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Beauty 101

The Most Loved K-Pop Skincare Trend - SLUGGING

Dr Ingky Dermatologist
The Most Loved K-Pop Skincare Trend - SLUGGING

 What is Slugging?

Slugging is a K-beauty trend of generously applying a petroleum-based product as the final step in your routine, to help lock and seal in your skincare products overnight, and then washing it off with a cleanser the next day. "It actually presses down all the active ingredients into your skin preventing it from actually touching your face or touching your hands or preventing from accidentally touching your pillows. Slugging has been used by celebrities like Martha Stewart for years and she has great skin for age," says Dr. Ingky. Petroleum jelly is an occlusive that is not only amazing at soothing irritated skin and promoting wound healing, but it can act as a protective barrier for the skin, too.

 Benefits of Slugging

Slugging creates a seal over the skin, prevents trans epidermal water loss, and protects and repairs your skin's natural lipid barrier that binds skin cells together. A commonly used analogy for the interaction between your skin cells and their lipid barrier is the similarity that it shares with a brick wall. And much like a brick wall that begins to decay when its mortar cracks, your skin is much more prone to damage when its lipid barrier is not performing as well as possible. This is where slugging provides its most effective benefit: by reinforcing the lipid barrier, it is artificially strengthening the way that your skin already wants to protect itself.

How to slug your face?

If you'd like to give slugging a try, follow the steps below:

  1. First, make sure your skin is really clean: Since slugging seals literally everything into your skin while you sleep, lingering makeup, sunscreen, or daily grime trapped underneath is a recipe for breakouts. Make sure to cleanse well.
  2. Load on humectants. Slugging won't work unless you pile on hydrating ingredients. Occlusives don't infuse the skin with moisture; they just keep it from seeping out. Just like the analogy that our dermatologist like to use, "think of a cup you want to cover. If there's no water in it, it's pretty pointless," says Dr. Ingky. So, fill that cup first in whatever way works best for you. Perhaps ingredients like hyaluronic acid and glycerine, that work wonders.
  3. Follow with moisturizer. 
  4. Then apply any petroleum-based product. Slugging is really just a last addition to your everyday skin care routine, so you perform all your previous steps as normal. That said, massage in your daily moisturizer, then you top it with your occlusive.
  • The alternate fixing method if slugging goes wrong for you

There are possibilities where you might get acnes while you are experimenting with slugging. Because skin slugging uses occlusive products, it may clog pores if you have oily or acne-prone skin. When this happen, make sure that the petroleum-based product that you use are noncomedogenic. Non-comedogenic means that a product contains ingredients that won't clog or block the pores on your skin. Which is a great option for those who experience acne prone, impure or combination skin.

Slugging is Not for Everyone

Slugging is a bit intense, so it's best for those with super-dry skin or a compromised skin barrier. For these skin types, sealing in hydration is crucial, because water can easily seep out of an already leaky skin barrier, after all. And as what we have learnt, slugging acts as a skin barrier that could prevent that water loss from happening. 

It's important to keep in mind, though, that there's no one-size-fits-all skincare routine for everybody. Same goes with slugging, it’s not for everybody. If you have oily or acne-prone skin, a face full of Vaseline might not be exactly what you need.

Would you like to know more about skin health? We are here to help! Skynfyx is run by a group of skin doctors and skincare experts who want everybody to achieve flawless skin at the cheapest possible cost. Skynfyx also can customize a skincare range just for your skin condition.

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