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Forget everything you learnt in school and step into Instagram instead. Not the best life advice, but there you have it: the reason I decided to try slugging. It went a little something like this: “Hmmm… slugging… it must have something to do with snails… No Dani, no. No-one puts snails on their faces. It must be more lateral than that.”
First, allow me to tell you that since Ancient Greece lots of people have put snail mucus on their faces – it is absolutely bang-up loaded with good stuff – but this is not about them. It’s also not about the sluggers who rub Vaseline all over their naked bodies and then slide around like a slug on the kitchen tiles, but you’re getting warmer. Korea – uncontested spiritual home of the edgiest and most interesting beauty trends to fall into the mainstream over the past years – has taken the idea to faces.
As the self-appointed Driest Skin On The WH Team Queen, it was up to me to lead The Slugging Way… That evening, after a shower and my regular moisturising night-time routine, I plunged my fingers into a tub of Vaseline and smeared it all over my face. Shiny and snail-like, yes, but petroleum jelly is an occlusive, which means that it forms a barrier on the skin that prevents moisture loss. The theory is that the Vaseline layer locks in all the good stuff of your evening beauty ritual while also soaking into your skin, leaving you suuuuuuuuper plumped by morning.
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It’s a routine for the perennially single or deeply happily married. Despite not being able to snap a selfie with any kind of glistening mirror-like reflection, you are a shiny beast once coated in Vase. And you stay a shiny beast. But it didn’t feel nearly as gloopy as I imagined it to be – and my pillowcase survived the night. My skin did feel pretty good the next morning, but again, it’s winter and I am dry like the Sahara desert in the blazing mid-summer.
READ MORE: 6 things you’re doing that are causing your skin to break out
Petroleum jelly is comedogenic, which is fancy speak for being something of a pore-clogger and thus not something I’d recommend for anyone with oily skin or prone to breakouts… You’re likely to be a hot mess by sunrise but, for me, I liked it. To test the theory with less gloop – don’t tell Korea – I tried it the following night with a thinner consistency, using Epizone E Ointment to seal in the good stuff. And that was a winner!
Guess that could make me a slugger. Better clear the kitchen floor.
This article was originally posted on Women's Health South Africa.
