Vaseline: Bathong, she really is all that!
One of South Africa’s most brutal criminals, Ananias Mathe, became the first prisoner to escape from the country’s highest security prison after covering his body in this substance and squeezing his way out of his cell despite being handcuffed and shackled.
Jennifer Aniston applies it all over her eyelid to enhance her lashes. Freida Pinto does the same, for a dewy look. Tyra Banks proclaimed it her “biggest beauty secret.”
The miracle product? Good old-fashioned Vaseline, or more generally?Vaseline, which has been around since the 19th century.
Now, this staple of grandma’s medicine cabinet is having a moment on TikTok and Instagram, with teens and beauty influencers touting it as the go-to product for “hitting,” the practice of slathering the product on the skin before lying down to maintain moisture, and keep the skin hydrated. (The term is meant to evoke the trail of thick, slimy mucus that a slug might leave behind if it were to crawl across the skin.)
Over the past year, the number of views of TikTok videos in which influencers mentioned Vaseline increased by 46%, according to Traackr, which monitors influencers’ social media data; on Instagram, the number of videos mentioning Vaseline increased 93% over the same period. According to Unilever, the multinational consumer goods company that owns Vaseline, mentions of the product increased 327% on social media during the first week of February, compared to the same week last year.
One influencer, Brooke Paradise, dabbed her lips with Vaseline in a recent video and looked into the camera.
“Girls who get it, get it,” she says along with a famous sound bite on TikTok. “Girls who don’t, don’t.”
The newfound popularity of a product that costs as little as R11.99 is both amusing and disconcerting to longtime Vaseline devotees, many of whom are black and have childhood memories of their parents smearing it on their faces to protect them from the cold and wind.
“Ewe mfondini, where I’m from, people use Vaseline as an anti-aging ointment for their neck area, elbows, knees and eyelids,” says a colleague of mine, Nozi, when I asked her about the product. She further elaborated on how some South Africans orally ingest the petroleum jelly to relieve dry coughs and sore throats. I wouldn’t quite recommend that though. Word also has it that some african women are of the belief that it also preserves the firmness of the buttocks & breasts.
?Trinity Mohlamme, a seasoned broadcaster, director of Motherland Omni and an expert on product consumption behaviours in township communities says to me that it works wonders as a hair & scalp moisturiser being a person with dreadlocks himself. He also jokingly referred to the humble jelly as a ‘Winter Jersey’, referring to the fact that in the most poor regions people will rely on petroleum jelly to add an extra layer of insulation from the cold because they do not have enough warm clothing. “Bo mme?(our mothers) also use vaseline to lubricate the buttocks of children when administering?spuit?(an enema),” he further mentioned that some people use it as a substitute for essential oils for physiotherapy, we see this in the township football tournaments namely,?Maimane Alfred Phiri Games,” he says.
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Another one of my office subjects in my little qualitative research exercise at?The Abundant Media Group, Onako said she used the petroleum jelly to help with her baby boy’s nappy rash as well as helping ease skin irritation and expediting the healing of her tattoos.
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I’ve personally also come across some really interesting uses of Vaseline, I remember one time I was introduced to using vaseline as a shortcut to shoe polish because my grandmother would give me a hiding if I went to bed without shining my shoes for the following school morning. I later learned a more sustainable method using a candle,?Kiwi?shoe polish, water and a buffer. Vaseline has also worked wonders for me when I had a gash in my head playing for the Orlando Pirates u/17 in a tournament at the Nike Football Training Centre in Pimville, Soweto and again when I had 15 stitches on my face from a collision playing rugby in high school.
One day I’ll also tell you a hilarious story of how Vaseline, for a couple of hours, temporarily ended the working relationship between my best friend and his sister?Tsakisani Mondlani, an actor, lifestyle influencer & South African socialite, proving that contrary to popular belief, the petroleum jelly doesn’t always see things running smoothly.
According to Unilever, Robert Chesebrough, a New York chemist, invented petroleum jelly after a visit to the oil fields in Titusville, Pennsylvania, in 1859.
?“By 1875, Americans were buying petroleum jelly at the rate of one vial per minute,” according to Unilever. It ran into a marketing problem in the early 20th century when it was advertised as a hair loss prevention product for men, said David Cadden, emeritus professor of entrepreneurship and strategy at Quinnipiac University.
“Women didn’t want to have hair on their faces,” she said. “This was a great example of a suggested use of the product sabotaging another use of the product.”
I think it’s safe to say that this pasty substance and its unobjectionable odour is up there with one of the greatest inventions of all time as we see its neverending utility being unveiled in our communities. Vaseline is most certainly my MVP.
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Sifiso Hlope
Omnichannel Strategist