boosting the odds for acne. And with social media sites like TikTok exerting such a “strong influence on the younger population,” she and her colleagues wanted to see if that platform’s more than 1 billion users are likely to get the full picture of what slugging really involves.
To do that, the study team analyzed the content found in the top 49 English-language TikTok videos on slugging. When the investigation was launched, those posts had collectively amassed more than 26.5 million views and nearly 3.3 million “likes.”
But in the end, only 37% of the videos were classified by investigators as educational. That meant that they offered a reasonably full discussion of both the potential pros of slugging — such as smoother and more hydrated skin — and the potential cons, including the blocking of skin pores and acne.
The posting sources mattered a lot. For example, the team found that nearly 88% of videos uploaded by health care providers were found to be educational and balanced. But that figure plummeted to just only about 43% for posts shared by “influencers” focused on beauty.
Overall, the study authors found that about 6 in 10 posts highlighted only the upside of slugging, while only 2 in 10 mentioned possible risks.
“What we found was not necessarily misinformation, but often a lack of information,” Pagani shares. “A lot of the time, there was just no inclusion of risks.”
Beyond a heightened risk for facial acne among acne-prone patients, Pagani says there is also the risk that any topical skin medication applied before slugging would essentially become trapped underneath petroleum ointments, and therefore potentially absorbed more deeply — and for longer periods of time — than originally intended.
“Now, slugging is one of the relatively harmless things that can be found on TikTok,” Pagani acknowledges. “But even in the case of mostly benign beauty trends, the hope is that viewers are going to get accurate information from reliable sources, information backed by science based on data and research. Because other trends or beauty products may certainly be more potentially harmful than something like slugging.”
Slugging the safe way
Slugging is fairly simple and can easily be incorporated into your nighttime routine. To do so, you should have petroleum jelly (Vaseline®) or petroleum jelly with only minimal additional ingredients, like Aquaphor® and CeraVe® on hand.
From there, you can complete the routine in 5 quick steps: