"Jello Skin" Is the Summer Beauty Trend Sweeping TikTok

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A few years back, K-beauty brought glass skin to us, and everyone embarked on a quest to get their most luminous, translucent skin yet. Though glowy skin is still very much in, a new skin-care trend called "jello skin" is currently sweeping TikTok. Coined by content creator and beauty enthusiast Ava Lee, aka @glowwithava, the trend focuses on achieving skin that's not only glowy but also healthy and plump.

What Is Jello Skin?

"By definition, jello skin is having skin that is so elastic that when you move it, it bounces back, just like jello," Lee tells POPSUGAR. It's not just about external skin care but also internal wellness. That includes eating balanced meals and living a healthy lifestyle to nourish your skin from the inside out.

Lee came up with the term after getting a facial with celebrity aesthetician Lord Gavin McLeod-Valentine, who treats the likes of Kim Kardashian, Kate Moss, and Rosalía, to name a few. "He was impressed by how much collagen I have in my skin and how bouncy it was," she says. "Although coined after this facial, the process of getting this kind of skin was a long time coming."

Lee explains that "jello" is actually an acronym. "J" stands for journey, as it's "not an overnight change"; "E" stands for "eat balanced meals"; the first "L" is for "lifestyle, not just skin-care"; the second "L" is for "laugh" to encourage you to "move your facial muscles"; and lastly, "O" stands for "old is not bad — age gracefully with plump skin."

Jello Skin vs. Glass Skin

Jello skin and glass skin have some similarities, but there are a few key differences. "Glass skin is more about the outer appearance of your skin — how it's so translucent that it looks like glass," Lee says. "This is simply achieved by a good skin-care regimen and products you apply." It's only skin-deep, whereas jello skin is all about what's going on underneath the surface.

"Jello skin is so much more than the outer appearance," she says. "It is about having a lifestyle that focuses on both external and internal nourishment that allows you to have plump, elastic skin, and this cannot be achieved with just a skin-care product. If anything, there is less emphasis on skin-care products but more an emphasis on your diet, facial massage, and overall lifestyle."

How to Get Jello Skin

Because jello skin starts from within, Lee's number-one tip is to eat a balanced diet packed with colorful fiber- and collagen-rich foods. As for products, she emphasizes the importance of facial exercise and massages using either your hands or tools like a gua sha, which is included in the Flora & Noor Restoration & Renewal Kit ($38). More advanced tools would be the ReFa Face Roller Tool ($200) or NuFace Trinity Toning Device ($288, originally $339).

"And most of all, be patient with your results — it is not an overnight change," Lee says.