1881 claimed that the substance could "keep the skin clearer, softer, and smoother than any cosmetic ever invented, and will preserve the youthful beauty and freshness of the healthy complexion," reported Bloomberg.

It was then used as a beauty staple for many years by women. According to Bloomberg, An 1897 article by the San Francisco Chronicle shared the secrets of how “famous women gain and retain good looks," and claimed that former British prime minister Winston Churchill's mother, Lady Randolph Churchill, used Vaseline in her nightly grooming routine.

So essentially, she may have been the OG creator of the beauty trend now called "slugging."

Now the trend is back, thanks to the influence of TikTok.