I Tried Body Slugging For Eczema: See Photos

While each product featured is independently selected by our editors, we may include paid promotion. If you buy something through our links, we may earn commission. Read more about our Product Review Guidelines here.

There's a little dance I've learned to master with my eczema-prone skin after spending most of my adolescence with thick, scaly, and red patches atop my knee and on many of the other bendy parts of my body. And that dance has mostly involved my keeping my skin moisturized day in and day out with creams rather than lotions, as well as avoiding the heavily fragranced body-care products that were crucial to my generation's Victoria's Secret body lotion craze.

Still, I've got lingering itchy patches along my forearms and ankles, so I thought it'd be the perfect time to put the very viral “body slugging” trend to the test. Basically, the trend consists of reinforcing that do-good layer of moisture with a slab of petroleum-based jelly. After all, the internet has deemed slugging a skin-care, body-care, and even hair-care hack — so why not try it as an eczema fix?

Experts Featured in This Article

Kseniya Kobets, MD, is a board-certified dermatologist at Montefiore Einstein Advanced Care Westchester in NY.

Board-certified dermatologist Kseniya Kobets, MD, says that “slugging creates an extra occlusive layer of protection with Vaseline or petroleum jelly to prevent that transepidermal water loss temporarily and provides a barrier [for the skin] from the outside world — to allergens, irritants, as well as pathogens.” In more understandable terms, transepidermal water loss happens because of barrier dysfunction, when skin can no longer protect itself as it should and becomes dehydrated rather quickly when compared to those who don't have atopic dermatitis, according to Dr. Kobets. That extra Vaseline layer is supposed to help lock in moisture and protect the skin.

So, for the past week, I've been drenching my eczema patches in a thick moisturizer followed by a glean of Vaseline. My shiny legs have got nowhere to go this winter, but aside from the glistening effect body slugging has given my skin, was it actually effective? I tried it out for a week to give you the scoop. Here are a few things I learned while testing the trend.

First things first: I usually don't wait more than five minutes after stepping out of the shower to moisturize my skin every day, and that held especially true throughout this experiment. As I've gotten control over my eczema throughout the years, I've found that the best method to retain as much moisture as possible post-shower is to moisturize my entire body in cream while my skin is still slightly damp. And friends, if you're still in search of a body cream that doesn't exacerbate your eczema or feel that the one you're currently relying on isn't doing much, I suggest always looking for a body cream with the National Eczema Association stamp of approval for starters.

For this experiment, I alternated between Loto del Sur's Mimosa & Tangerina's Moisturizing Cream and Lendava's Body Care ($62) right after the shower and then coated those itchy and sensitive areas in a slick of the Vaseline Healing Jelly ($6) morning and night.

Slugging my skin in Vaseline after a deep moisturizing session has helped fade the scabs and cracks on the eczema patches that I started the week with, but I noticed something else: it also made the area increasingly itchy right after every slugging session and didn't provide long-lasting relief.

I asked Dr. Kobets on our phone call: “Am I crazy for feeling like body slugging is making me even itchier?”

Dr. Kobets confirms that while slugging Vaseline is great for an immediate soothing effect and helps keep the hydration in, “it's missing an essential component for long-term treatment of eczema and preventing eczema flares: humectants.” Humectants, she explains, are ingredients “that hold onto water in the skin, such as glycerin, hyaluronic acid, and ceramides, which are [ingredients] essential for the skin barrier.” To make the most out of body-slugging eczema-prone skin, Dr. Kobets recommends applying a body-care product that has one or some of the above ingredients and then adding that extra layer of Vaseline to lock in the moisture. Plus, it doesn't help to fall asleep with slugged skin in a hot room; not the best combo.

All in all, if I slug my skin moving forward, it will be to soothe irritated eczema patches that have become scaly along the way. And my choice of product, instead of plain petroleum jelly, will be an ointment with some type of humectant or ceramide, such as Honest's Head-to-Toe Healing Ointment ($10) or ClarityRX Healing Fine Barrier Ointment ($42), which has both Vitamin E and A.

True to the hype, body slugging my eczema–prone skin this past week has helped to soothe dryness and dissolve my cracked and sad little scaly patches. But I'm hoping that by upping my product game, I'll be able to truly rely on this viral hack for long-lasting eczema relief.

Chelsea Avila is an editorial beauty writer based in Queens, New York, with a passion for uncovering the best of the beauty market and reporting on beauty and fashion news. Chelsea's work has appeared in Allure, Clinique, Cosmetic Executive Women, Editorialist, Latina, CNN Underscored, WWD, and more.