Is Butt Paste the Skincare Secret We Never Knew We Needed?

If you’ve been on SkinTok recently, you’ve likely heard of “face basting.” Touted as “slugging 2.0,” this technique involves slathering your face with *checks notes* diaper cream before going to bed.

We don’t know about you, but we’d like to learn a little bit more before putting butt cream on our faces. So we went straight to the source—Dr. Shereene Idriss, board-certified dermatologist, founder of Idriss Dermatology in NYC, and creator of the #PillowtalkDerm series on Instagram. Her viral TikTok launched “face basting” into the skincare lexicon.

“Face basting is a hack I came up with to repair a dry, inflamed skin barrier,” she tells Poosh. “As the last step of my skincare routine, I layer on a thick layer of Triple Paste Diaper Rash Cream, icing my face like a cupcake before bed,” she says. “You can do this a few nights a week as needed, depending on your skin type and environment.”

But why diaper rash cream? For one, it contains a high level of zinc oxide. “Zinc oxide is gold, little nerds. It is gold,” she says in her viral video on the technique. “It will help repair your face and heal your skin while locking in hydration.” Zinc oxide has been shown to have anti-inflammatory properties, and can help repair injured skin.

Dr. Shereene notes that if you have oily skin and live in a humid environment, you don’t need to face baste. It’s most helpful for people with super dry, inflamed skin who live in a dry climate (think: Utah, Nevada, Wyoming).

In another popular TikTok video, Dr. Shereene compares diaper rash creams for face basting. She recommends avoiding creams that contain potentially irritating and barrier-disrupting ingredients like fragrance, beeswax, and talc. And definitely avoid ones that contain steroids.

The previously mentioned Triple Paste Diaper Rash Cream is her favorite for face basting. (It’s also the one she used when her kids were babies.) It contains 12% zinc oxide and soothing oat kernel extracts.

We guess there’s only one thing left to say: Ladies, frost yourselves.

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