Sometimes, being a “clean girl” means foregoing doing the dirty.
Gen Z skincare fanatics are finding that participating in the “morning shed” — a social media trend that involves slathering on multiple products, putting in hair rollers and popping in mouth guards to maximize true beauty sleep — isn’t exactly conducive to a late-night snuggle.
But sacrificing a bit of romance in the pursuit of hotness is worth it, enthusiasts say — living by the mantra that going to bed uglier means they’ll wake up hotter.
“My boyfriend gets so annoyed with me,” a 24-year-old named Daisy, who called her routine “non-negotiable,” told Dazed.
After all, there’s nothing sexy about chin straps, mouth tape — or face masks made from snail mucin.
“As soon as we’re done having sex I have to run to the bathroom and spend a minimum of 20 minutes double cleansing my face and applying my serums and moisturizer. By the time I’m done, my boyfriend is asleep and there is no more opportunity for cuddling,” she said, adding that her process often sparks an “argument” the next morning.
“There’s no moment of falling asleep together straight away in a romantic way,” the die-hard admitted.
Perhaps, then, it’s no surprise that Gen Z is spearheading a sex recession — with even celebrities touting the joys of celibacy.
But beauty critic Jessica DeFino told Dazed that she finds it “reductive” to assume morning shedders aren’t having sex “just because they’re covered in layers of face masks,” arguing that “everyday sex exists outside of the bounds of looking ‘sexy.’”
“Sex exists outside of the ‘go to bed and turn the lights off and f–k’ clichés of Hollywood,” said DeFino, adding that, for some, “becoming beautiful is seen as more important than having sex and falling in love” because beauty is seen as the gateway to attraction.
Even still, some Zoomers might even pass on spending the night with a fling for the sake of their skincare, according to one acne-prone TikTokker.
“My skin will breakout if the pillow cases aren’t clean — I can’t,” commented one person on TikTok.
“If I don’t apply my routine I genuinely start tweaking,” another said.
“Im so paranoid that their pillowcases/water/air will break me out,” someone else wrote.
“So real,” another chimed in. “Or, you have to sleep in your makeup.”
Holly, whose name has been changed, told Dazed she refused to remove her makeup when sleeping over at her partner’s house in the early stages of dating — because she didn’t want to show them her intensive skincare regimen.
It was only when she became more comfortable around them that she revealed her nightly routine.
“It felt like a new form of intimacy,” she explained. “They still found me attractive at what I felt was my most self-conscious, least sexy.”