Slugging in skincare has become a viral trend nowadays. It was actually a K-beauty technique that started off in South Korea. Most people generally use Vaseline for slugging but there are alternative skincare products such as Aquaphor that you can use for slugging.
What is Slugging?
Slugging is when you use an occlusive product (usually petrolatum based) to seal your skin overnight. Currently, it is very popular to use slugging on your face. Ideally, you would put Vaseline, Aquaphor or a heavy cream based moisturiser on your face overnight. This K-beauty technique is specifically helpful for those of you who have dry skin as it really helps to keep the moisture in your skin by helping your moisture barrier to prevent more transdermal water loss.
Slugging coats your face with an occlusive moisturiser. The moisturiser is suppose to be a product that will be able to be a physical barrier for your skin to help keep the hydration in and prevent it from escaping. Think of it as like a house fence. You do not necessary need it, but a fence will help keep your house safe and keep the stuff inside protected and locked down.
In fact, the top layer of your skin can get easily damaged by a lot of things such as the sun, pollution, allergens and stress. When your skin barrier isn’t 100%, you will not be able to maintain your supple and plump skin. Instead, it can actually age your skin and make you look older.
Slugging will help fix the damage you receive from the environment daily by giving your skin a moist environment that protects your face while it can slowly heal and fix itself overnight. For those of you who are prone to dry skin, I think slugging would be a great technique to try out as it can really help lock in your moisture.
Aquaphor for Slugging
Aquaphor has become very popular in the skincare community. It has the ability to help you rehydrate even the driest of skins. Much like Vaseline, Aquaphor is a brand that is known for its petroleum jelly products. While Vaseline is made of 100% petroleum jelly, Aquaphor contains only 41% petroleum jelly and includes other ingredients such as mineral oil, pantheon, glycerin and lanolin alcohol.
Aquaphor is an occlusive moisturiser and also a skin protectant. This means that it is good for slugging as an occlusive moisturiser is preferable for slugging. It will help block your skin from water loss while also keeping the existing moisture in your skin by creating a barrier.
In addition, unlike Vaseline, Aquaphor contains glycerin that also acts as an humectant. This means that Aquaphor is able to attract water to itself and basically act like a sponge that pulls in water to the outer layer of your skin. It will be able to attract water from even the air in a humid environment. Glycerin will be able to make your skin even more hydrated as it moisturises and smoothes your skin.
Aquaphor is generally considered to be a slightly better moisturiser than Vaseline because it also includes the humectant ingredient glycerin and another occlusive ingredient lanolin. However, some people might have an allergy to lanolin, therefore you should do a patch test before you try out Aquaphor if you are unsure if you are allergic to lanolin.
Aquaphor is able to help keep your skin barrier healthy and hydrated. This means that you should have less breakouts, irritation and even see a decrease in wrinkles and fine lines. To maximise the benefits of slugging with Aquaphor, I would suggest you use your skincare products such as serums and hydrators before you apply the Aquaphor for slugging. This will effectively act as like a blanket and help keep your skincare products on your skin and lock it down.
As the final step in your night time skincare routine, you should always apply a thin layer of Aquaphor. It will sit there and make sure your serums etc are working properly and being absorbed into your skin.
However, for those of you who are prone to acne or oily skin, you might want to reconsider doing slugging during hot or humid periods. This is because Aquaphor might be a little too thick and block your pores from allowing sweat to come out. When you do not allow sweat or oil to come out, you might end up seeing acne rashes.
Have you tried using Aquaphor for slugging? What are your thoughts on it?
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