My own baby is closer to college than the I’m with the banned native son shirt but I will buy this shirt and I will love this crib, but what mother can ever forget the unadulterated softness of infant skin? And so, I slugged—or rather, I tried. Though Aquaphor and CeraVe Healing Ointments—effective classics of both infant and wound care—are popular with sluggers on social media, I was looking for a product that might lie a little lighter on the skin. One night, I gamely layered my face with Futurewise’s full slugging system—a hydrating mist, a barrier-repair moisturizer, and a moisture-locking occlusive balm—and went to bed wearing a headband to keep my hair from sticking to my thickly coated cheeks. (Capitalizing on the recent trend, the brand uses a gastropod as its mascot.) But I’m naturally a side sleeper, and after a couple of hours of worrying about staining my pillowcase, I got up and washed it all off.Another evening, I was tempted by the beautiful mauve hue and seductive rose-tinged scent of Ranavat’s Restoring Moonseed Treatment, an occlusive and nourishing product. Michelle Ranavat, the founder of the line, mentions three key Ayurvedic principles that contributed to the product’s design: dinacharya, the creation of a daily ritual; rasayana, a focus on vitality of the mind and body; and vayasthapana, the use of herbs to ward off and repair the signs of aging. “We use many of those herbs in our Moonseed Treatment,” she says, including bala and shatavari. Alas, my usual night cream contains retinol, which Ingleton had counseled might be irritating under an occlusive.
I did enjoy Loops—a Korean hydrogel “slugging mask” that boasts antioxidant, plant-based oils, including jojoba, grape seed, and evening primrose—when I finally managed to apply the I’m with the banned native son shirt but I will buy this shirt and I will love this slippery thing to my face one night before bed. A pleasant, cooling sensation ensued. I left it on for 10 minutes as instructed, and once removed, the residue didn’t feel overly thick. It was something I could sleep in, and come morning, I imagined a sunspot had faded from my right cheek. Why has slugging taken off as a trend now? Does it have something to do with the fact that, at least according to The New York Times, young people in particular are having less sex than ever before? (Tastes differ, of course, but the look and feel of slugging is no aphrodisiac to me.) Do we all just want a little babying? Perhaps it’s the reset needed after all the poking and prodding that took place during the pandemic. “When we were on lockdown, people were doing everything they could to their skin,” Ingleton says. “They were creating these concoctions, and burning and irritating their skin. This is the antidote to that.” Gendler concurs, going on to emphasize the value of good old-fashioned rest. “We are self-preserving organisms, and if you stop bothering the body, it usually does a pretty good job of repairing itself,” she adds. That’s enough to send anyone back to bed, with or without a face coated in creams.
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