Slugging

About

Slugging, also known as the Slugging Method, is a slang term for a skincare technique and trend in which one lathers their face with a petroleum jelly product such as Vaseline in order to create a moisture barrier that purportedly locks in other skincare products. The practice spread in skincare and beauty subcommunities on sites like TikTok and Reddit in the early 2020s. In 2023, Vaseline posted an ad referring to slugging featuring an image of a plain and glazed doughnut, confusing readers who interpreted the ad to mean "slugging" might be a sexual act.

Origin

Slugging originated as a Korean beauty practice (known in beauty circles as "K-beauty")^[1] before making its way to the West in the late 2010s and early 2020s. On April 18th, 2018, one of the earliest English-language examples of coverage related to the method was uploaded to TODAY's YouTube channel, receiving over 21,000 views and 130 likes in roughly five years (seen below).

Another early English-language article about slugging was posted by Well and Good^[2] on December 31st, 2019. According to the piece, "If you have dry skin, slugging is great because it creates an occlusive (locked-tight) barrier that traps other skin-care ingredients within the skin."

Precursors

Prior to its popularity as a skin-care technique, the term "slugging" was added to Urban Dictionary with several lewd and absurd definitions. One submitted by user Lil' Will^[3] in 2012 claims "slugging" means to cover one's entire body in Vaseline and crawl along a floor like a slug (shown below). Another submitted by Ghostkb in August 2019 claims it means to leave trails of semen and other bodily fluids on a partner's butt after sex. Neither of these definitions spread widely before the skincare-focused definition of the term grew popular.

Spread

Over the early 2020s, "slugging" became popularized in beauty and skincare subcommunities of social media, particularly Reddit, YouTube and TikTok. Posts about slugging appeared in subreddits such as /r/SkincareAddiction,^[4] /r/30plusskincare^[5] and /r/makeupaddiction.^[6] On TikTok, viral posts about slugging include a video posted by user @michelllekim on February 19th, 2022, that gained over 1.6 million likes in roughly 16 months (shown below, left) and a December 7th, 2022, post by @nadina_iona that gained over 900,000 likes in seven months (shown below, right).

2023 Vaseline Post

On July 10th, 2023, Vaseline tweeted a reference to slugging on its official Twitter account, showing a plain and glazed doughnut to highlight the effects of slugging^[7] (shown below).

Many who were unfamiliar with what the term meant in a skincare context assumed Vaseline made a sex joke. For example, on July 11th, Twitter user @jellulz^[8] posted a joke about the use of Vaseline as a sex lubricant (shown below).

Search Interest

External References