What Is Skin Flooding? Here’s What We Know About the Viral Skincare Trend

TikTok is full of quirky, one-off beauty crazes—but some trends actually deserve your attention. Enter skin flooding, the latest viral technique promising to drench your complexion in hydration. As temperatures drop and our skin feels drier than ever, this trend is popping up everywhere online. But before you dive in, here’s what experts want you to know.

What is skin flooding?

At its core, skin flooding is exactly what it sounds like: a hydration overload for your face. “It aims to hydrate the skin by stacking various hydrating products on top of each other,” explained Dr. Jimmy Sung to NBC, medical director at Tribeca Aesthetics in New York.

But it’s not about smearing every cream in your bathroom cabinet onto your face. “It’s more about layering multiple hydrating products, such as toners, essences, serums, and moisturizers, to saturate the skin,” Melanie Abeyta told the outlet, who works as an aesthetic nurse practitioner and owner of Harmony Aesthetics Center in Los Angeles. “The goal is to achieve plump, supple, and luminous skin while supporting the skin barrier and improving overall texture and elasticity.”

Most people who try the trend stick to a simple four-step process: a hydrating face wash, a toner, a serum and a moisturizer. The key? Ingredients that lock in moisture. Think hyaluronic acid, gly...